Available Graduate Assistantships

Each year, faculty win externally competitive research grants. These grants support graduate research assistant positions. When faculty are actively recruiting MS and/or PhD students to work on projects funded by these grants, a brief synopsis of the research project will be listed on this webpage. If you are interested in any one of these projects, please be sure to indicate the Supervisor’s name in your graduate admissions application and to express interest in the project in your Statement of Purpose.

Please note that not all faculty who are hiring have projects listed below. If you are considering graduate school, we encourage you to apply. Faculty who are hiring will reach out to you individually if your application is of interest to them.

How to apply to one of MIME's graduate degree programs

Applications should be made online. In the section "Other Graduate Questions", please remember to select the name of the supervisor corresponding to the project supervisor stated below. In the Statement of Purpose, be sure to explain your interest in the specific project.

Programs

Research Area: Industrial Engineering

Supervisor: Dr. Ean Ng

  • Project: Peer influence within an organization can affect the trajectory of the organization in achieving its intended purpose. This project will focus on operationalizing peer influence within an organization.
    • Required Qualifications: BS in Industrial Engineering or Engineering Management
    • Preferred Qualifications: MS in Industrial Engineering or Engineering Management. Experience in content analysis and survey/interview design

Supervisors: Dr. Ean Ng, Dr. Javier Calvo. Dr. David Porter, and Dr. Hector Vergara

  • Project: This project focuses on capturing tacit knowledge (non-formalized) and converting it into explicit knowledge (formalized) before retirement-ready experts leave the workforce in the supply chain and material handling industry.
    • Required Qualifications: BS in Industrial Engineering, Engineering Management, or Systems Engineering.
    • Preferred Qualifications: MS in Industrial Engineering, Engineering Management, or Systems Engineering. Experience in material handling and supple chain industry; knowledge of systems thinking theory, content analysis, survey/interview design.

Supervisors: Industrial Engineering Faculty

  • Project: The industrial engineering program will be funding at least 2 positions for graduate assistantships in industrial and systems engineering topics including operations research, supply chain management, information system, engineering management, and systems engineering.
    • Required Qualifications: BS in Industrial Engineering, Engineering Management, or Systems Engineering.
    • Preferred Qualifications: MS in Industrial Engineering, Engineering Management, or Systems Engineering. Experience in research.

Research Area: Next-Generation Materials & Devices

Supervisor: Dr. Megumi Kawasaki

  • Project: Design synthesis and characterization of advanced bulk nanocrystalline and metastable metals by severe plastic deformation.
    • Preferred Qualifications: Having metallurgy and/or Materials Science background.

Supervisor: Dr. Sourabh Apte

  • Project: This project investigates fundamental numerical experiments on turbulent boundary layers over rough, permeable and impermeable surfaces using pore-resolved, direct numerical simulations (DNS). You will learn large-scale computing on Frontera (up to 2500 processors). Two positions available.
    • Preferred Qualifications: MS completed in Thermal Fluids preferred. Interest in turbulence, parallel computing, algorithm development, and fundamental computational fluids preferred.

Supervisor: Dr. Nordica MacCarty

  • Project: In collaboration with Dr. Nordica MacCarty and three faculty members plus tribal and industry partners, you will develop a firebox retrofit that uses the injection of turbulent jets of air to help stoves burn more cleanly and efficiently – even under suboptimal conditions such as wet wood or too much fuel in the firebox. Four positions available.
    • Required Qualifications: Interest or experience in thermal fluid experimental measurements, modeling of reacting flows, control systems, or needs assessment in underserved communities. 
    • Preferred Qualifications: MS in mechanical engineering or similar field, interest or experience in fine particle measurements or machine learning/artificial intelligence.

Supervisor: Dr. Kyle Niemeyer

  • Project: This project entails the use of machine learning methods to predict jet fuel blend properties and optimize blends for desired properties.
    • Required Qualifications: Some programming skills/comfort with programming.
    • Preferred Qualifications: Python programming background, familiarity with machine learning and optimization methods.