mit thesis mechanical engineering

MechE Undergrad

Search form, sb thesis information.

Covid-19 Related Updates from MIT Libraries: https://libraries.mit.edu/distinctive-collections/thesis-specs/#bachelors

Important Thesis Forms, Dates, and Guidelines -- Updated with electronic submission instructions

Thesis Forms

• Fillable Thesis Proposal Form (no instructions)
• Thesis Preparation Guidelines
• Example Title and cover pages - PDF  
• Example Table of Contents and List of Figures - PDF   
• Students can use this  Overleaf Template . Please contact  [email protected]  with any questions about the template.
• Fall 2023: Friday, October 6
• Spring 2024: Friday, March 8
• *It is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED that students find a thesis project and supervisor prior to Spring term of Senior year.

Add Thesis units (2.ThU) to your Registration. 

Submit your final draft of your thesis to your thesis supervisor.

Note: You must leave time for your thesis supervisor to review and for you to make revisions before submitting the final thesis to the UG Office! Recommended Dates to submit to your supervisor - (January 2024 Due Date) Week of January 8th; (May 2024 Due Date) Week of April 29th

• Submit final thesis : Submit 1 digital copy (title page unsigned)  via email to Christina Spinelli, [email protected] .
• February 2024 Degree List: Friday, January 19th at 5 PM EST
• June 2024 Degree List: Friday, May 10th at 5 PM EST

Patents and Thesis Holds

You must go through the TLO or DUE in order to get a thesis hold.

• If you share ownership of the patent with MIT, then complete a Technology Licensing Office (TLO) disclosure form. For more information: http://web.mit.edu/tlo/www/community/students.html
• If you requesting that MIT waive the right to your patent (the form for this is also on the link above), you can request a thesis hold from the Dean of Undergraduate Education. A request for a thesis hold must be made jointly by the student and advisor, using the DUE Thesis Hold Request Form, which you can download from the DUE website. For more information: http://due.mit.edu/faqs/frequently-asked-questions#Thesis_Hold

General Information

The SB in Mechanical Engineering requires a thesis with a minimum of 6 units credit. The objective of this requirement is to give students an opportunity to learn about a topic in depth through independent study under the guidance of an advisor who is knowledgeable in the field.

The nature of the work may be the review of an engineering topic of interest to the student, an original research project, or a design project. In any case, the work must involve additional learning of a substantive nature. The work must be documented by a thesis document graded by the advisor. With the approval of the advisor, up to 15 units of credit are permitted.

Finding a Thesis Supervisor

Students have the responsibility to find their own thesis supervisor, and it is best that this be done by the beginning of the senior year. Your thesis supervisor should be an MIT faculty member (not necessarily MechE), or an approved MechE lab instructor or researcher. Many students develop theses from UROP projects that they have had during the junior year or summer between junior and senior years. In that case, the UROP supervisor becomes the thesis supervisor. In other cases, students will contact faculty members whose research is of interest to them, and a thesis project can be developed by discussion between the student and the faculty member. In still other cases, students may have their own clear idea of the subject of their thesis, and the task will be to find a faculty member who is interested in working with the student on that topic.

The thesis advisor of record must be an MIT faculty member or select members of the research staff (graduate students and postdocs are ineligible to act as thesis advisors). Students who are looking for an appropriate thesis advisor should consult the Undergraduate Office (Room 1-110). Theses may be done off campus, but students are cautioned that off-campus supervisors usually are not familiar with the thesis requirements which may put the student at risk when seeking approval of the Department. Also, work done at an industrial firm may be considered proprietary by the firm which would prevent the student from submitting the thesis to the Department. In such cases, a representative of the firm must sign a release letter, a sample text of which is available at the MechE Undergraduate Office.

You can search MechE faculty by topic areas. 

Thesis Registration and Grading

Students may elect to start and/or finish the work in the Fall Term, the Spring Term, or IAP, and they may choose to extend the work over several terms. In the latter case, a progress report is required for each term of registration. If the work in progress is judged satisfactory by the advisor, a grade of "J" will be awarded. Unsatisfactory progress will be awarded the grade "U". Students must be registered for subject 2.ThU for the term in which the thesis is submitted.

Before registering for thesis, students must complete the thesis proposal form and attach a brief paragraph summarizing the work planned. (The form is available on the "download forms" page in this web site.) The form must be signed by the thesis advisor and returned to the MechE Undergraduate Office (Room 1-110). In the event of a change of advisor or project, the proposal must be updated in the Undergraduate Office as soon as possible. Students who submit the completed forms on or before Registration Day may register for 2.ThU on the Registration Form for the number of units agreed upon with the thesis advisor. Students who complete the thesis proposal after Registration Day, but before the Add Date, must add 2.ThU by submitting to the Registrar a completed Add/Drop Form signed by both the thesis supervisor and the student's faculty advisor. Drop date is the absolute deadline for adding or dropping 2.ThU. Students may not register for the thesis after the drop date.

At mid-term, the thesis advisor will be asked for an assessment of the student's progress on the thesis. Thus, it is important for the student to maintain contact with the advisor so that an accurate assessment can be made. If the thesis advisor judges progress to be unsatisfactory, a grade of "U" will be submitted and the number of units for 2.ThU registration will be reduced to 1. The grade of "U" will remain on the transcript and the Course 2 degree requirements cannot be completed until another thesis is started and completed with a passing grade. Students who are making satisfactory progress but fail to complete the thesis by the Thesis Due Date will receive the grade "J" indicating that at least one additional unit of registration for 2.ThU will be required to complete the Course 2 degree. Upon satisfactory completion of the thesis, the thesis advisor will assign a grade which will apply to all units of 2.ThU registration from previous terms, up to an absolute limit of 15. For thesis credit during IAP, students should register during the first week of IAP in the Undergraduate Office.

During the semester in which the student expects to graduate , it is the responsibility of the student to maintain contact with the thesis advisor. In the event that thesis progress is reported as unsatisfactory, the student's name will be removed from the Degree List. Students are reminded that graduation also can be delayed by late submission of an acceptable thesis or by submission of a thesis that fails to conform to the current Thesis Specifications. Theses may not be submitted after 5:00 PM on the Thesis Due Date.

Consult the MIT Academic Calendar for Add Date, Drop Date, and Thesis Due Dates for the semester in question .

Thesis Submission

Be sure to submit a draft version of your thesis to your thesis supervisor well before the thesis due date. Your thesis supervisor may have edits for you to incorporate into your final thesis. One copy of the final thesis must be submitted to the Undergraduate Office in 1-110.

1. Be sure that the thesis meets the library’s published thesis specifications, published online here

2. Pay special attention to the title page and abstract page – examples are provided online.

• Sample title page
• The date on the Title Page MUST BE one of the following (this reflects the date of your degree, not the date of your thesis submission): September 2023, February 2024 or May 2024
• The Signature block should contain the following:

Signature of Author:

Department of Mechanical Engineering[Date of thesis submission]

Certified by:[Your thesis advisor’s name]

[Thesis advisor’s title]

Thesis Supervisor Accepted by: Kenneth Kamrin

Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering

Undergraduate Officer

• Sample abstract
• The date on the Abstract Page reflects your thesis submission date

         Latex templates

• The thesis specs website says: If you are writing your thesis on Athena, follow the formatting and typeface instructions under the LATEX or FRAME olc stock answer topics by typing the command "olc_answers" on any Athena workstation.

General Thesis Writing Information

For formatting guidelines, please see the Thesis Specifications . This website has information relating to required pages (title and abstract), as well as suggestions for fonts and formatting figures/graphics. Note: One copy of the thesis must be submitted to the Undergraduate Office in 1-110. (The thesis specs state that 2 copies must be submitted, but that only applies to a graduate student thesis).

The usual structure of a thesis is:

• Abstract Page
• Acknowledgements (optional)
• Table of Contents (optional)
• Introduction
• Content, in chapters for a long thesis
• Bibliography/References
• Appendices (optional)

The content of the thesis is to be determined by the student and faculty supervisor. Your thesis will be letter graded.

The WCC at MIT (Writing and Communication Center) offers free one-on-one professional advice from lecturers (who all have advanced degrees and who are all are published writers) about all types of academic, creative, and professional writing and about all aspects of oral presentations (including practicing your presentations). We help you think your way more deeply into your topic, no matter what department or discipline you are in. The WCC is located in E18-233). To register with our online scheduler and to make appointments, go to https://mit.mywconline.com/ . To access the WCC’s many pages of advice about writing and oral presentations, go to http://cmsw.mit.edu/writing-and-communication-center/ . The Center’s core hours are Monday-Friday, 9:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m.; evening hours vary by semester–check the online scheduler for up-to-date hours.

Browse Course Material

Course info.

• David Custer

Departments

• Mechanical Engineering

As Taught In

• Academic Writing

Undergraduate Thesis for Course 2-A

Course description.

This course is taken by mechanical engineering majors during their senior year to prepare a detailed thesis proposal under the guidance of staff from the Writing Program. The thesis proposal must bear the endorsement of the thesis supervisor and indicate the number of units planned.

This course is offered during the …

This course is offered during the Independent Activities Period (IAP), which is a special 4-week term at MIT that runs from the first week of January until the end of the month.

You are leaving MIT OpenCourseWare

• DSpace@MIT Home
• MIT Libraries

Doctoral Theses

Theses by department.

• Computational and Systems Biology
• Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
• Department of Architecture
• Department of Biological Engineering
• Department of Biology
• Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
• Department of Chemical Engineering
• Department of Chemistry
• Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
• Department of Economics
• Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences
• Department of Humanities
• Department of Linguistics and Philosophy
• Department of Materials Science and Engineering
• Department of Mathematics
• Department of Mechanical Engineering
• Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering
• Department of Ocean Engineering
• Department of Physics
• Department of Political Science
• Department of Urban Studies and Planning
• Engineering Systems Division
• Harvard-MIT Program of Health Sciences and Technology
• Institute for Data, Systems, and Society
• Media Arts & Sciences
• Operations Research Center
• Science, Technology & Society
• Sloan School of Management
• Technology and Policy Program

Recent Submissions

The Pro-Apoptotic Function of CED-9 Requires a CED-9-CED-4 Interaction 

Advancing In-hand Dexterous Manipulation via Machine Learning 

High Speed Acoustophoresis for Multiphase Micron-Sized Particle Assembly 

Show Statistical Information

Thesis Proposal

Note: This article is partially based on the 2017-2018 MechE Graduate Student Guide (PDF) . Please check the latest guide for the most-up to date formatting requirements.

Criteria for Success

A strong thesis proposal…

• Motivates your project and introduces your audience to the state-of-the-art for the problem you’re working on.
• Explains the limitations in the current methods through literature review and/or original analysis. This should also explain why the limitations matter and why they’re the right ones to focus on.
• Clearly explains your technical approach to make specific improvements to some part of the field.
• Uses original analysis and literature to support the feasibility of the approach.
• Describes what is original about your work.
• Provides a practical outline for completing this research : a degree timeline laying out quantifiable hypotheses, experimental/numerical/theoretical techniques, and metrics for evaluation .

Structure Diagram

Meche-specific structure requirements.

Your thesis proposal should be limited to 6 pages including figures and references.

In addition, you need a cover page that (only) includes:

• tentative title of the thesis
• brief abstract
• committee chair and/or advisor should be indicated
• include their official titles, departmental affiliations, and email addresses

The purpose of your thesis proposal is to introduce your research plan to your thesis committee. You want the committee members to come away understanding what your research will accomplish, why it is needed ( motivation ), how you will do it ( feasibility & approach ), and most importantly, why it is worthy of a PhD ( significance ).

You intend to solve a real and important problem, and you are willing to dedicate years of your life to it, so use your proposal to get the committee excited about your research!

Analyze your audience

Unlike many of the papers and presentations you will write during graduate school, only a select few people will read your thesis proposal. This group will always include your PhD committee and your research advisor, and may include other interested MechE faculty or scientists and engineers at your funding source.

Therefore, you will typically have a good understanding of your audience before it is written. This can allow you to tailor your message to the technical level of your specific audience. If you aren’t sure what your audience could reasonably be expected to know, be conservative! Regardless, your audience is always looking to answer the questions: “ what is this research, how will you perform it, and why does it matter?”

While the small audience may make you less interested in committing time to your proposal, the exercise of motivating and justifying your work plan will be critical to your PhD.

Follow the standard structure for research proposals

While some variation is acceptable, don’t stray too far from the following structure. See also the Structure Diagram above.

• Introduction . Provide only the necessary information to motivate your research, and show how it fits into the broader field. What is the problem you are trying to solve? By the end of the introduction, your audience should understand the basics of what you will do and why you will do it.
• Background/Methodology . Describe the current state of the art and related research fields in sufficient technical detail. The goal is provide just enough detail to give the reader a sound understanding of the limitations and the need for new work. Do not go into detail that does not directly help in understanding your You are not trying to make your reader understand everything about the topic or demonstrate how much you know.
• Objectives . Although not strictly necessary, this section lets you summarize concrete goals of your work, and can help to serve as a checklist for yourself as you move through the process. This is best for projects that tackle many interrelated problems. Think of this as a list of concrete (quantifiable) goals that you want to accomplish.
• Proposed Work. Explain how your work will solve the problems that you have identified. How will you address the objectives above? Provide just enough technical specificity to leave the reader with a firm grasp of what you will do.
• Provide a set of time-structured goals and deliverables. While this is not strictly necessary, your committee will want a timeline when you meet with them, so it can help to start planning now. You want to graduate, so make sure that you have a plan to do so!
• This is a standard section listing references in an appropriate format (MLA, APA, etc.)

Consider the logical sequence of your sections. After the introduction, your audience should be intrigued by a key problem, and intrigued that you know how to solve it. Through the background, they learn that this problem is more difficult than they originally realized. Finally, in the proposed work they learn that your proposal addresses the additional complexity introduced in the background, and they have confidence that you can actually solve the problem.

Summarize the current research field

You need to have a strong grasp of the broader research community. How can you contribute, if you don’t know what is done and what needs to be done?

The point here is not to educate your audience, but rather to provide them with the tools needed to understand your proposal. A common mistake is to explain all of the research that you did to understand your topic and to demonstrate that you really know your field. This will bore your audience, who either already knows this information or does not see why they should care. It’s more important to show where current gaps are. Cut anything that doesn’t answer the what and why of what people are doing. Your depth of knowledge will come through in your thoughtful proposal.

Justify the significance of your work

Answer the question: “What happens if your work is successful?” Again, you are trying to convince your readers either to give you funding or to work with you for three (or more) years. Convince them that your project is worth it.

Your research doesn’t have to revolutionize your field, but you need to explain concretely how it will move your field forward. For example, “Successful development of the proposed model will enable high-fidelity simulation of boiling” is a specific and convincing motivation, compared to, “The field of boiling modeling must be transformed in order to advance research.”

Justify your research plan

Identify the steps needed to overcome your identified problem/limitation. Though your PhD will evolve over time, the tasks and timeline that you identify in your proposal will continue to help determine the trajectory of your research. A good plan now can save a lot of work a few years down the road.

A strong research plan answers three key questions:

• g., “In order to engineer material properties using mesoscopic defects, it is necessary to characterize the defects, measure how they affect material response, and identify techniques to reproducibly create the defects at specific sites within a material.”
• g., “In my PhD, I will focus on developing high-speed dynamic imaging techniques to characterize transient defect states in metallic nanowires. I will then use these techniques to measure the properties of nanowires fabricated with three different processes known to produce different defect structures.”
• How will you evaluate success in each step? These metrics should be concrete and measurable! Putting the thought into metrics now will make it easier for your committee (and yourself) to check a box and say ‘you can graduate.’

Each of these questions should be supported by details that reflect the current state of the art. Technical justification is critical to establish credibility for your plan. Reference the material that you introduced in the background section. You should even use your research plan to tailor your background section so that your committee knows just enough to believe what you’re claiming in your plan.

Based on the tasks and metrics in your plan, establish specific reflection points when you’ll revisit the scope of your project and evaluate if changes are needed.

Include alternative approaches

You won’t be able to predict all of the challenges you will encounter, but planning alternative approaches early on for major methods or decision points will prepare you to make better game-time decisions when you come up against obstacles. e.g.,

I will develop multi-pulse, femtosecond illumination for high speed imaging following Someone et al. Based on the results they have shown, I expect to be able to observe defect dynamics with micron spatial resolution and microsecond temporal resolution. If these resolutions are not achievable in the nanowire systems, I will explore static measurement techniques based on the work of SomeoneElse et al.

Resources and Annotated Examples

Annotated example 1.

This is a recent MechE thesis proposal, written in the style of an IEEE paper. 1,022 KB

A SimPLE Solution

The approach, dubbed SimPLE, learns to pick, regrasp and place objects using the object’s computer-aided design (CAD) model.

The Breadth of MechE

In this issue, we celebrate the intersection of the core principles of mechanical engineering with the work of broadly-trained MIT engineers and interdisciplinary teams tackling some of the greatest challenges facing the physical world today.

Explore MechE Classes

Discover both undergraduate and graduate mechanical engineering classes at MIT on our updated Class Offerings page.

Accelerating Semiconductor Characterization

Graduate students Alexander Siemenn, left, and Eunice Aissi with the Accelerated Materials Lab for Sustainability use a new computer vision approach to identify new solar cell materials from hundreds of millions of chemical formulations.

Painted Lady Butterfly

New findings from Professor Mathias Kolle and a team of researchers describing the first moments of butterfly scale formation could help engineers design materials for light and heat management.

Imagine it, build it

In 2.679 (Electronics for Mechanical Systems II), students learn about electronic principles and how to apply them to create mechanical systems.

Experience the MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering

Experience MechE

Michelangelo didn’t attend a semester of lectures; he learned in the studio with a master looking over his shoulder.

Beyond the Classroom

Explore our global impact.

Educating Future Naval Leaders Just Watched Educating Future Naval Leaders Watch More Videos Immune action at a distance

See the impact of our research.

• Environment

Anuradha Annaswamy

Designing a revolution.

A. Michael West: Advancing human-robot interactions in health care

This ultrasound sticker senses changing stiffness of deep internal organs

Explore research area mechanics.

Making life friendlier with personal robots

Photo Gallery: Visualizing MechE Research: Scientific Photos by Felice Frankel

Pushing material boundaries for better electronics

John Leonard

Giovanni Traverso

Baran Mensah: Savoring college life in a new country

A team led by prof. yang shao-horn shows a new universal descriptor for removal of nitrogen monoxide., explore research area ocean, explore research area design.

Visit us today at 314 Main St, Cambridge, MA 02142 Close this alert

Advances in Mechanical Engineering: Selected Contributions from the Conference "Modern Engineering: Science and Education", Saint Petersburg, Russia, (Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering)

Description.

Blended Learning of Higher Mathematics in the Century of the Digitalization of Education.- Influence of the Control Object Mass on the Stability Region.- A Method for Increasing the Speed Discreteness in test Centrifuges Based on Sew-Eurodrive.- Internal Vibration Active of Machines with Elastic Transmission Mechanism.

Other Books in Series

Recent Advances in Machines, Mechanisms, Materials and Design: Select Proceedings of Inacomm 2023 (Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering)

Recent Advances in Mechanics of Functional Materials and Structures: Proceedings of the 8th Asian Conference on Mechanics of Functional Materials and (Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering)

Advances in Computational Heat and Mass Transfer: Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Computational Heat and Mass Transfer (Icchmt 202 (Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering)

Intelligent Manufacturing & Mechatronics: Proceedings of SIMM 2023 (Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering)

Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Mechanical System Dynamics: Icmsd2023 (Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering)

The 8th International Conference on Advances in Construction Machinery and Vehicle Engineering: Icacmve 2023 (Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering)

Advances in Dynamics of Vehicles on Roads and Tracks III: Proceedings of the 28th Symposium of the International Association of Vehicle System Dynamic (Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering)

Recent Advances in Additive Manufacturing: Select Proceedings of Icam 2024 (Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering)

Advances in Design and Automation: Select Proceedings of Icfammt 2024 (Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering)

Advances in Mechanical Engineering: Select Proceedings of Icrame 2023 (Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering)

Industry 4.0 and Advanced Manufacturing, Volume 2: Proceedings of I-4am 2024 (Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering)

16th International Symposium on Advanced Vehicle Control: Proceedings of Avec'24 - Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan (Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering)

Advances in Non-Destructive Evaluation (Nde): Conference Proceedings of Nde 2021 (Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering)

Advances in Materials Engineering: Select Proceedings of Icfammt 2024 (Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering)

Recent Trends in Mechanical Engineering: Select Proceedings of Icrame 2024 (Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering)

Recent Developments in Multibody Dynamics: Proceedings of Imsd-Acmd 2020 (Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering)

Advances in Energy and Sustainability: Select Proceedings of Incom 2024 (Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering)

Proceedings of Fluid Mechanics and Fluid Power (Fmfp) 2023, Vol. 5: Fluid Mechanics (Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering)

Design and Modeling of Mechanical Systems - VI: Proceedings of the 10th Conference on Design and Modeling of Mechanical Systems, Cmsm'2023, December 1 (Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering)

You may also like.

Sonic Agency: Sound and Emergent Forms of Resistance (Goldsmiths Press / Sonics Series)

Documenting Aftermath: Information Infrastructures in the Wake of Disasters

Cloud Computing, revised and updated edition (The MIT Press Essential Knowledge series)

American Technological Sublime

The Aesthetic of Play

Encyclopedia of Electronic Components, Volume 3: Sensors for Location, Presence, Proximity, Orientation, Oscillation, Force, Load, Human Input, Liquid

Modern Data Analytics in Excel: Using Power Query, Power Pivot, and More for Enhanced Data Analytics

Sharing Our Science: How to Write and Speak STEM

General Relativity: The Theoretical Minimum

It's a Question of Space: An Ordinary Astronaut's Answers to Sometimes Extraordinary Questions

Artificial Intelligence: Modern Magic or Dangerous Future?, The Illustrated Edition

Living with Robots: What Every Anxious Human Needs to Know

An Experiential Introduction to Principles of Programming Languages

Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century (The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Reports on Digital Media and Learning)

Robust Python: Write Clean and Maintainable Code

The Undertaker at Work

The Sound of the Future: The Coming Age of Voice Technology

Algorithms for Decision Making

Nightwork, updated edition: A History of Hacks and Pranks at MIT

The Alignment Problem: Machine Learning and Human Values

Edison's Ghosts: The Untold Weirdness of History's Greatest Geniuses

The Transformation Myth: Leading Your Organization through Uncertain Times (Management on the Cutting Edge)

Cosmonaut: A Cultural History

The Little Prover

50 Math Ideas You Really Need to Know (50 Maths Ideas You Really Need to Know)

Essentials of Compilation: An Incremental Approach in Racket

Elements of Game Design

Artificial Intelligent Architecture: New Paradigms in Architectural Practice and Production

Sign up to receive our newsletter.

News and information from Kendall Square's underground bookstore

Enter the characters you see below

Sorry, we just need to make sure you're not a robot. For best results, please make sure your browser is accepting cookies.

Type the characters you see in this image: