Materials Science and Engineering Program
Student Affairs: Engineering Building 2, Room 169, Warren College
World Wide Web: http://matsci.ucsd.edu
Professors
Courses
Materials Science and Engineering Program is concerned with the
study of the structure and properties of materials. The Materials
Science and Engineering Program at UCSD aims to provide fundamental
knowledge for quantitative understanding of materials with the objective
of predicting, modifying, and tailoring the properties of materials
to yield, at the technology level, enhanced material performance.
The foundations of materials science are the basic sciences of physics,
chemistry, and mathematics. The great variety of materials response,
at the optical, magnetic, electrical, mechanical, and chemical levels,
requires a solid scientific foundation and breadth of basic knowledge
from the materials scientists. The interdisciplinary nature of the
program at UCSD is ideally suited to address this requirement. The
graduate of the Materials Science and Engineering Program benefits
from unique research facilities existing at UCSD. These include
the resources in the Departments of MAE, SE, ECE, Physics, Chemistry/Biochemistry,
Bioengineering, and SIO, as well as in the Center of Excellence
for Advanced Materials and the Center for Magnetic Recording Research.
Of particular emphasis within the program is the experimental investigation
and theoretical modeling of the mechanical response and failure
models of advanced materials at ultrahigh strain rates; electronic,
superconducting, magnetic, and optical properties of materials for
advanced applications; biomaterials; and advanced composite materials
for civil structures.
The Graduate Program
The Materials Science and Engineering Program is interdisciplinary,
with participation of faculty members from several departments.
Faculty from the following departments participate in the Materials
Science and Engineering Graduate Program: the Departments of Mechanical
and Aerospace Engineering (MAE), Structural Engineering (SE), Bioengineering,
Physics, Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO), Electrical and
Computer Engineering (ECE), and Chemistry. The governance of the
program is carried out by the executive committee of the program.
The executive committee coordinates all affairs of the Materials
Science and Engineering Program, including student admissions, degree
requirements, graduate courses in materials science given by various
participating departments, maintenance of laboratory instructional
facilities, seminars, special courses, part-time instructors, and
related matters.
Undergraduate preparation for the materials science and engineering
M.S. and Ph.D. normally would include a degree in materials science
and in engineering or physical sciences, such as physics, chemistry,
geology, and related disciplines. Students are expected to have
an adequate mathematics, physics, chemistry, and related basic sciences
background.
Masters Degree Program
The program offers the M.S. degree in materials science and engineering
under both the Thesis Plan I and the Comprehensive Examination Plan
II; see Graduate Studies: Masters Degree. The
requirements for the M.S. degree are as follows:
- All students must complete a total of thirty-six units.
- All students must complete four Mandatory Core Courses and
at least two of the six Elective Core Courses:
Mandatory Core Courses
MS 201A-B-C, MS 227
Elective Core Courses (required to select at least two to fulfill requirements
MS 205A, MS 251A–B, MS 252, MS 253, PHYS 152A
(Physics 211A can replace 152A with adviser’s permission.) See “Courses” for
description.
- Students may include up to twelve units of undergraduate courses.
These include the one undergraduate core course, Physics 152A.
- Enroll in MATS200, as required. See Courses for
descriptions.
- Remaining courses to complete the thirty-six unit requirement
for the MS degree may be selected from an approved list of graduate
courses with the consent of a faculty adviser.
- Students either complete a thesis (Plan I) or pass a comprehensive
examination (Plan II) as described in the Graduate Studies
section of this catalog.
- Students must meet all other requirements established by the
university.
Students who transfer with some graduate credit or an M.S. from
another institution will have their records reviewed by a faculty
adviser, and an appropriate individual course of study may be approved.
The Ph.D. Program
After completing the M.S. degree (or meeting equivalent requirements)
and meeting the minimum standard on the comprehensive examination
to be admitted to or continue in the Ph.D. program, a student must:
- Meet all the universitys residency and other requirements.
- Successfully complete three advanced graduate courses (in addition
to those required for the M.S. degree) which have been approved
by the students potential dissertation adviser.
- Enroll in MATS200, as required. See Courses for
descriptions.
- Pass the Literature Review Examination. This requirement must
be successfully completed within one year after passing the Comprehensive
Examination.
- Pass the Ph.D. Qualifying Examination (Senate Exam) to be advanced
to Ph.D. candidacy.
- Successfully complete and defend a dissertation which, in the
opinion of the dissertation committee, contains original work
that should lead to publication of at least one significant article
in an appropriate refereed journal.
In principle, it should be possible to finish the M.S. degree in
three quarters, and a Ph.D. in an additional three years. Ph.D.
time limits are as follows: Pre-candidacyfour years; Support
limitsix years; Total time limitseven years; Normative
time limit for a properly prepared B.S. studentfive years.
(See Graduate Studies Ph.D. Time Limits for further
explanation.)
Departmental Examination
The Comprehensive Examination
The examination will consist of twelve questions, two from each
of the six core courses. A passing grade is 60 percent for the Masters
degree, and 70 percent for the Ph.D. The examination will not exceed
six hours in duration. The examination is usually administered the
second week in January, and a week after spring quarter finals week
in June. Typically, students take the exam after one year of full-time
enrollment. This exam may only be retaken once before the end of
the second year of study.
The Literature Review Examination
The Literature Review Examination tests the students ability
to prepare and present a comprehensive overview of a topic based
on existing journal literature. It should be a comprehensive discussion
of the literature, scientific theory, problems or theoretical deficiencies,
and possible areas of research in some area of materials science
and engineering. The topic may be in the general area in which the
student plans to pursue his or her thesis research, or it may be
in an unrelated field. The topic must be approved by the three faculty
member committee in advance of the seminar. The Literature Review
Examination is not to be a discussion of the students research
project or their research proposal. A presentation which includes
the students own work which has not been published will constitute
a no pass grade. This exam must occur within one year of the student
having passed the Comprehensive Examination.
Materials Science and Engineering Program
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