The Department of Mining and Minerals Engineering (MinE) offers advanced graduate degrees (MEng, MS and PhD) that are designed to educate students for high-level challenges in industry, academia, and government. Graduate work may be pursued in several areas of specialization including rock mechanics, ground control, systems analysis, health and safety, mineral and coal processing, applied surface and colloid chemistry, conservation and the environment, mining ventilation, computer modeling/simulation, automation and control, and reservoir/natural gas/shale gas engineering. One or more of the topics may be emphasized within the department at a given time based on the ongoing research activity of the full-time faculty assigned to the department.
Graduate students accepted to the program are generally provided financial support through sponsored grants, teaching assistantships or graduate fellowships. A major goal of the department is to afford all graduate students with the opportunity to participate in creative and challenging research projects, which typically lead to scholarly publications in international journals and conference proceedings. The graduate program also recognizes the specific needs of industry professionals with a program that strives to upgrade technological skills of practicing engineers, encourage the pursuit of doctoral-level work, and provide an opportunity for advanced education and career reorientation.
The MinE graduate program is administered by the Department Head and a Departmental Graduate Committee. The Departmental Graduate Committee is responsible for identifying high-quality students acceptable for admission, for overseeing the graduate program curriculum, and for establishing and monitoring program standards. The Department Head appoints faculty members to serve on the Departmental Graduate Committee and approves all petition to the Graduate School based upon the recommendations of the committee.
Master of Science (MS): Successful MS students must complete 30 hours of university credit of which a minimum of 20 hours involve coursework and a maximum of 10 hours involve research. Students must also prepare and defend a written Thesis of their research findings during a Final Examination before an Examining Committee.
