ndsu graduate school thesis format

View Event Thesis Formatting (Online)

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Thesis Formatting (Online)

• Location: QBB 132 Start: Thursday, October 19, 2023 2:30 PM End: Thursday, October 19, 2023 3:30 PM

Thesis Formatting in Word

This workshop is intended for graduate students who are working on their graduate papers and provides instructions on how to use Microsoft Word to format a thesis that meets the NDSU Graduate School requirements.

Learning Goal:  Students will be able to identify and fix common problems in a long work document such as a Thesis. 

Learning Objectives:

• Understanding scheme of pages
• Applying margins
• Understanding the difference between section breaks and page breaks
• Applying page numbers
• Understanding and applying styles​
• Creating automatic table of contents​
• Creating automatic list of table and figures
• Landscape pages (if time allows)

Prerequisites:  Students should have a basic working knowledge of Windows and Microsoft Word.

Zoom Link:  https://ndsu.zoom.us/j/95073780876

University Catalog 2024-25

Civil and Environmental Engineering

The Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering (CCEE) offers the Master of Science (M.S.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in civil engineering, and the Master of Science (M.S.) degree in environmental engineering. Also, the College of Engineering offers a program leading to a Ph.D. degree in engineering, in which civil engineering is an area of specialization. The department also participates in several interdisciplinary programs such as Environmental and Conservation Sciences, Materials & Nanotechnology, and Transportation and Logistics.

Specialty areas in the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in civil engineering include construction, environmental, geotechnical, materials, structural, transportation, and water resources engineering. Other related areas are also accommodated. The academic and research foci are tailored to individual needs and interests. To complement the major area of study, additional courses are often selected from other disciplines. The programs are designed to advance the technical knowledge, competence, and interdisciplinary understanding of the students and to prepare them for entering or advancing within the civil engineering profession.

Application to the Civil Engineering and Environmental Engineering programs is open to qualified graduates of universities and colleges of recognized standing. In addition to the Graduate School admission requirements, the applicant must have adequate preparation in civil engineering. A Master’s degree in civil engineering is preferred for applicants to the Ph.D. program.

Financial Assistance

Research and/or teaching assistantships may be available. Applicants are considered based on scholarship, potential to undertake advanced study and research, and financial need. To be considered for an assistantship, a completed Graduate School application, official transcripts, and three letters of reference (and English test results for international applicants) must be submitted to the Graduate School.

For teaching assistantships, refer to the  English tests and additional requirements for eligibility  

In addition to the stipend, graduate assistants receive a graduate tuition waiver.  T uition waiver s cover base tuition for NDSU graduate credits only. Students are responsible for differential tuition, student fees, and tuition for non-graduate level credits taken or Cooperative Education credits.    

The Master of Science degree is a Master's thesis option. This format emphasizes research, the ability to analyze and interpret data, and to prepare a scholarly thesis. The student and adviser develop a program of study consisting of at least 30 credit hours of graduate level material to meet individual educational goals. A cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better is required. An oral defense of the research-based thesis is required.

The Doctor of Philosophy degree requires 90 credits beyond the baccalaureate degree in civil engineering with a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher (60 credits beyond an M.S. degree in Civil Engineering or a sub-area of Civil Engineering) for graduation. A dissertation supervisory committee should be formed and a plan of study be filed by the end of first year of study. A minimum of 30 hours of additional course work chosen by the student and the supervisory committee from appropriate existing Civil Engineering graduate courses, new courses, and courses outside the department must be completed.

An M.S. degree from another institution may substitute for up to 30 credits of the 90 credits required; however, suitability of transfer or use of courses and research credits in the plan of study would be decided by the adviser and supervisory committee.

A comprehensive preliminary examination is administered after completion of the greater portion of the course work. The committee chair will coordinate the examination. The format and duration will be determined by the committee. The student will present a research proposal within one year after the preliminary examination. A minimum of 30 and a maximum of 40 credit hours can be earned for research, preparation, and defense of a dissertation in Civil Engineering. A minimum of 12 credit hours in a minor or cognate area as deemed appropriate by the student and the supervisory committee may be completed by the student. The student will defend the dissertation in a final examination attended by the supervisory committee members and other academics.

Achintya N. Bezbaruah, Ph.D. University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2002 Research Interests: Environmental Sensors, Recalcitrant and Micro Pollutants, Contaminant Fate and Transport, Small Community Water and Wastewater Treatment, Environmental Management

Xuefeng Chu, Ph.D. University of California, Davis, 2002 Research Interests: Watershed Hydrologic and Environmental Modeling, Overland Flow and Infiltration, Integrated Modeling of Flow and Contaminant Transport

Surya Congress, Ph.D. University of Texas at Arlington, 2018  Research Interests: Transportation Infrastructure, Design and Stabilization of Geo-Materials, Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure Design and Monitoring, Site Characterization and Visualization Models, Slope Stabilization, Dam and Bridge Inspections, Airport Pavement Inspections, Artificial Intelligence, Image Analysis, Digital Twins, Disaster Response, Traffic Safety, and Smart City Concepts.

Ying Huang, Ph.D. Missouri University of Science & Technology, 2012 Research Interests: Structural Health Monitoring/Smart Structures for Transportation Infrastructure, Intelligent Transportation Systems, Applications of Adaptive and Smart Materials, Finite Element Modeling and Multi-Hazard Assessment and Mitigation

Syeed Md Iskander, Ph.D. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 2019 Research Interests: Sustainable Waste Management: Food Waste Treatment, Landfill Leachate Treatment, Environmental Health: Disinfection Byproducts, Antibiotic Resistance Genes, Microplastics, Water-Energy Nexus: Desalination, Membrane Fabrication, Advanced Oxidation, Environmental Biotechnology: Anaerobic Biotechnology, Bioelectrochemical Systems

Dinesh Katti, Ph.D., P.E.  University of Arizona, 1991 Research Interests: Geotechnical Engineering, Constitutive Modeling of Geologic Materials, Expansive Soils, Multiscale Modeling, Steered Molecular Dynamics, Computational Mechanics, Nanocomposite, and Bio-nanocomposites. Computational Biophysics

Kalpana Katti, Ph.D.  (Graduate Coordinator) University of Washington, 1996  Research Interests: Advanced Composites, Nanomaterials, Biomaterials, Biomimetics, Materials Characterization and Modeling, Analytical Electron Microscopy, and Microspectroscopy, Bone Tissue engineering

Trung B. Le, Ph.D. University of Minnesota Research Interests: Hydraulics, Fluid Mechanics, Numerical Methods for Fluid-Structure Interaction

Zhibin Lin, Ph.D., P.E. University of Wisconsin, 2010 Research Interests: Advanced Materials, High-Performance, Resilient and Sustainable Bridge Systems, Structural Durability and Structural Health Monitoring in Bridges and Earthquake Engineering

Kelly Rusch, Ph.D., P.E. Louisiana State University, 1992 Research Interests: Microbial System Design and Modeling, Biofuels and Bioproducts, Engineering Education Research, Aquaculture Engineering, and Water and Wastewater Treatment.

David R. Steward, Ph.D., P.E., PG, F.ASCE University of Minnesota  Research Interests: Engineering Mathematical and Computational Methods, Groundwater Flow and Analysis, Interdisciplinary Water Resources: Water and Society

Wenjie Xia, Ph.D. Northwestern University, 2016 Research Interests: Multiscale Modeling of Structural Materials, Polymer and Nanocomposites, Granular and Soft Matters, Bioinspired Materials, Mechanobiology, Computational Mechanics, Data-Enabled Design of Multifunctional Materials

Jiale Xu, Ph.D. State University of New York at Buffalo, 2020 Research Interests: Wastewater and Water Treatment, Wastewater Reuse, Photochemical Processes, Electrochemical and Membrane Technologies, and Disinfection Byproducts

Mijia Yang, Ph.D., P.E. University of Akron, 2006 China University of Mining and Technology, 1999 Research Interests: Advanced Materials, Structural Assessment, Solid Mechanics

Adjunct & Emeritus

Ravi Kiran Yellavajjala, Ph.D. P.E. (adjunct) University of Notre Dame, 2014 Interests: Experimental and Theoretical Mechanics, Constitutive Modeling of Materials, Numerical Methods, Sensitivity Analysis of Structural Response, Forensic Failure Analysis and Advanced Visualization Techniques.

Eakalak Khan, Ph.D. (adjunct) University of California, Los Angeles, 1997  Research Interests: Water and Wastewater Quality, Water and Wastewater Treatment, and Storm Water and Non-point Source Pollution

Denver D. Tolliver, Ph.D. (adjunct) Virginia Polytechnic University, 1989  Research Interests: Transportation, Planning and Economics

Robert Zimmerman, Ph.D. (adjunct) North Dakota State University, 1991  Research Interests: Water and Wastewater Treatment, Solid Waste

G. Padmanabhan, Ph.D. (emeritus) Purdue University, 1980  Research Interests: Stochastic Hydrology, Water Resource Systems, and Hydrologic Modeling

The Graduate School

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Formal Submissions

Formal submissions must be completed by 5:00 p.m. on the date of the submission deadline (see the Academic Year Deadlines for dates). See the electronic thesis and dissertation (ETD) checklists below ( Doctoral Dissertations or Master's Theses ) for the list of required submission components.

The Graduate School editor will review all submission components in the order in which they are received, and will contact the student at their Notre Dame email address if the editor has questions or identifies problems with any submitted materials. Depending on the number of submissions received and proximity to the deadline, final reviews may take up to three weeks. If outstanding issues are not resolved as communicated by the editor, the Graduate School reserves the right to request a dean's hold on the student's diploma or reject a submission and remove the student from the graduation list. 

If there are no issues with the components of the formal submission, the student will receive an email stating that the dissertation or thesis has been approved by the Graduate School.

If you have questions about any component of the formal submission checklist, please contact the dissertation editor:

Laura Patzschke The Graduate School 117 Bond Hall Notre Dame, Indiana 46556 E-mail:  [email protected]

Quick Links:

Preparing to Submit

Note: There is no “save” function on the formal submission form. Please allow at least 15-20 minutes once you begin; you will need to complete all items on the checklist to retain your work. We recommend you prepare the following items in advance.

Title and Abstract

Due to system limitations, the submission form is not currently able to accept italics, superscript/subscript, and some special characters (though most standard Western accented characters should be fine). Please have a plain-text, reader-friendly copy of your title and abstract prepared for this form. 

Research Directors and Committee Information

A list of the names and NetIDs of all Notre Dame faculty serving on your committee.

A list of the names, email addresses, and associated institutions for all research co-directors or committee members external to the University.

File Attachments

The primary file attached to your ETD record must be a PDF. Other file types may be submitted as supporting or supplementary files.

Future Patent/Publication Plans and File Access

The title, abstract, and other descriptive metadata will be public by default. Please review the questions below prior to beginning your submission and discuss with your research director(s) as needed.

STEM disciplines: Does this work contain patentable material (i.e. a novel, unique, and useful process, compound, or manufacture)? If yes, please select the option that best describes the patent status of this work.

Patentable material has already been publicly disclosed in another form (journal article, pre-print, presentation, poster, etc.)

Patentable material has already been disclosed to the IDEA Center via an Invention Disclosure Form

Unsure—I would like to talk with the IDEA Center about my options.

All disciplines: What are your publication plans for this work?

I plan to publish all or some of this work in the future.

I have already published portions of this work.

I do not plan to publish this work.

All disciplines: What copyright or Creative Commons license should be applied to your work?

All Rights Reserved - https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/106

CC BY 4.0 - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

CC BY-NC 4.0 - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

CC BY-ND 4.0 - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/

CC BY-SA 4.0 - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

CC0 1.0 Universal - https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

Copyright Controlled by External Host - https://doi.org/10.7274/HOSTED_EXTERNALLY

Public Domain Mark 1.0 (No Copyright) - https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

All disciplines: Who should be able to access your attached files? (Please discuss with your research director(s) what access is appropriate for your file attachments.)

Open access: Publicly available for download

Restricted: Viewable only by those with an active Notre Dame NetID

Private: Only Graduate School and Library administrators can access the files

Embargoed: Private until a date you select, then released publicly

What to Expect

When you have submitted your metadata and attachments through this portal, please watch your Notre Dame email for any follow-up questions or confirmations sent by [email protected] . It is your responsibility to respond to questions and requests in a timely manner. If you do not address reviewer concerns by the date requested, the Graduate School has the right to place a hold on your diploma, or reject the submission and remove you from the graduation list until all degree requirements are fulfilled.

Review Cycle

• Any faculty you have designated as a research director or co-director will receive an email from  [email protected] prompting them to review and approve your submission. If a research director wants you to correct/update something on the record or in the attached PDF, they will be able to send a correction request through the submission platform. You will receive a confirmation when all research directors have approved the submission. (Other committee members should be included on the form, bit do not have an active role in the formal submission process.)
• Once all directors/co-directors have approved your submission, the record will move to the Graduate School’s dissertation editor for review. Again, if the editor has a quesiton or change request, they will send you a message through the submission platform. You will receive a confirmation when the editor has finished their review.
• After the Graduate School approves your submission, the record will be added to the Hesburgh Library catalog and WorldCAT.
• On completion of all review steps, you will receive a final confirmation, and your ETD record will move to the CurateND repository.

Formal Submission Checklists

These checklists apply to formal submissions only. Do not submit  formatting checks  to the CurateND intake site. If the formatting of your formal submission does not match the requirements set by UMI/ProQuest and the Graduate School, your dissertation or thesis may be rejected. It is the student's responsibility to ensure compliance with formatting guidelines.

All checklist items for the listed submission type are REQUIRED unless specified as “optional.” Once you formally submit your file via the portal, please complete the other checklist items as soon as possible. 

Doctoral Dissertation Checklist

Note: This checklist assumes you have already defended the dissertation and received the results of a preliminary formatting check.

• Formal Submission Portal: Log in with  your Notre Dame NetID and password. The portal will guide you through the submission steps. If you have any questions about the portal not answered by the Preparing to Submit and What to Expect sections of this page, please contact the dissertation editor at [email protected] for assistance.  
• Notre Dame Faculty: All ND faculty must be added by NetID; if you enter the address correctly, the portal will add the user's name. If you don't know your dissertation director's NetID,  consult the directory . Do not add an email address or institution for these faculty. 
• External Faculty: All committee members and co-directors who do not have an active NetID should be added to the record by name, email, and their affiliated institution.
• Both the agreement form and the payment are now collected through the ProQuest website. You will not need to upload your dissertation file; we will transfer the approved files when we close out each graduation cycle.

Your work is inherently copyrighted. However, if you would like to file an official copyright registration with the U.S Copyright office, you can do so through ProQuest. This is optional. You can also file an official copyright directly through the U.S. Copyright office.

If you select the Traditional Publishing option and not to file for copyright through them there is no fee.

• Refer to the National Archives website to find out why we still require microfilming for doctoral dissertations.
• The  Survey of Earned Doctorates  ( SED ): This is required for all doctoral students.  This survey, conducted on behalf of the NSF ,  NEH , and four other federal research agencies, will send a confirmation email to you and to the Graduate School when you press the Submit button at the very end. For more information about the SED  and how the data is used, please see the  NSF’s  SED  description .
• Graduate Outcomes Survey :  All doctoral level graduates will receive an email invitation to take this survey approximately 1 month prior to their graduation date.  Please be on the lookout for an email being sent on behalf of Graduate Career Services from the Institutional Research, Innovation, & Strategy . If you have any questions regarding this survey, please contact Graduate Career Services at [email protected] . This survey does not need to be completed by the formal submission deadline date.

Master's Thesis Checklist

Note: This checklist assumes you have received the results of a preliminary formatting check.

• Formal Submission Portal: Log in with your Notre Dame NetID and password. The portal will guide you through the submission steps. If you have any questions about the portal not answered by the Preparing to Submit and What to Expect sections of this page, please contact the dissertation editor at [email protected] for assistance.
• Notre Dame Faculty: All ND faculty must be added by NetID; if you enter the address correctly, the portal will add the user's name. If you don't know your dissertation director's NetID, consult the directory . Do not add an email address or institution for these faculty.
• Both the agreement form and the payment are now collected through the ProQuest website. You will not need to upload your thesis file; we will transfer the approved files when we close out each graduation cycle.
• Graduate Outcomes Survey :  All master's level graduates will receive an email invitation to take this survey  approximately 1 month prior to their graduation date.  Please be on the lookout for an email being sent on behalf of Graduate Career Services from the Institutional Research, Innovation, & Strategy . If you have any questions regarding this survey, please contact Graduate Career Services at [email protected] . This survey does not need to be completed by the formal submission deadline date.

The formal review, approval, cataloging, and microfilming processes take time, so it may be several weeks before the dissertation or thesis becomes available in the University library system or on the  UMI/ProQuest  website.

After the Submission

Etd access changes and patron requests.

All author requests concerning extending or lifting embargoes, or updates to dissertation and thesis records on CurateND or ProQuest should be directed to [email protected] .

If a library patron submits a request to access a restricted, embargoed, or private ETD, the dissertation editor will reach out to the author to request permission to release the file to that patron specifically. If you would like to review all such requests on a case-by-case basis, directr patrons to an updated book edition of your work, or deny all requests for access, please let the dissertation editor know and we will update our records.

Letter of Completion

Students who submit early in the semester and plan to begin a new job shortly after submission can  request a Letter of Completion for their employer. Refer to the Active Student Registration & Student Records page for details. 

Personal Copies

Although the Graduate School only accepts ETDs, we have compiled a resource PDF of independent binderies who are happy to work with students directly:  Dissertation and Thesis Personal Copies: Bindery Contact Information .

ProQuest Amendments

Once a work is published to the ProQuest catalog, a $47 Vault Repair Fee is required to update the ProQuest record or PDF. Please contact  [email protected]  to initiate this process if an amendment is needed. The Acknowledgments page is the most commonly corrected page; be sure to double check it for accuracy and inclusion of all required acknowledgments, especially if your work was sponsored by an external grant or governmental office.

Publication Information

If you have published a book based on your thesis or dissertation, we encourage you to contact the dissertation editor at [email protected] with any book publication information. This information will be included on their CurateND record and will direct patrons to their published work.