Materials Science & Engineering Program
Welcome you to the Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) Program. This site is designed to provide you with information on the attractive opportunities in the field of MSE and our exciting programs in this field.
MSE is concerned with the generation and application of knowledge relating the composition, structure and synthesis of materials. Since the beginning of history, materials have played a crucial role in the growth, prosperity, security, and quality of human life. Over the next decade, the services of engineering students graduating with a degree in MSE are needed to:
- Solve many technical problems facing society
- Improve the design and development of modern devices, structural products and aerospace vehicles
- Increase the efficiency of energy utilization
- Achieve major breakthroughs in future technologies, such as those associated with telecommunications, medicine, nanostructures and smart materials
Undergraduate Study
The Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science (ChEMS) at UCI offers an MSE undergraduate major that provides students with a thorough knowledge of basic engineering and scientific principles of materials. This knowledge leads to fundamental understanding of the synergism between the four basic elements of the field (structure, properties, processing, and performance of all materials). The curriculum is interdisciplinary in nature, allowing qualified students to combine the engineering major (AE, BME, CEE, ChE, EECS, EnvE, and MAE) with the MSE major. Students may specialize in one of the following three areas: biomedical engineering, environmental engineering or electronic materials. By judiciously selecting courses in biology and biomedical engineering as electives in the MSE curriculum, students can develop a pre-med program. Students are also given the opportunity to conduct independent work and participate in research projects.
Graduate Study
The ChEMS Department offers a degree program that leads to Ph.D. or M.S. degree in MSE. The MSE graduate degree program is fundamental in scope, focuses more on the understanding and modification of structural material properties, and explores ways of tailoring materials to meet specified design goals. Our research is supported by federal funding agencies and industry.
There is also a concentration offered in materials and manufacturing technology (note: listed in 2006-07 catalog as “Interdisciplinary Concentration in Materials Science and Engineering”).
The materials faculty have special interests and expertise in the processing, behavior and characterization of structural materials, including novel alloys, composite materials, ceramics, polymers, electronic materials, nanostructured materials and biomaterials.
The MSE program has received national and international recognition. The materials research activity at UCI is ranked sixth in the world for citation impact, according to Science Watch. Materials faculty in the ChEMS Department also were ranked fourth and fifth nationally on the basis of citations published in 1993-97 and 1995-99, respectively.
Finally, we take pride in the fact that MSE is a growing academic program in the HSSoE at UCI, which is a world-class research institution that was recently ranked one of the nation's top ten public universities by U.S. News and World Report.
