What is materials science and engineering? Learn about the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University and hear directly from students in the program.
Kaleigh Curtis:
There's so many different things you can do with materials, you can go into technology or oil or even like computer related things. It's just so interesting all the different things you can do with it. And the way the way the department is set up is, it's a really great combination of the actual science of materials and the actual engineering of materials. So you can really try to understand the why of what's happening, and also the applications of everything. Some of the grand challenges of engineering today are things like a battery development, and that's a materials problem. No matter what type of field you want to go into, no matter what you're interested in. There's always a materials person that needs to be there, everyone needs a material scientist. So probably that is what inspires me, just everything that you can do with it, and how everyone needs us. That's really what interested me was just all the opportunities that I had with it, and how it kind of took parts of everything that I liked physics and math and chemistry an put them in one major Howdy, my name is Kaleigh Curtis and I'm a member of the material science and engineering department at Texas A&M University.
Laura Simmons:
Material science and engineering involves examining how the microstructure of the material can be changed to influence the strength, electrical conductivity, optical or magnetic properties of material. This field is inherently multidisciplinary encompassing mechanical, chemical, biomedical, civil, electrical and aerospace engineering, as well as physics and chemistry. Many of today's most pressing scientific problems stemmed from the limitations of materials currently available, and this department is at the forefront of new knowledge and discovery at Texas A&M University. Our graduates are well equipped and ready to enter industry upon graduation with a median annual wage of $95,640 in 2020, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the department includes faculty members from several disciplines including aerospace engineering, biology, biomedical engineering, chemical engineering, chemistry, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, nuclear engineering, and physics.
Chinwendu Akuechiama:
Howdy everyone. My name is Chinwe Akuechiama, and I'm a member of the material science and engineering department at Texas A&M University. I knew that I really wanted to branch out and when I went to the departmental informational for material science and engineering, it gave me that option. So I was able to, you know, do as many things as I wanted to. I just found out that it really matched my, my needs and wants. And it was just an overall great department. It's very small. So I was able to connect with the advisors and all the teachers there. The way I look at it is that I can always convince myself that something has a material and like you can convince others, you know, someone needs a material science and engineer, s people can just convince t emselves like, oh, yeah, this i n't material so there must be a aterial science engineer that wa behind all of this. So wh t's fascinating is that it's a rowing field and a lot of pe ple need it. And people al ays want material science en ineers just to get their own ba kground knowledge about you kn w, what needs to be fixed or wh t needs to be improved.
Laura Simmons:
Learn more about the material science and engineering department by visiting engineering.tamu.edu/materials