Materials Science & Engineering
Materials Science & Engineering Links
- Program Description
- Career Outlook
- Notable Facts
- Admission Requirements
- Scholarships
- Contact Information
Program Description
If you have a love of chemistry and physics but would like to have an engineering degree, Materials Science and Engineering is the perfect degree choice. This is the only discipline in the College of Engineering that still gives students the opportunity to study science while getting an engineering degree. Since virtually everything we use in our daily lives is made of materials, the need for materials scientists and engineers outpaces the ability of schools to graduate students. While working on your MSE degree, students will be taught to design and conduct experiments, characterize materials and properly interrupt data in order to understand materials behavior. You will also learn the structure-processing-properties performance of materials as well as understanding the processing necessary to produce the materials. Students are given the opportunity to have hands-on experiences in labs to hone their research skills.
Materials Scientists and Engineers are continually engaged in developing new materials or upgrading the use of basic materials that will fit in the high technological world we live in. Without this continued effort to redefine and explore materials, our world of computers, cell phones, biomedical implants, aircrafts, energy saving automobiles, just to mention a few, could not exist. Building on past research the future of developing new materials is a challenge and opportunity given to every new materials scientist and engineer. Job placement and starting salaries continue to remain competitive offering professional opportunities to graduating students entering the workplace.
The Materials Science and Engineering Department at the University of Utah is the only Materials Science and Engineering program in the State of Utah. The degree of Materials Science and Engineering provides the student a wide application of materials that cover Biomaterials, Ceramics, Composites/ Polymers and Semiconductors. Materials Scientist and Engineers take these basic materials and through persistent research makes these materials work in this high-technological society for all disciplines of engineering and consumer products such as highperformance snow skis and snow boards, bicycles, alternative fuel sources for automobiles such as solid-oxide fuel cells and solid electrolyte batteries, fiber-optic cables and solar cells. A notable fact: Teams of materials scientist and engineers created the U.S. Air Forces' stealth technology that renders a fighter plane's surface nearly invisible to radar.
Incoming Freshman indicating a MSE major begins their program as a ”Pre-MSE” classification. In order to take courses outside of the Pre-MSE curriculum, students must be approved for Intermediate Status. Intermediate status is obtained by the student after their first year. Students' courses will be evaluated by the Department Academic Program Specialist. Intermediate Status must be obtained before students can register for MSE 2010 (Introduction to Materials & Engineering) or any other upper-division classes. See the Academic Program Specialist for more information.
The Department of Materials Science & Engineering awards several scholarships each academic year thanks to the generous donations from Materials Science & Engineering alumnus. Students interested in applying for scholarship should contact the Department Academic Program Specialist.
Students interested in the Materials Science and Engineering Program can contact:
Ashley Christensen
Academic Program Specialist
ashley.christensen@utah.edu
801.581.6863
The Department of Materials Science is located in the Civil and Materials Engineering Building (CME) 304.
Mailing address is:
122 S. Central Campus Drive #304
Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0560