An Inside Look on Engineering - Materials Engineering

My name is Mariah Smith and I am a senior in Materials Engineering here at Purdue University. Materials Engineering focuses on developing and improving materials based on their properties, processing, and structure. This can be done either in the lab or out on the factory floor. Materials Engineers are responsible for making materials stronger, lighter, more fire resistant, biodegradable, and much more. With a degree in Materials Engineering, your career options are wide open!

The School of Materials Engineering (MSE) at Purdue provides a mixture of both hands on

and conceptual courses. Classes and labs are split between the core material groups of metals, ceramics, and polymers. Topics on the different materials include processing, characterization, structures, defects, and failure analysis. Once you get into your junior year, you can pick and choose from various courses, allowing you to specialize or broaden your degree. Examples of these course are Materials for Biomedical Devices, Casting, Steel and Aluminum Production, or Soft Materials. Students can also take MSE 499 which is a research course allowing you to do undergraduate research under a professor for course credit. MSE also provides many opportunities for studying abroad! Students can study for an entire semester in either London, England or Sydney, Australia.

The professors and staff of the MSE program are incredibly friendly and personable – they make a point to learn your name. I always feel comfortable walking into a professor’s office to asks questions or get help. The professors, as well as fellow students, foster a collaborative environment where everyone knows each other and work well together on homeworks, projects, and studying for exams.

When I started out in MSE, I thought I wanted to focus on either polymers or ceramics. With polymers, I wanted to produce more biodegradable plastics. With ceramics, I wanted to look into armor. My TA for my introduction MSE class introduced herself by also stating what her research was 3D printing of Ceramic Gels for potential armor applications. I met with her and her professor after class and got signed on for a MSE 499 credit doing research for them. I did lab work and research for Professor Trice’s Ceramic Gel applications both semesters of sophomore year. The summer after sophomore year, I participated in a MSE study abroad to France and Spain. It was a 3 credit course for Materials in Biomedical Devices and was an absolute blast! Junior year, I realized that I wanted to focus on metals from the two different lab classes MSE students take their junior year. The first lab is about different characterizing techniques for the various materials and the second lab is about the processing and manufacturing of the different materials. I started taking technical electives such as Steel and Aluminum Production and Deformation Processing to learn more about metallurgy. The summer between my junior year and senior year, I had an internship with Nucor Steel as a Metallurgist Intern. I accepted a full time job with Nucor Steel as a Metallurgist for their Charleston, South Carolina division shortly after the summer internship ended. The start of senior year I was put on a senior design project for Intel.

After everything I have done here at Purdue, I am extremely thankful and grateful for the MSE department for the opportunities I was given and the knowledge I have gained. If you want to learn more about MSE, contact our Academic Advisor Vicki Cline at vicline@purdue.edu or visit our website at https://engineering.purdue.edu/MSE.