M.S. Plan I students must complete 45 credits of graduate or upper-division undergraduate course work, of which at least 30 credits must be graduate level credits. Students must complete at least one course from three of the five areas of Materials Science and Engineering: (1) Quantum and Thermodynamic Foundations of Materials, (2) Condensed Matter and Structure, (3) Materials Characterization Techniques, (4) Functional Materials , and (5) Materials Synthesis and Processing. Students must also take MSE 200, Introduction to Materials Science and Engineering, at least once and MSE 280, Colloquium in Materials Science and Engineering, at least five times.
Students must enroll in MSE 200 the first time it is offered during their residency. At least one enrollment in MSE 280 must be taken for a letter grade. A letter grade in this course entails giving one of the colloquia. The course of study needs to be approved each quarter by the research adviser (who will supervise the research project) and the MSE graduate adviser.
The thesis research project, along with the Area 3, 4, and 5 courses, will provide significant practical professional development for students because the techniques used are widely used in industry. The expected time to degree is six quarters (two years).
The M.S. Plan I degree is open to students enrolled in the Ph.D. program.
M.S. Plan I: Thesis Requirement
Students enrolled in M.S. Plan I will be awarded a master's degree upon completing the above requirements and submitting an approved thesis. Each M.S. student is assigned a faculty adviser who helps design a research plan suited to the student's interests. The thesis may be in any of the research fields in the program, thereby developing laboratory, computational, and/or analytical theory skills that are of value in many areas of materials science and engineering.