Graduate Program Overview
About the Program
Our graduate program focuses on understanding the structure, modification and properties of materials and the development of new or improved processing methods. Consistent with the multi-disciplinary nature of the field, a substantial number of our graduate students majored in fields other than materials science, and the department has a significant number of associated graduate faculty from other departments supervising thesis and dissertation research. It also consistently receives more research support per tenure-track faculty member - currently about $300,000 per year - than any other department on the NCSU campus.
Degree Programs
The Materials Science and Engineering Department offers degree programs leading to non-thesis and thesis Masters degrees and the Doctorate (PhD) degree. MS and PhD candidates undertake thesis research in faculty research programs as an integral part of their degree requirements.
Master of Materials Science and Engineering (MMSE)
Requires 33 total credit hours: 21-24 credit hours will be MSE graduate level courses, 9-12 credit hours will be non-MSE graduate level courses. The MSE graduate level courses must include a minimum of 3 credit hours for an MSE 693 Master’s Supervised Research course taken under the direction of a faculty member. There are no core course requirements and no thesis is submitted. A final oral (non-thesis) exam is required.
Master of Materials Science and Engineering Option B (MMSE Option B)
Requires 30 total credit hours: 18-21 credit hours will be MSE graduate level courses, and 9-12 credit hours will be non-MSE graduate level courses. There are no core course requirements and no final oral exam is required. The Option B program is appropriate for the distance education masters degree.
Master of Science (MS)
Requires 30 total credit hours: 15 credit hours will be from MSE graduate level courses, 9 credit hours will be from non-MSE graduate level courses, and 6 credit hours will be MSE 695 Thesis Research. There are no core course requirements. A final oral thesis defense exam and submission of an approved MS thesis is required.
Doctorate Degree (PhD)
Requires 72 total credit hours: 18 credit hours, exclusive of thesis research credits, can be transferred from an approved and completed master’s degree program (if the master’s program was done at NCSU, up to 36 credit hours completed can be transferred including thesis research credits). The remaining credit hours will be materials science or non-materials science courses and MSE 895 Thesis Research.
Technology, Education and Commercialization Program (TEC)
The TEC program involves teams of engineering and business students who learn to identify and commercialize new technologies. Materials engineering graduate students team with business students from the College of Management to learn about technology transfer and marketability. The team spends 12 months working through four phases of technology transfer - identifying marketable technologies, evaluating the potential products and markets, developing a business plan, and developing a commercialization strategy. For more information on the TEC program, please contact Professor Angus Kingon at angus_kingon@ncsu.edu.