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Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering

Graduating with Honors

Latin Honors are a recognition of superior achievement as you complete your degrees with the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. This site documents some of the steps and associated policies to help satisfy the requirements for this prestigious acknowledgement.

Step 1. Acknowledge requirements.

Eligibility

The awarding of Latin Honors depends on a mix of curricular and extra-curricular requirements. The curricular requirements are based on the GPA for courses starting the term after the student reaches 60 total hours; conversely, the extra-curricular requirements are writing and defending an Honors Thesis. Students will receive only the single highest Latin Honor for which they qualify.

  • Cum Laude: at least 3.3 GPA in upper-division courses
  • Magna Cum Laude: at least 3.5 GPA in upper-division courses and completion of Honors Thesis
  • Summa Cum Laude: at least 3.8 GPA in upper-division courses and completion of Honors Thesis

Deadlines

Forms must be submitted via email to advising@mae.uf.edu by these deadlines. To be fair to all students, deadlines are strictly enforced so late submittals will not be accepted.

The undergraduate advising office will route these forms to the Department Chair for approval signature. Students should not submit any forms nor requests directly to the Department Chair but instead submit to advising@mae.ufl.edu.

Degree

The Latin Honor is associated with a single degree. A dual-major student will need to select which degree will receive the Latin Honor.

Step 2. Choose a project (if doing an Honors Thesis).

  • Find an advisor to serve as Chair of your committee. This advisor must be a faculty with an official appointment associated with the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. A list of eligible faculty is found at https://mae.ufl.edu/people/faculty for anyone under the categories of Primary or Adjunct or Affiliate.
  • Choose a topic that will be the subject of your Thesis. Some students will have an idea of a topic that interests them; however, some students will work with their advisor to identify a project. An important consideration will be access to resources if software and experimental facilities are required so discuss all these aspects with your advisor to scope a project that is reasonable.
    A few issues must be satisfied when choosing a topic.
    • The project must be relevant to the major. The Honor is associated with the degree so the Thesis must align with that degree. The definitions of mechanical engineering and aerospace engineering allow for wide variability but the underlying foundation must have a logical asso­ciation for the degree. Some common checks could be, but are not limited to, asking if the project aligns with courses taught in this department or if the project aligns with tasks for which employers traditionally hire a mechanical engineer or aerospace engineer.
    • The workload should be comparable to a 1-credit course for an advanced student at the senior level for one semester. The resulting baseline would be 3 hours per week for 13 weeks for a total effort of approximately 39 hours. The actual effort will vary for each student but this baseline is meant as a rough estimate of the level of expectation.
    • The Thesis is a research project to explore a concept or design a system. This project must clearly utilize engineering principles and demonstrate an ability to apply knowledge from the curriculum. Doing tasks like organizing data or documenting procedures or creating content are valuable; however, they are not suitable for an Honors Thesis unless some research component drives those tasks.
    • The Thesis is an extra-curricular component of the Honors recognition. As such, it must constitute effort that is separate and distinct from assessments being simultaneously used in coursework including EAS4700, EAS4710, EML4501, EML4502 and EML4914.
      • The project can not be an extension of an assessment being used as part of a course being taken for non-zero hours of credit that is taken during the same semester during which the Honors Thesis will be submitted.
      • The project can be an extension of an assessment for any course that was taken previous to the semester during which the Honors Thesis will be submitted. In this case, the student will need to provide the committee with that previous assessment and clearly delineate the new material associated with the Honors Thesis.
    • The Undergraduate Coordinator will be the arbiter for conflicts related to suitability.
  • Select a committee of 3 people. This committee will consist of the advisor and Undergraduate Coordinator along with a third Member chosen by the student. Note the form allows for optional inclusion of a fourth member but only 3 are required.
    1. Chair: The Chair is the project advisor who must be affiliated with MAE as Primary, Affiliated, Adjunct faculty
    2. Member: The Member can be affiliated with any department or office within UF as a faculty, instructor, postdoc, engineer, scientist or director.
    3. Undergraduate Coordinator (External Member): The Undergraduate Coordinator from MAE will be included on each committee to serve as the External Member to ensure compliance and uniformity in standards across the department.

Step 3. Document the project (must have both written/oral component).

The student must write an Honors Thesis for this project.

  • The Honors Thesis must have a structure that is appropriate for a research project. The foundational element is the description of a clear set of objectives for the concept to be explored or system to be designed such that the remaining material supports the efficacy of the research toward meeting those objectives. Some variations in the structure are expected given the wide range of potential projects but the Honors Thesis is expected to roughly adhere to a structure with traditional elements.
    • Introduction/identification of problem
    • Literature search
    • Objectives for concept/design
    • Approach/methodology
    • Supporting results
    • Discussion
    • Appendix (optional for data,plots,content,deliverables)
  • The format must be reflective of an industry standard that is appropriate for the field of study. Some general requirements include font no larger than 12-point and margins no larger than 1-inch. Some styles can serve as examples.
  • The Honors Thesis should have at least 10 pages of material that is mostly text with, if appropriate, equations along with some data and/or figures. Extensive sets of data tables or ensembles of plots will not count toward satisfying this pagination expectation. Any cover page or table of contents will not count towards this pagination expectation.

The student must defend the Honors Thesis through an oral presentation to the Chair and Member of the committee. This presentation should be at least 15 minutes with the standard being 20-25 minutes.

Step 4. Submit your Honors Thesis.

  • An electronic pdf-version of the Honors Thesis must be uploaded onto a Canvas course site (final details will be announced) which will then process it through Turn-It-In. The file must be uploaded by 5 pm on the last day of classes.
  • The Honors Thesis has the option, but not requirement, to be archived and publicly available on the Undergraduate Students Works site through the UF library. If desired, the student must follow the Library Permission Form.

(This version supersedes any information prior to August 15, 2026)