So I’ve been Googling this and can’t find a solid answer (perhaps because it seems silly). Can I do my research thesis under a professor with a degree different from my own?
For example, I’m a BS in Mechanical Engineering pursing a MS in Mechanical Engineering and I’d like to do research in robotics. But, the robotics labs are all part of the Electrical Engineering department at a university I’m interested in applying for.
Would it be atypical/not possible for me to conduct research thesis with that robotics lab under these circumstances?
That is possible at certain universities particularly in these interdisciplinary areas. You need to ask whether it is acceptable where you are applying.
Most likely you’d be able to; it kind of depends on funding and policies, but most graduate programs are pretty flexible on things like these. You’d probably want to concentrate on departments that specifically emphasize interdisciplinarity and mention that students can have thesis advisors or committee members from outside of the mechanical engineering department.
@eind45 - If I understand your question, I can give you one data set in response. My son is a senior majoring in aerospace engineering. He is interested in electric-plasma propulsion and his number one choice is the University of Michigan’s Plasmadynamics and Electric Propulsion Laboratory http://pepl.engin.umich.edu/about.html. The lab is directed by the University’s Aerospace Engineering department, but there are a large number of grad students in the program who were physics majors in college and two out of the last three PhD theses were submitted to fulfill the requirements for a PhD in applied physics. Multiple professors are listed as advisors, many from different departments and I have seen advisors who were even from another university.