Tracks

Faculty Advisors: Michel Barsoum, Surya Kalidindi, Wei Shih, and Antonios Zavaliangos

The role of the materials engineer in the design and processing of today’s highly sophisticated products is varied, complex, exciting and ever-changing. The selection of materials and their processing, product design, cost, environmental and societal impact, performance and service have become inseparable. New, advanced materials development is now a key enabling factor in major parts of the economy. Innovation, short time to market, and concurrent engineering are the keys to successful design and manufacturing activities. This track contains specialization courses spanning several disciplines, including business, mechanical engineering and engineering management. The goal of this track is to prepare students to become leaders in design and manufacturing who will be technically competent and aware of business/management principles.

Faculty Advisors: Michelle Marcolongo and Ulrike Wegst

Biomaterials are the enabling materials for medical devices and a broad range of health care products. Studying biomaterials provides an understanding of how the body’s natural tissues are organized on a compositional, structural and properties basis; and of how the body deals with foreign objects placed in its realm; and an understanding of how implanted materials have been successful in achieving the ultimate goal of treating debilitating diseases. Building on a strong background in materials science and engineering in general and a specific knowledge in applying the fundamentals of materials science and engineering to the design and manufacturing of medical products, the goal of this track is to prepare engineers for a career in the medical industry and for graduate studies in biomedical engineering or related fields.

Faculty Advisor: Jonathan Spanier

The list of materials used in electronics and photonics applications transcends the diverse materials classes of ceramics, metals and polymers. We now live in an age in which electronic and/or photonic devices can be made mostly or even completely from polymeric films. New technologies in electronics and photonics will rely increasingly on understanding how inorganic and organic materials are interfaced and integrated. Graduating materials scientists and engineers will need a broader perspective on the possibilities of materials: for example, photonic functions based on hierarchal organization from nature may provide low-cost, environmentally friendly solutions to a range of sensing and device needs. Also, how might inorganic nanostructures produced by bottom-up synthesis methods bring electronics and photonics to new materials platforms?

This interdisciplinary materials science and engineering track is designed to prepare MSE majors for careers in the electronics or photonics industry, for graduate research programs in electronic and/or photonic materials in electrical engineering, materials science, physics, chemistry and other disciplines. It has been conceived to help prepare MSE students for what they will need to successfully compete for and excel in choice Co-op positions in companies such as Micron, Intel, IBM and others, small companies, and national laboratories.

The track combines new lecture courses in Materials Engineering, selected courses in electrical and computer engineering, physics, chemistry and mechanical engineering, along with an undergraduate research laboratory experience with a selected faculty member.

Faculty Advisor: Yury Gogotsi

Students who select this track will learn how to develop knowledge and techniques working at the molecular level, creating new materials, structures and devices with fundamentally new properties and functions. Nanotechnology literally means any technology carried out at a size scale of 100 nm or below - in other words, manipulating individual atoms, clusters of atoms or molecules to build materials or devices that are as small as only a handful of atoms. Nanotechnology can produce "smart" materials exhibiting a variety of properties and functions; a new generation of medical devices and drug delivery systems; atomic-scale computer chips and memory for next-generation computers thousands of times more powerful than those based on today’s silicon technology. These will help to solve some of the energy and environmental problems that our civilization is facing. Nanoscale particles and devices have already become industrially viable and are quickly penetrating into daily life. It is hard to think of an industry that isn't likely to be impacted by nanotechnology within the next decade. Graduating materials scientists and materials engineers will need a broader perspective of materials use at the nanoscale.

This interdisciplinary materials science and engineering track will provide a foundation for nanoscience and nanotechnology and is designed to prepare MSE majors for future interdisciplinary careers, or for graduate studies in materials science, nanotechnology, bioengineering and other disciplines.

Faculty Advisors: Christopher Li and Caroline Schauer

"Soft Matter" refers to organic materials having complex structural and dynamic properties intermediate between those of crystals and fluids. Materials belonging to this category include polymers, liquid crystals, colloids, gels and foams. Biomacromolecules such as polypeptides and DNA are examples of "soft" materials. Due to the relatively weak inter-molecular interaction, thermal fluctuations, external fields and boundary effects strongly influence the structure and properties of soft matter.

This interdisciplinary materials science and engineering track is designed to prepare MSE majors for careers in Soft materials related industry such as polymers, cosmetics, liquid crystal devices and displays, biomaterials as well as for graduate research programs such as materials science, bioengineering, chemical engineering, electric engineering, physics and chemistry. While all the soft materials will be covered during the course of the study, the track will be focusing on polymeric materials. It has been conceived to help prepare MSE students for what they will need to compete successfully for and excel in choice Co-op positions in companies such as DuPont, Arkema, Rohm & Haas, Merck, etc.

The track combines new lecture courses in Materials, selected courses in chemical engineering, chemistry and mechanical engineering, along with an undergraduate research laboratory experience with one of a selected faculty member. The one-credit undergraduate research laboratory experience course (E&O Laboratory Rotations) is intended to facilitate the formal pairing of a student with a faculty advisor for the MSE student’s senior design or MS thesis in advance of the student’s senior year.

In addition to the tracks noted above, any reasonably cohesive group of four technical electives can be approved as a track by a faculty advisor.