Wind Science & Engineering (WiSE), Ph.D.

 Program Coordinator:  Dr. Delong Zuo, Professor of Civil Engineering

About the Wind Science and Engineering Doctoral Program

Texas Tech University offers a unique multidisciplinary Ph.D. in Wind Science and Engineering. The educational objective of the program is to provide students with the broad education necessary to pursue research and solve problems related to the detrimental effects of windstorms (e.g., hurricanes, tornadoes, and thunderstorms) and to learn to take advantage of the beneficial effects of wind (e.g., wind energy). Each student's core coursework and dissertation research are multidisciplinary. The doctorate requires at least 60 semester hours of graduate studies in addition to a dissertation (requirement of the Graduate School).

Core Courses

These 60 hours include the five core listed below, field of emphasis courses, and a six (6) credit hour external internship.

• ATMO 5319 - Boundary Layer Meteorology or ATMO 5316 - Dynamics of Severe Storms, 3 Semester Credit Hours
• CE 5348 - Wind Engineering, 3 Semester Credit Hours
• BECO 5310 - Economic Analysis for Business, 3 Semester Credit Hours
• MGT 5372 - Leadership and Ethics, 3 Semester Credit Hours
• STAT 5384 - Statistics for Engineers and Scientists I, 3 Semester Credit Hours
• STAT 5385 - Statistics for Engineers and Scientists II, 3 Semester Credit Hours

STAT 5384 and STAT 5385 may be substituted with higher-level statistics courses approved by the student's Academic Advisor.

Additional Courses

Graduate courses completed during a master's degree can be transferred if they are in an emphasis field of study (i.e., atmospheric science, engineering, economics, business administration, or a combination to have an emphasis area in wind energy, wind engineering experiments, economics/risk management, damage documentation, emergency management). The courses to be transferred must be approved by the program coordinator.

Additional courses are required by the Graduate School to fulfill requirements of 60 credit hours. The specific courses are chosen by the students with the advice and consent of the graduate advisor, depending on the student's area of research emphasis.

Some of the courses available to fulfill the requirements are as follows:

• ATMO 5316 - Dynamics of Severe Storms, 3 Semester Credit Hours
• ATMO 5327 - Radar Meteorology, 3 Semester Credit Hours
• ATMO 5328 - Synoptic and Mesoscale Dynamics, 3 Semester Credit Hours
• ATMO 5331 - Analysis of Geophysical Data Fields, 3 Semester Credit Hours
• ATMO 5351 - Analysis of Geophysical Data Fields, 3 Semester Credit Hours
• ATMO 5353 - Meteorological Field Experiments, 3 Semester Credit Hours
• CE 5331 - Risk Modeling of Natural Disasters, 3 Semester Credit Hours
• CE 5346 - Structural Dynamics I, 3 Semester Credit Hours
• CE 5347 - Structural Dynamics II, 3 Semester Credit Hours
• IE 5320 - Systems Theory, 3 Semester Credit Hours
• FIN 5320 - Financial Management Concepts, 3 Semester Credit Hours
• MATH 5334 - Numerical Analysis I, 3 Semester Credit Hours
• MAH 5335 - Numerical Analysis II, 3 Semester Credit Hours
• PUAD 5352 - Public Policy Analysis, 3 Semester Credit Hours
• STAT 5378 - Stochastic Processes, 3 Semester Credit Hours
• WE 5300 - Advanced Technical Wind Energy I, 3 Semester Credit Hours
• WE 5301 - Advanced Technical Wind Energy II, 3 Semester Credit Hours
• WE 5302 - Renewable Energy Systems, 3 Semester Credit Hours
• WE 5311 - Wind Energy Finance and Economics, 3 Semester Credit Hours
• WE 8000 - Research
• Any other course that can help for research as approved by student's advisor.

Additional Requirements

Coursework for students is tailored with the advice and consent of their graduate advisor to provide background for multidisciplinary dissertation research. Course descriptions are given under each departmental listing of courses.

Students are also required to complete 6-credit hours of off-campus external internship at an academic institution, in a governmental or private laboratory, or with a private company. Opportunities are also available to complete this internship requirement abroad. This requirement can be waived only in rare cases when strong justification can be accepted by the curriculum committee of the program.

Students pursue multidisciplinary research under the guidance of the chair or co-chairs of their advisory committee. Graduate faculty members from at least two disciplines will be represented on each student's advisory committee. Research must be multidisciplinary and can include a combination of engineering, atmospheric sciences, economics, physical sciences, and mathematics. Field/lab experiments, analytical research, or numerical simulations are examples of acceptable dissertation research.

Students must complete a qualifying examination to be admitted to candidacy for the Ph.D. degree. The qualifying examination questions are based on a dissertation proposal, which is provided to the advisory committee by the student prior to the qualifying examination. Additionally, students shall have at least one paper based on their dissertation research published (or accepted to be published) in a peer-reviewed journal prior to graduation.

Financial support in the form of scholarships, assistantships, and fellowships is available to qualified students. See the National Wind Institute (www.depts.ttu.edu/nwi/) for more details of the degree program, the research interests of faculty affiliates, and ongoing research topics.

 

3-Year Program with M.S. Degree (Illustration Only)