Similarly, the availability of advanced computers has resulted in the development of new approaches in research where the computational techniques are used to explain and predict fundamental physical phenomena important in aerospace and mechanical engineering.

In an environment of a typical large aerospace company, usually different engineers specializing in one of the core areas (structures, fluids, heat transfer, combustion) will handle different aspects of designing a product before their inputs are combined. The students graduating from the USC M.S. in Aerospace & Mechanical Engineering (Computational Fluid and Solid Mechanics) program will be prepared to:

• Interact with engineers across all core disciplines because the program prepares them in both solid and fluid mechanics; this also offers greater flexibility in job placement and advancement within a company.

• Pursue higher degrees (Engineer and Ph.D.) in areas of computational mechanics and heat transfer.

The coursework in the M.S. in Computational Fluid and Solid Mechanics Program is designed to provide a necessary background in the core aerospace and mechanical engineering disciplines (solid mechanics, fluid mechanics, heat transfer), the engineering mathematics, and the numerical techniques employed by computational packages and practical examples of their use.