Materials Science and
Engineering Program

[ Professors] [ Courses]

Student Affairs: Engineering Building 2, Room 170, Warren College

http://matsci.ucsd.edu

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.

Master’s 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: Master’s Degree.” The requirements for the M.S. degree are as follows:

  1. All students must complete a total of thirty-six units.
  2. 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 advisor’s permission.) See “Courses” for description.
  3. Students may include up to twelve units of undergraduate courses. These include the one undergraduate core course, Physics 152A.
  4. Enroll in MATS200, as required. See “Courses” for descriptions.
  5. 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 advisor.
  6. Students either complete a thesis (Plan I) or pass a comprehensive examination (Plan II) as described in the “Graduate Studies” section of this catalog.
  7. 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 advisor, 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:

  1. Meet all the university’s residency and other requirements.
  2. Successfully complete three advanced graduate courses (in addition to those required for the M.S. degree) which have been approved by the student’s potential dissertation advisor.
  3. Enroll in MATS200, as required. See “Courses” for descriptions.
  4. Pass the Literature Review Examination. This requirement must be successfully completed within one year after passing the Comprehensive Examination.
  5. Pass the Ph.D. Qualifying Examination (Senate Exam) to be advanced to Ph.D. candidacy.
  6. 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-candidacy—four years; Support limit—six years; Total time limit—seven years; Normative time limit for a properly prepared B.S. student—five 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 Master’s 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 student’s 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 student’s research project or their research proposal. A presentation which includes the student’s 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.