Master’s Program Courses and Concentrations

Concentrations: Students are given agency in designing their own curriculum in order to prepare themselves for the career they want.  Four multidisciplinary concentrations have been developed that make this design easier for some students and are detailed here.

The Capstone Experience: All master of science students begin their academic career at Duke with the capstone course: Experiment Design and Research Methods.  Master of engineering students are encouraged to take this course as well.  This course gives students a unique opportunity to explore and prepare for their research project.  After completing this course, non-thesis MS students can continue their project as an independent study and defend their work in order to fulfill their research requirement.   Thesis MS students can also continue their project in a lab with a faculty advisor or simply start a new project with a faculty advisor.

Course goals and website here.

The Poster Expo: A unique aspect of the Duke MS curriculum is the Poster Expo held at the end of every semester.  This event gives all MS students the opportunity to exhibit all the hard work they were able to accomplish under the advisement of their faculty mentors.  The Poster Expo is a requirement for MS non-thesis students; MS thesis students are encouraged to participate in order to get more experience presenting their research, to build connections among their graduating class, and to participate in the concurrent Best Poster Award competition.

More details about the Spring 2020 Poster Expo are found here.

PhD Program Program and Courses

The core curriculum is designed to provide fundamental training for PhD students in their area of specialty, and to prepare them for the course-based preliminary exam. The expectation is that many students will take additional courses outside of satisfying the core requirements, as electives or general interest.  The core curriculum for the PhD in MEMS consists of two programs.  Click below to explore these options.

In Program 1, students select a set of courses from pre-defined tracks that map onto various research themes in the department. The track listings are provided here. Courses that comprise these tracks have been selected because they are offered fairly frequently, with most being offered every year or every other year. The expectation is that the majority of students in the department will be able to find a track that aligns with their interests and research.
In Program 2, students work with their advisor to develop their own custom core. This custom core needs to be approved by the DGS before the end of the second semester of the student’s first year in the program. Program 2 is designed for students whose work is interdisciplinary such that none of the existing tracks provides a sufficiently good option.
General guidelines for both Programs:
  • A minimum of 18 credits need to be taken at Duke, with at least 12 corresponding to permanent courses.
  • The core should be completed before the student takes their qualifying or preliminary exam. Taking the exam concurrently to completing the core is acceptable.
  • Up to four courses can be transferred, provided that at least two have an equivalent at the graduate level at Duke. For students in Program 1, the course equivalent should be one of the courses that is already part of the track.
Guidelines specific to Program 1:
  • Cores are satisfied by at least six courses.
  • Substitutions require DGS approval in advance.
Guidelines specific to Program 2:
  • Cores are satisfied by at least eight courses.
  • At least four of the courses should be in the MEMS department.
  • Cores should exhibit both depth and breadth. Depth is demonstrated by at least three courses that are thematically similar, with at least one being a pre-requisite for one of the others. Breadth is demonstrated by identifying courses in at least two different thematic areas.

2018-Earlier Matriculants

The study tracks for 2018 and earlier matriculants can be found here.