Master in Science Specializing in Advanced Manufacturing

This 12-unit specialization will include seven courses as described below, two additional graduate level courses at-large, and three independent individual projects under ME 499 or a thesis comprising of three research units under ME 590. Students in this course will carry out projects at Northwestern under a faculty affiliated with NIMSI. Furthermore, the projects can also include experiences at Argonne National Laboratory’s Midwest Transformative Energy Manufacturing (MTEM) Research and Development facility and the Materials Engineering Research Facility (MERF).  At these facilities, students will be able to explore new manufacturing approaches (including additive manufacturing) that integrate smart sensors, simulations and materials data.

Note: Student must have 5 ME courses and 5 courses at the 400 level. All courses need to be from McCormick and at the Graduate level. Any exceptions should be pre-approved with the MS Program Director, Professor Manohar Kulkarni, PhD, PE (Manohar.kulkarni{at}northwestern.edu).

The students will choose courses in the following 5 categories:

1. Manufacturing Processes and Equipment (minimum 2 required from the list below)

   ME 340-1: Computer Integrated Manufacturing I: Manufacturing Processes
   ME 340-2: Computer Integrated Manufacturing II: CAD/CAM
   ME 340-3: Computer Integrated Manufacturing III: Manufacturing Automation
   ME 415: Mechanics of Manufacturing Processes
   ME 439: Computer Control in Manufacturing
   ME 443: Metal Cutting
   ME 445: Micromanufacturing
   ME 446: Advanced Tribology

2. Materials and Sensors in Manufacturing (minimum 2 required from the list below)

   ME 414-1: Mechanics of Composite Materials I
   ME 417: Multiscale Modeling and Simulation in Solid Mechanics
   ME 426-1: Advanced Finite Element Methods I
   ME 426-2: Advanced Finite Element Methods II
   ME 495: Metamaterials
   ME 495: Nanoscale Thermal Transport
   ME 495: Theory of Heterogeneous Materials
   CEE 424: Stability of Structures
   CEE 455: Plasticity and Limit Analysis
   EE 495: Introduction to Nanophotonics and Plasmonics Science and Technology
   MSE 406: Symmetry and Mechanical Properties of Materials
   MSE 435: High Temperature materials
   MSE 445: High Polymer Science
   MSE 465: Advanced Electron Microscopy & Diffraction

3. Design and Optimization in Manufacturing (minimum 1 required from the list below)

   ME 341: Computational Methods for Engineering Design
   ME 441: Engineering Optimization for Product Design and Manufacturing
   IEMS 307: Quality Improvement by Experimental Design

4. Sustainable Manufacturing and Life Cycle Analysis (1 required from the list below)

   ME 367: Quantitative Methods in Life Cycle Analysis
   ME 380/ISEN 390: Thermal Energy Systems Design
   ME 467/ISEN 495: Industrial Energy Management and Utilization
   POLI_SCI 441: International Political Economy
   SOCIOL 437-0: Economic Sociology

5. Digital Manufacturing and Cybersecurity (1 required from the list below)

   ME 395: Industry 4.0 Manufacturing
   ME 495: Sensing, Navigation and Machine Learning for Robotics
   IEMS 381: Supply-chain Modeling and Analysis
   IEMS 382: Production Planning and Scheduling
   IEMS 383: Service Operations Management
   COMP-SCI 340: Introduction to Computer Networking
   COMP_SCI 450: Internet Security
   COMP_ENG 395, 495: Internet-of-Things Sensors, Systems and Applications
   COMP_ENG 495: Introduction to Database Systems and Data Warehousing

Recent intern Erkin Oto said about his experience, “My summer internship experience at Argonne National Laboratory was a truly transformative experience and in fact the experience of a lifetime. Needless to say, Argonne National Laboratory is one of the most influential research enterprises in the history of science and technology, and it was an incredible source of inspiration and honor being a part of the cutting-edge Advanced Manufacturing research. Argonne National Laboratory is at the forefront of metal additive manufacturing research that has the enormous potential to transform manufacturing.

The Advanced Manufacturing research experience I gained at Northwestern prepared me for this life-changing and eye-opening experience at Argonne. My research in Advanced Manufacturing Processes Laboratory under the supervision of Professor Jian Cao and my research work at Argonne have synergistically augmented each other. With its reputable faculty and rigorously designed courses, Northwestern University is known as the Mecca for applied research and teaching in Additive Manufacturing. I firmly believe it deserves this reputation to the fullest extent.”