MSE with Thesis

Your thesis committee consists of two readers, your faculty supervisor, and at least one other faculty member, whom you should choose in consultation with your supervisor and the graduate advisor. In general, these committee members should be members of the MS&E Graduate Studies Committee. Be sure to ask a professor's permission before listing him or her as a part of your thesis committee.

Once you have an approved research topic from your supervisor, you may register for thesis. The first semester you register for thesis, you must register for MSE 698A, Thesis Reading. Subsequent semesters you will register for MSE 698B, Thesis Writing. You must be registered for MSE 698B during the semester in which your thesis is filed with the Graduate School, most commonly the semester you graduate. Be sure to register for MS&E thesis, not the thesis course in your faculty supervisor’ s home department (Engineering Mechanics, Chemistry, etc.). Since your degree is in Materials Science and Engineering, your thesis course must be in MS&E as well.

The thesis is field specific but is usually a longer written work that involves original research, data, and analysis. Unlike a longer dissertation, which is aimed at adding new information to the larger field, a thesis tends to be shorter and prepares students for their professional (non-research-based) goals. The length and format should be agreed upon between the student and supervisor well in advance of any due dates.

The Graduate School offers Microsoft Word templates to assist you in formatting your thesis or dissertation. Before using a template, review the Using the Thesis and Dissertation Templates User Guide. Another option, approved by the Graduate School, is LaTeX Document Preparation. Theses must follow the guidelines of the Graduate School booklet “Format Guidelines for Dissertations, Treatises, Theses and Reports”.

If you want to write your thesis in a language other than English, you must petition the Graduate School to do so.