About Materials Science and Engineering

Katie Welch in the Churchill lab at the University of Arkansas

An Interdisciplinary Approach

The Materials Science & Engineering program reports directly to the Graduate School of the University of Arkansas, but closely aligns its policies with both the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Engineering.

Our History Our Approach Our Board Our Academy

Our History

Pre-MSEN

1998

The program is a restructured version of the Microelectronics-Photonics graduate program, originally launched in 1998 by Professor Greg Salamo and Ken Vickers through two NSF-funded initiatives: ACEMI (for the MS degree) and IGERT (for the PhD).

Since it’s beginning in the late 90s, the core concept of emulating an industrial natural work group environment as a way to prepare our students for careers in industry, government labs, or academia still exists, but has evolved to meet the new needs of the modern technology workplace and provide greater career opportunities for its graduates.

Nano Building

2011

With the move into the new Nanoscale Materials Science and Engineering building in 2011 and the ever broadening scope of nanomaterials research beyond microelectronics, an effort was made to reconfigure the program to Materials Science & Engineering.This new name and curriculum will more closely align with the research interests of most of the faculty and students affiliated with the program. As the resident graduate program of the Nanoscale Materials Science and Engineering building, students have access to world-class materials faculty, research labs, and materials characterization equipment.

Graduate Program Approved

2020

The MSEN graduate program was approved for Fall 2020 start by the faculty, administration, and board of trustees of the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, in Fall 2019 and by the Arkansas Board of Higher Education in Spring 2020.

While welcoming the new cohort of MSEN students starting in Fall 2025, the program proudly maintains its lineage of the predecessor Microelectronics-Photonics graduate program from which it originated. To signify commitment to this linkage, the new cohort will be known as 28-6 the 28th for the interdisciplinary program, the 6th for Materials Science & Engineering.

Mission

Program Structure:

The Materials Science & Engineering program is an interdisciplinary graduate program designed to expand a student's knowledge beyond the boundaries of traditional departmental based graduate programs. Students in the program will participate in cross-departmental research, will take applications-intensive classes from multiple engineering and science departments, and will develop workplace productivity skills in a simulated industrial environment.

Outcome:

Upon graduation, students in our program will have a foundational understanding of materials and their properties, processes for producing materials and modifying their properties, creating devices and systems with features enabled by this manipulation of material properties, and an understanding of the economics that affect successful introduction of these devices and systems into industry and society.

Method

Applying to the MS Program:

Students applying for admission to the MS program must have a Bachelor of Science degree in a rigorous science or engineering field, and students must have completed a math sequence through differential equations and a calculus based physics sequence through an introduction to modern physics.

MS students will select from one of six concentration areas of study:

Mechanical & Structural Materials
Nanoscale Materials & Devices
Microelectronic-Photonic Materials & Devices
Energy Materials & Devices
Biological Materials & Devices
Materials Modeling

Industrial Advising Board

Mission

The Industrial Advisory Board (IAB) exists to support and strengthen the microEP Graduate Program through critical review and constructive criticism of the microEP educational techniques, academic courses, and research areas. The microEP program depends on the IAB members to use their industrial backgrounds to bring a non-academic perspective in reviewing the microEP program elements to assure their continued validity in preparing its students for early career success.

History

The microEP graduate program was firmly grounded in industrial perspectives at its inception by the fact that its founding Director, Professor Ken Vickers, had over seventeen years in both engineering management and worldwide team management at Texas Instruments. This strong industrial emphasis was continued when Professor Ron Foster joined the microEP management team as founding Director of the UA Innovation Incubator after twenty years of engineering management experience at Honeywell.

As the microEP Graduate Program approached its fifth year of existence and the graduation of its first PhD microEP student, it seemed the appropriate time to create a formal external advisory committee composed of representatives of the technology-based industry sectors supported by the microEP program. The first meeting of this IAB was held in October of 2002 at the University of Arkansas, with activities both on campus and at the Genesis Center in the Engineering Research Center.

Tactics

The microEP program management team will call an on-campus meeting of the IAB at least on an annual basis, or sooner if program changes initiated by the IAB and/or the microEP faculty group reach the point where review is warranted before further changes are implemented.

Continuing communications with the IAB members will be made via email communications and through internet video conferences and/or teleconferences.

The microEP faculty will review IAB suggested changes for appropriateness in the academic arena, and approved modifications to the microEP program will be implemented through the next program approval cycles in the Colleges of Engineering and Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences.

Advising Board Members

Gene Davis

Texas Instruments

Erica Elvey-Folk

Northrop Grumman

Greg Forcherio

Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC)

Bill Hinshaw

Texas Instruments

Doug Hutchings

Arkansas Research Alliance

Ranjith John

Apple Inc.

Alex Lostetter

Retired

Candita Meek

Qualcomm

Viral Patel

Texas Instruments

Mike Seacrist

GlobalWafers

Arkansas Academy of Microelectronics-Photonics/Materials Science and Engineering

Goals for the Academy:

The MicroEP & MSEN Academy strives to highlight success within our program in a variety of aspects including:

Provide program recognition for career successes of our graduates
Help build a stronger and more lasting university and program relationship with our graduates
Provide our faculty with a network of outside successful contacts for potential collaborative interactions
Be a source of mentors for students for professional growth before and after graduation as well as potential employers and connections to job opportunities
Provide a channel for these successful graduates to give back to the program
Help ensure the legacy of the MicroEP origins as the program transitions to Materials Science and Engineering