Materials Science and Engineering

The mission of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering is to provide a well-rounded education in materials science and engineering to meet the needs of industry, academia and government; to give definition to the expanding discipline; to conduct frontier research; and to provide leadership in the cross-disciplinary materials community. The role of our undergraduate program is defined by the objectives and outcomes listed below.

Undergraduate Program Objectives

The objectives of our undergraduate program are stated as attributes that program graduates are expected to possess. These attributes can be divided into two categories, based on the needs of our student and employer constituencies: analysis/knowledge needs and synthesis evaluation needs.

Analysis/knowledge needs

These needs motivate the science core of our program, and include the following educational objectives:

• A mechanistic perspective to problem solving, using scientific knowledge of dynamic multilevel microstructure rather than superficial empiricism.
• Familiarity with modern tools that enable the application of scientific methods to problem solving.

Synthesis/evaluation needs.

These motivate the engineering core of our undergraduate program, and include the following educatonal objectives:

• A systems perspective, providing the philosophical foundations to address realistic complexity.
• Design integration skills to synthesize theory and experiment for design of materials and processes while in the team setting of modern engineering.

Undergraduate Program Outcomes

The MSE undergraduate program is designed to provide students with the following knowledge base and set of abilities.

1. Knowledge of sound fundamentals of dynamic multilevel microstructure.
2. The ability to apply mathematics and science to engineering problems.
3. The ability to perform mechanistic modeling.
4. Knowledge of computational materials science.
5. Knowledge of basic and advanced instrumentation for the characterization of structure and properties.
6. Knowledge of basic and advanced processing practice.
7. The ability to identify and formulate complex problems.
8. An understanding of how user needs define materials performance requirements.
9. An understanding of the global/societal context of engineering problems.
10. Knowledge of professional ethics issues.
11. Knowledge of the dynamic nature of all structure, including materials and the systems and environments they serve, requiring knowledge of contemporary issues and the need for lifelong learning.
12. The ability to perform theoretical, conceptual and computational design approaches.
13. The ability to perform experimental optimization employing statistical design of experiments techniques.
14. The ability to apply the theoretical and experimental design techniques to both materials and processes.
15. The ability to function effectively in cross-functional teamwork, both within the materials discipline and from a multidisciplinary perspective.
16. The ability to communicate effectively in written, spoken and graphical form.