Materials science and engineering is a multidisciplinary field, which is combined with electronic engineering to derive electronic materials, mechanical to derive structural materials, and biology to derive biomaterials. What are the recommended colleges for materials science majors in the United States?
1. Materials Science Branch
Materials science can be classified in a variety of ways. The research focus of each school is also different, and here are some common sub-disciplines. For specific branches, please refer to the school's official website.
1. Polymer materials
Polymer materials are widely used, such as tires, LCD TVs, and even body armor and space shuttles. It is worth noting that there is also a polymer direction under the chemical engineering major, and students with a chemistry background can also apply for the polymer direction under the materials major with a relevant course background.
2. Metallic materials
Metal materials are the most traditional materials, such as steel materials, amorphous alloys, structural metal materials, and functional metals, and their microstructure has an impact on the mechanical and physical properties of materials, and the proportion of different components in the alloy has an impact on the hardness, toughness, and tensile strength of materials. At present, the research on metal materials is mostly combined with nanomaterials and composite materials.
3. Inorganic non-metallic materials (ceramic materials).
The main research is cement, glass, optical fibers, non-metallic minerals, insulating materials, functional ceramics such as piezoelectric ceramics, ceramic materials are most widely used in inorganic non-metallic materials due to high temperature resistance, wear resistance and high hardness. In recent years, inorganic non-metallic materials have developed rapidly compared with metal materials, especially in ceramics, and the competition is fierce.
4. Computational Materials Science
This is an engineering technology method, which mainly uses computer simulation and molecular dynamics methods to simulate material structure, characteristics, statistical mechanics of complex materials, and macromolecular material theory.
5. Optical, electronic and magnetic materials
His research interests include optics and spectroscopy, liquid crystals, polymer diodes, photocells and photonic crystals, semiconductor materials and devices, magnetic memory, magnetic thin films and magnetic generator devices, and piezoelectric crystals. This direction is the most competitive, and since society is now moving towards microelectronics, the employment prospects are very optimistic.
6. Biomaterials
His research interests include the synthesis of carbon nanotubes and the characteristics of natural materials, the synthesis of inorganic materials, the chemistry of organic and biomaterials, materials processing, material thermodynamics, bioapplied materials, molecular cells and biomechanics, materials mechanics and biomaterials, and materials imaging. In the research process, biomimicry is also combined, such as artificial bones and artificial muscles.
7. Nano Materials
His research interests include quantum mechanics, mechanical properties of materials, nanoscience and engineering, port nanomechanics and nanobiotechnology, nanostructured materials, nanomaterials, and nanomaterial processing. Nanomaterials are also a research direction with a relatively high rate of return, but the employment prospects are not very ideal.
8. Energy materials
His research interests include solar cells, energy storage, economic and environmental material selection, the basis of advanced energy conversion, solid-state components and energy conversion, energy storage of materials, energy and materials policymaking, and materials for future energy systems. The most widely used and most common is solar panels.
9. Composite materials
Composite materials are materials with two or more different properties, through physical or chemical methods, to form materials with new properties on a macroscopic scale. Various materials complement each other in terms of performance, resulting in a synergistic effect, so that the comprehensive performance of composite materials is better than that of the original materials and meets various requirements.
2. Rankings of American universities in materials engineering
1.Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
2.Northwestern University.
2.University of Illinois Urbana Champaign University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
4.University of California Santa Barbara.
5.University of California Berkeley.
6.Stanford University.
6.University of Michigan Ann Arbor, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.
8.Georgia Institute of Technology.
8.Penn State University Park-University Park Campus
10.University of Florida.
Positioning of schools to study in the United States.
Want to know how many ranked colleges and universities in the United States can you apply to with your GPA score? You can try to use the study abroad volunteer reference system (the following applet) to do the study abroad positioning.
How to use: Enter your basic information (GPA, IELTS score, major, college background, etc.) into the study abroad volunteer reference system, and the system will automatically match the cases of classmates with similar situations to you from the database, and see which universities they have successfully applied to in the United States, so that you can accurately locate yourself.