Materials Engineering - FAQ

Materials engineers perform the following tasks:

• Processing materials (metals, alloys, ceramics, polymers, composites, nanomaterials, electronics)
• Examining their behavior
• Characterizing their structures
• Improving their performance
• Modifying their behavior
• Predicting their properties

The role of materials engineer in treating materials is similar to that of a doctor (Physician, Dentist, Psychiatrist) in treating people. This similarity is illustrated in this diagram.

• Materials have been so intimately related to the emergence of human culture and civilization that early cultures were identified by the name of the significant materials dominating those cultures. These include the stone, bronze, and iron ages of the past.
• Future technology, new advances, and novel products are driven by research and development in materials.
• Materials are crucial to national defense, the quality of life, and the security of the nation.
• Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) has become an indispensable component of modern engineering education

There is an increased level of sophistication required of engineering materials in a rapidly changing technological society and the selection of materials has increasingly become an integral part of almost every modern engineering design.

• Over the next 30 years, MSE will be one of the following four areas, which will dominate research, advances and development in Information Technology, Materials Technology, Genetic Technology, Energy Technology. Where
  design used to be purely mechanical, at present, the selection of materials has become an integral part of almost every modern engineering design.
  

• MSE is an interdisciplinary field. It has intimate relations to other engineering disciplines
  (e.g. AE, ChE, CE, EE, CE, EnvE, and ME)in terms of processing, selection, and performance.
  

• Because of the interdisciplinary nature of MSE and its intimate relations with other engineering disciplines,
  a student will be able to satisfy the degree requirements of two majors in a straightforward manner.
  
  
• Graduate with both MSE and another engineering major (AE, ChE, ME, EE, CE, BME) will have stability, flexibility, security, and adaptability in their professional careers.
  
  
• As a result of the exposure to a second engineering discipline, you will have the knowledge, the training, and the skills to participate in projects or programs of an interdisciplinary nature (in industry, national labs. or universities).

• Prepare you for graduate study if you wish to continue your education.
• Help you advance your career in a focused field.

As anUndergraduate student in the MSE program at UCI, you will have the unique opportunity of working on exciting research projects that distinguished faculty members oversee and that are funded by federal agencies.

Your participation in research will:

• Provide you with hand-on experience
  
• Train you for teamwork
  
• Develop your ability to think and create
  
• Improve you ability to write technical reports.
  
• Prepare you for graduate study if you wish to continue your education and advance your career.

• Many aerospace, manufacturing, ceramics, composite, biomedical, and electronic industries are located in Orange County and Southern California. Considerable activities in these industries are related to materials and their efficient production and use. Some examples include the design of semi-conductors and optoelectronic devices, development of new technologies based on composites and high temperatures superconductivity, microelectronic-mechanical systems (MMS), nanotechnology, biomedical products, performance (quality, reliability, safety, energy efficiency, etc.) in automobile and aircraft components, improvement in nondestructive testing techniques, corrosion behavior in refineries, radiation damage in nuclear power plants, and fabrication of advanced materials.
  
  
• National laboratories, such as Livermore more national lab focus on research and development in materials
  
  
• During the past two decades, Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) has become an indispensable component of modern engineering education; partly because of the increased level of sophistication required of engineering materials in a rapidly changing technological society; and partly because the selection of materials has increasingly become an integral part of almost every modern engineering design.
  
  
• Very recently, a number of distinguished scholars have expressed the view that during the 21st century, MSE will become an integral part of the curricula of all engineering disciplines. In particular, several analysts have predicted that over the next 30-40 years, the following four areas will dominate research, advances, and development: Information Technology, Materials Technology, Genetic Technology, and Energy Technology.