A graduate student is not considered a doctoral student until a Supervisory Committee has been appointed by the Dean of the Graduate School. The Supervisory Committee must be established within two quarters of passing the Qualifying Exam, but in no case less than four months prior to scheduling the General Examination. For more details, please see UW Graduate School Policy 4.2.

The Supervisory Committee consists of a minimum of four members, three of whom must be from the Graduate Faculty, including the Chair and the Graduate School Representative (GSR). The Department further requires that at least three members of the committee must be the Graduate Faculty, two of whom must be core Mechanical Engineering faculty.

Core faculty comprises Mechanical Engineering Faculty in all ranks with tenure or tenure-track appointments, and research, emeritus, and joint appointments. Faculty with adjunct and affiliate ranks are not included. The student and faculty advisor nominate the GSR to the committee, who will represent the Graduate School at all examinations and committee meetings. See UW Graduate School Policy 4.2.

The GSR must be from outside the student's department and must hold no joint appointments in the student's program or with the Supervisory Committee Chair. It is very important that the student contact the GSR as soon as possible after the appointment to acquaint him or her with the work in progress.

To request formation of this committee, the student composes an email to the ME Graduate Academic Adviser and identifies the Supervisory Committee Chair (or Co-Chairs) and the remaining committee members. In addition, the student should identify the department or company each member represents as well as their email addresses. Prior to sending this email, the student must have contacted each of the proposed members and secured their consent to serve on the Committee.