Ph.D. Qualifying Exam
After completing two semesters in the Ph.D. program, students take qualifying exams in math and two topical areas, selected by the student and their dissertation advisor.
- The mathematics examination is based on content from the course: MEGR 7174/8174 Engineering Analysis I.
- The two topical exams are based on the contents of undergraduate and/or graduate courses taught at UNC Charlotte (see more details in the “EXAM Content, Topic Syllabi, and Sample Exams” section below).
For each of the three exams, two outcomes are possible: Pass (70% or more) or Fail (69.9% or less). If the student fails any or all of the exams in the first attempt, they are either allowed to retake the failed exam(s) or terminated from the program. If the student fails any exam for the second time, this is sufficient grounds for termination from the program.
Calculator policy: NCEES calculator policy https://ncees.org/exams/calculator/ is applied.
- “Casio: All fx-115 and fx-991 models (Any Casio calculator must have “fx-115” or “fx-991” in its model name.)
- Hewlett Packard: The HP 33s and HP 35s models, but no others
- Texas Instruments: All TI-30X and TI-36X models (Any Texas Instruments calculator must have “TI-30X” or “TI-36X” in its model name.)“
Fall Qualifying Examinations occur approximately in the middle of October. Spring Qualifying Examinations occur in the middle of March.
Fall 2025 Qualifying Exam Information
The Fall 2025 Ph.D. Qualifying Exam will be held October 13, 15 and 17, 2025. The Math exam will be on October 13, 2025 (Monday). The exams of the two topic areas will be on October 15 and 17, 2025. The exams will be from 9 am to noon each day. An exam schedule will be sent in advance to those registered. Exams are typically given in the Mechanical Engineering Conference Room, Duke 324, unless noted otherwise.
APPLICATION
- The deadline to apply is Friday, August 29, 2025.
- Ph.D. Qualifying Exam Application
- Note: Ph.D. students who have not already earned a Master’s degree, or applied to earn a Master’s degree en route to the Ph.D., are required to apply for the MSME through the Graduate School before they sit for the Qualifying Exam.
REPORT RESULTS
- Once you’ve completed and passed your Qualifying Exams, please submit the Exam Report .
- Exam Report of Comprehensive/Qualifying Examination for Doctoral Students
- Instructions can be found at
Instructions to Submit Exam Report for Qualifying Exam
- Instructions can be found at
Exam Concentration Areas
The available qualifying exams are grouped into five concentration areas. Each concentration has a chairperson and a committee. The role of the chairperson is to coordinate the required exam(s) for the semester in question. This includes:
- soliciting questions from the committee members
- submitting the exam to the committee for approval
- submitting the exam to the graduate program coordinator
- coordinating the grading of the student submissions (grading is preferably completed by the professor who submitted the question)
- submitting the results to the graduate coordinator.
The concentration areas, chairpersons (in bold), and committee members are:
- Controls, Dynamics, Instrumentation – A. Ghasemi, St. Smith, S. Kelly, A. Wolek
- Manufacturing, Machine Design, Metrology – K. Falaggis, B. Mullany, E. Morse, E. Joyee, S. Schmid, J. Berez, A. Bonakdar, M. Dinar, J. Miller, J. Outeiro, T. Tunc
- Fluid Mechanics, Heat Transfer – P. Ramaprabhu, C. Lee, R. Keanini, M. Uddin
- Materials Science, Solid Mechanics – T. Xu, H. Zhang, H. Cherukuri, A. Tabarraei, Q. Wei, A. El-Ghannam, R. Smelser, Y. Chen, Q. Zhu, X. Chen
- Mathematics – K. Falaggis, A. Bombik, A. Wolek, R. Keanini, H. Cherukuri, O. Kele, A. Bonakdar
- Numerical Methods – A. Tabarraei, A. Ghasemi, S. Kelly, S. Smith, H. Cherukuri, P. Ramaprabhu, E. Morse, M. Uddin, K. Falaggis, J. Hall, B. Mullany
In the event that a professor has a student taking one of the qualifying exams, it is preferred that the professor not write the exam question(s) or grade the submission. While we trust the integrity of our professors, this avoids the potential conflict of interest. Exceptions are left to the discretion of the chairperson.
EXAM Content, Topic Syllabi, and Sample Exams
Contents covered in most exams are based on the courses offered at UNC Charlotte (see the summary table below). Students are encouraged to take or audit those courses to get prepared for the exams.
Table 1. Exam Contents
| Topic | Contents based on course number_course name | Semester the course is offered |
| Mathematics | MEGR 7174/8174_Enginineering Analysis | Fall |
| Solid Mechanics | MEGR 2144_Solid Mechanics | Fall/Spring |
| MEGR 6141/8141_Theory of Elasticity | Fall | |
| Metrology | MEGR 6181/8181_Engineering Metrology | Fall |
| MEGR 7182/8181_Machine Tool Metrology | Spring | |
| Fluid Mechanics | MEGR 7114/8114_Advanced Fluid Mechanics | Fall |
| Control System | MEGR 5237_Introduction to Control Systems | Fall/Spring |
| Numerical Methods | MEGR 2240_Computational Methods | Fall/Spring |
| Materials Science | MEGR 3161_Introduction to Engineering Materials | Fall/Spring |
| Manufacturing | MEGR 2180_Manufacturing Systems | Fall/Spring |
| Dynamics | MEGR 3121_Dynamics I | Fall/Spring |
| MEGR 3122_Dynamics II | Fall/Spring | |
| Heat Transfer | MEGR 3116_Heat Transfer | Fall/Spring |
| Machine Design | MEGR 3221_Machine Analysis and Design | Fall/Spring |
| Instrumentation | Discuss with Dr. Stuart Smith |
Table 2. Topic Syllabi and Sample Exams
| Topic | Syllabus | Sample Exam |
|---|---|---|
| Controls | Syllabus | Sample Exam 1 Sample Exam 2 |
| Dynamics (Starting from Fall 2023, students will be required to answer 4 out of 5 questions in the qualifying exam. ) | Syllabus | Sample Exam 1 Sample Exam 2 Sample Exam 3 Equation Sheet |
| Fluid Mechanics | Syllabus | Sample Exam 1 Sample Exam 2 Sample Exam 3 Sample Exam 4 |
| Heat Transfer | Syllabus Additional Reference: Incropera, DeWitt, Bergman and Lavine, “Introduction to Heat Transfer,” any edition. | Sample Exam 1 Sample Exam 2 |
| Instrumentation | Syllabus | Sample Exam |
| Manufacturing | Syllabus | Sample Exam |
| Machine Design | Syllabus | Sample Exam |
| Materials Science | Syllabus | Sample Exam |
| Metrology | Syllabus | Sample Exam 1 Sample Exam 2 |
| Numerical Methods | Syllabus | Equation Sheet Sample Exam |
| Solid Mechanics | Syllabus | Sample Exam |
| Mathematics The posted homework is from the fall 2017 course. The posted sample exams are from two recent qualifying exams. They represent the scope of material, together with the course syllabus, that should be mastered for the mathematics qualifying exam. For homework problems that require computer programming, the student should review the solution procedure. However, computer programming will not be required for the qualifying exam. | Syllabus (updated 1/20/2021) | Sample Exam 1 Sample Exam 2 Integral Table Sample Homework 1 Sample Homework 2 Sample Homework 3 Sample Homework 4 Sample Homework 5 Sample Homework 6 Sample Homework 7 Sample Homework 8 Sample Homework 9 Sample Homework 10 Sample Homework 11 |