Wind Science and Engineering, Ph.D.

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About the Wind Science and Engineering Doctoral Program

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

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 (12 semester hours of WE 8000 ).

These 60 hours include six required core courses listed below, field of emphasis courses, and an external internship.

A master’s degree is strongly recommended. 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 have to be approved by the program advisor.

Required Courses

ATMO 5319 - Boundary Layer Meteorology 3 Semester Credit Hours
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 program advisor.

Additional Courses

Additional courses are required to fulfill requirements of 60 semester credit hours. The specific courses are chosen by the student 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 additional course requirements are:

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 - Meteorological Data Acquisition and Instrumentation Systems 3 Semester Credit Hours
CE 5331 - Advanced Work in Specific Fields 3 Semester Credit Hours (Risk Modeling of Natural Disasters)
CE 5346 - Structural Dynamics I 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
MATH 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 5320 - Renewable Energy Policy 3 Semester Credit Hours
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 interdisciplinary dissertation research. Course descriptions are given under each departmental listing of courses.

Students are also required to complete 6-credit hours of summer 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.

Students pursue interdisciplinary 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 interdisciplinary 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.