固体力学和材料科学涵盖了计算，分析和实验固体力学，材料和材料科学的力学行为以及工程学。机械工程专业侧重于进行机械工程的基础研究，最终获得博士学位。论文。该计划旨在培训工程科学家，他们将致力于其专业事业，以发展基础知识和技术，并由此产生应用。博士学位的最低要求 学位是指超出学士学位课程的42个学分，完成博士论文研究的18个学分，通过资格和候选人资格考试，并公开捍卫论文。攻读硕士学位的学生最多可从其硕士学位课程计入24个研究生学分，以符合此要求。
Solid Mechanics and Materials Science encompasses the computational, analytical, and experimental solid mechanics, the mechanical behavior of materials and materials science, and engineering. Research projects currently conducted by faculty include fatigue crack growth, nanoindentation, mechanical behavior of hard tissues and structure-property relationships, finite elements applied to fracture mechanics, micro-mechanics of composites, modeling of composites (unidirectional, laminate and woven polymer and ceramic matrix composites), mechanics of water filtration and temperature sensitive biochemical reaction, kinematics of accurate surface feature tracking in rugged 3D terrain, effect of post-fabrication surface treatment on permeability and corrosion resistance of reinforced concrete, responses and constitutive modeling of emerging materials (nano-materials, polymers and newly developed metal alloys) over wide range of strain rates and temperatures, study of anisotropic plastic responses of metals and constitutive modeling of the observed responses, grain-size reduction using severe plastic deformation (milling and ECAP) and investigations of reduced grain-size metals, modeling and design of biomedical devices, surface modification and wear of artificial joints, structure/function relationships in aging and diseased human tissue, fracture and fatigue of biomaterials microscale specimen testing, carbon nanotube infused multi-length scale composites, and friction stir welding.