How does getting a Ph.D. degree differ from getting a B.S. or M.S. degree?
The Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) is about learning how to do independent research, how to create new knowledge. Thus, it is quite different from a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) or a Master of Science (M.S.). In those degrees, the objective is to learn a certain body of established knowledge, usually by taking courses. While courses can also be helpful in learning how to structure research questions and do research, they are really only one of several means to an end. The way people really learn to do research is by rolling up their sleeves and doing it, usually in collaboration with some mentors who have had a lot of previous experience. In our research we advance the state-of-knowledge and art in how engineering problems are formulated, solved and interpreted and used. We are highly interdisciplinary, often approaching problems with teams of faculty and students bringing different skills, insights and methods from different disciplines.
