<p>One of the research areas of the ME department is fluid mechanics/thermal sciences. I would be doing my MS here, and I am leaning much towards the thermal aspect rather than the fluids. I only hear about how great the fluid mechanics is here, but I haven't heard of anything about their thermal sciences. Does anyone know if the thermal area is decent here? </p>
<p>Thanks,</p>
<p>Lee</p>
<p>Mechanical</a> Engineering - UC Santa Barbara 2007-2008 General Catalog</p>
<p>I heard a lot of good things about it. I am not an Eng. Major but I know many grad students from the ME department. They have a small program which is run by a prestigious faculty. Hope that helps.</p>
<p>thanks, i actually visited ucsb on friday march 7th, and the number of faculty seemed limited but very knowledgeable.</p>
<p>I hope you enjoyed the visit. From your visit, did you find the thermal sciences research program on par with your expectations? worse? better?</p>
<p>The fluid mechanics is actually coupled with the thermal sciences research area. They aren't actually independent of each other--that's what I found out. They are pretty good programs. The only downside is that the professors seem to really push their students to stick with academia rather than get rich in industry. That's a bit annoying.</p>