Graduate Studies in Structures and Mechanics
Admission Requirements | MS & PhD Requirements
The M.S. and Ph.D. programs in Structures & Mechanics are designed for those students interested in developing specialized knowledge and skills in the mechanics of solids and structures that can be applied to both Civil Infrastructure Systems (CIS) and other fields as well. The Structures & Mechanics research focus and graduate curriculum are geared toward developing appropriate methodologies for effectively tackling complex and broad issues related to Civil Infrastructure Systems (CIS), and also, to educate engineers to implement the developed methodologies in actual practice. Frequently, the technologies developed in our program can be applied not only to CIS issues but also in other tangential fields such as biomechanics/biomedicine, the automotive and aerospace industries, new materials development, and microelectronics.
There is strong interaction between the Structures & Mechanics graduate program and the graduate program in Mechanical & Industrial Engineering. The SM faculty’s collective areas of broad expertise are structural engineering, solid mechanics, and computational methods. Within these broad areas, typical and promising technologies in which graduate students can make important research contributions are: development of advanced techniques for designing optimized and controlled mechanical systems; development of experimental and computational tools for assessing the residual capacity, durability and reliability of both degraded and rehabilitated structures and materials; design and development of new high-performance material systems; and multiscale computer modeling of biomechanical systems.
The SMM faculty and graduate students have access to high quality electrohydraulic closed—loop thermal-mechanical testing facilities; laser and holographic laboratories; both local and remote high-performance computing and visualization hardware with extensive analysis and design optimization software; virtual reality environments; and world-class driving simulators. Graduate students have access not only to these laboratories but also to the wide variety of interdisciplinary technologies and expertise at The University of Iowa through such facilities as: The Center for Computer Aided Design; The Iowa Institute for Hydraulic Research; and The University of Iowa’s Central Research Support Facilities such as the Electron Microscopy Center and the Image Analysis Facility. Utilizing such diverse resources, SMM graduate students are encouraged to bring an unusually wide breadth of technologies and perspectives to bear in their studies and research.