Department of Mechanical Engineering

All the policies and procedures for the graduate program apply to students in the distance education program.  However, there is some specific information that is helpful for students in the distance graduate program.

The following information is for students who have graduate course credits to transfer to ISU or who take courses from other Universities while enrolled in the ISU distance MS program. 

How Many Credits can be Transferred:

For the MS degree, 30 credits are required.  Of that, 22 credits are to be from ISU. That means that up to 8 credits can be transferred to be applied to the 30 credit minimum requirement. You are welcome to transfer more than the 8 credits, but additional credits beyond the 8 credits will show up on your graduate record as additional to your 30 credit minimum.

Who Decides:

The transfer courses are approved through the POS form. Therefore, the primary people involved in approving the application of a transfer course to your degree are your POS committee.

If you have not yet formed your POS committee, the DOGE can review the courses you propose to transfer and give a preliminary indication on how your POS committee will likely view the courses. 

The POS committee for an MS degree consists of two members, including your major professor, from inside the major or program, and at least one from outside your field of emphasis.

Role

The POS committee is the primary representative from the M E department and ISU to oversee your education. The POS committee is the first layer of approval on the courses that you use to satisfy the degree requirements.

Unless the POS committee overlooks a violation of a guideline, the POS approved program will most likely be approved at the next level of review.

The POS committee is also the faculty to whom you will give your creative component report and present your oral defense. They then provide the assessment that you have completed the work for the creative component.

Selecting a Committee

Most faculty are happy to serve on your committee. Your major professor can help you identify committee members and you can include faculty that you have had in courses.

Default POS Committee

A default committee is established for the convenience of distance students who are not actively involved in funded research on campus. You are free to use this committee, replace individual members with faculty more appropriate to your work, or choose all new members.

In the M E department at ISU, there are no specified degree programs with a list of specified courses to take. You are expected to develop a degree plan that best fits your goals. Your educational goals, which are likely based on your career goals, form the basis for developing your degree plan.

In a distance program, the availability of courses has a significant influence on your degree plan.  You are encouraged to find faculty who will give you advice on courses and also to consult your colleagues with whom you work . 

Course outside of the M E department are welcome. Your POS committee will be most easily convinced to approve a course if you provide a justification for the course in terms of your educational, research, and career goals.

Formalizing Your Degree Plan (The POS)

The Program of Study (POS) documents the courses that you plan to take to satisfy the degree requirements. This form is approved by your POS committee, the M E department DOGE, and the Graduate College.

It is possible to change the courses listed on the POS form, since plans, interests, and course availability does change. 

Independent Study (M E 590) is available to get course credit for material not covered in available courses. The material may not be available in a course or you may not have been able to take a course when it was offered.

In such cases, you have the option through an independent study course, to independently study the material. A faculty member must supervise the M E 590 course since he/she is the one verifying that you completed graduate level work.

How to set up a 590 (Independent Study)

Reaching agreement on an independent study course is the first step. You should discuss the options directly with the faculty who teach a course that you are interested in or perform research in the area that you have an interest to study.

The agreement is formalized with a form, which you and the faculty member sign. The form contains a description of the goals and expected work.

The creative component is 3 credits of work on a project at the graduate level. Most often this involves work that you are involved with in your job, but it can also be work outside of your current responsibilities.

The three semester credits represent roughly 150 hours of work.  The work is completed by submitting a report and through the final oral defense to your POS committee.

Project topics are typically generated through discussions with your supervisors, colleagues, and ISU faculty. Some topics have included further in depth analysis of a completed design project, evaluating alternative data analysis techniques than the standard practice, or verifying the accuracy of a modeling program being considered for purchase.

Intellectual Property

Ownership of intellectual property and maintaining proprietary information is often the primary barrier to defining a project. The work must be presented to the POS committee in a report and oral presentation.

Prior approval from work supervisors has been critical when using work related topics. In some instances, the project focus is modified so that the material can be presented to the POS committee.

In at least one case, the POS committee members signed confidentiality agreements and were given the report and presentation, but required to return the report and maintain the confidentiality of the information.