Focus Area
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The Focus Area will allow you to specialize in a specific subfield of MatSci that is aligned with your personal and professional goals. You should choose one of the areas below, or define your own, that combines a set of advanced coursework into a cohesive program. We provide several examples as suggested pathways, but ultimately we encourage you to choose/define the area that feels best to you.
The Focus Area requires 3 courses total with a minimum of 9 units*. At least one of these courses must be in MATSCI and none of them can be 1-unit seminars. Students in the Honors Program may count up to six units of MATSCI 150 toward the Focus Area, but cannot use those units to replace the MATSCI course minimum.
Focus Area Options
- Biological Properties of Materials
- Chemical Properties of Materials
- Computational Materials Science
- Electronic and Photonic Properties of Materials
- Materials Characterization
- Materials for Energy Technology
- Materials Physics
- Mechanical Behavior and Materials Processing
- Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology
Biological Properties of Materials [Back to Top] | ||
| CHEM 31A and B or CHEM 31M recommended. | ||
| Students pursuing this focus area will learn more about biocompatible, biomimetic, or even naturally occurring biological materials, along with how they can be engineered or otherwise created. | ||
| MATSCI 190: Organic and Biological Materials | ||
| MATSCI 225: Biochips and Medical Imaging | ||
| MATSCI 380: Nano-Biotechnology | ||
| MATSCI 381: Biomaterials in Regenerative Medicine | ||
| MATSCI 384: Materials Advances in Neurotechnology | ||
| MATSCI 385: Biomaterials for Drug Delivery | ||
| BIOE 80: Introduction to Bioengineering | ||
| BIOE 220: Introduction to Imaging and Image-based Human Anatomy | ||
| BIOE 231: Protein Engineering | ||
| BIOE 260: Tissue Engineering | ||
| BIOE 279: Computational Biology: Structure and Organization of Biomolecules and Cells | ||
| BIOE 281: Biomechanics of Movement | ||
| BIOE 282: Introduction to Biomechanics and Mechanobiology | ||
| ENGR 55: Foundational Biology for Engineers | ||
| Chemical Properties of Materials [Back to Top] | ||
| CHEM 31A and B or CHEM 31M recommended | ||
| Students pursuing this focus area will learn about the thermodynamic principles governing materials, the chemistry involved in the synthesis of materials, as well as the design of the systems and processes necessary to create them. | ||
| MATSCI 181: Thermodynamics and Phase Equilibria | ||
| MATSCI 182: Rate Processes in Materials | ||
| MATSCI 310: Statistical Mechanics for Materials & Materials Chemistry | ||
| CHEM 126: Synthesis Laboratory | ||
| CHEM 171: Foundations of Physical Chemistry | ||
| CHEM 173: Physical Chemistry II | ||
| CHEM 175: Physical Chemistry III | ||
| CHEMENG 110B: Multi-Component and Multi-Phase Thermodynamics | ||
| CHEMENG 120B: Energy and Mass Transport | ||
| CHEMENG 130A: Microkinetics – Molecular Principles of Chemical Kinetics | ||
| CHEMENG 140/X: Micro and Nanoscale Fabrication Engineering | ||
| CHEMENG 150: Biochemical Engineering | ||
| CHEMENG 174: Environmental Microbiology I | ||
| CHEMENG 175X: Electrochemical Water Treatment: Materials and Processes | ||
| Computational Materials Science [Back to Top] | ||
| PHYSICS 41, 43, and 45 recommended | ||
| Students pursuing this focus area will learn more about computational methods used to study materials structure-property relationships and how to make materials predictions. | ||
| MATSCI 165: Nanoscale Materials Physics Computation Laboratory | ||
| MATSCI 166: Data Science and Machine Learning Approaches in Chemical and Materials Engineering | ||
| MATSCI 331: Computational Materials Science at the Atomic Scale | ||
| CHEM 161: Computational Chemistry | ||
| CHEM 263: Machine Learning for Chemical and Dynamical Data | ||
| CME 107: Introduction to Machine Learning | ||
| CME 108: Introduction to Scientific Computing | ||
| CME 216: Machine Learning for Computational Engineering | ||
| CME 322: Spectral Methods in Computational Physics | ||
| ENERGY 160: Uncertainty Quantification in Data-Centric Simulations | ||
| ME 123: Computational Engineering | ||
| ME 335A: Finite Element Analysis | ||
| ME 346B: Introduction to Molecular Simulations | ||
| PHYSICS 113: Computational Physics | ||
| Electronic and Photonic Properties of Materials [Back to Top] | ||
| PHYSICS 41, 43, and 45 recommended | ||
| Students pursuing this focus area will learn more about the design and function of electronic and/or photonic devices, as well as the underlying principles of physics relevant to their operation. | ||
| MATSCI 152: Electronic Materials Engineering | ||
| MATSCI 199: Electronic and Optical Properties of Solids | ||
| MATSCI 317: Defects in Semiconductors | ||
| MATSCI 341: Quantum Theory of Electronic and Optical Excitations in Materials | ||
| MATSCI 343: Organic Semiconductors for Electronics and Photonics | ||
| MATSCI 346: Nanophotonics | ||
| APPPHYS 201: Electrons and Photons | ||
| APPPHYS 204: Quantum Materials | ||
| APPPHYS 207: Laboratory Electronics | ||
| EE 101A: Circuits I | ||
| EE 102A: Signals and Systems I | ||
| EE 116: Semiconductor Devices for Energy and Electronics | ||
| EE 124: Introduction to Neuroelectrical Engineering | ||
| EE 134: Introduction to Photonics | ||
| EE 153: Power Electronics | ||
| EE 157: Electric Motors for Renewable Energy, Robotics, and Electric Vehicles | ||
| EE 212: Integrated Circuit Fabrication Processes | ||
| EE 216: Principles and Models of Semiconductor Devices | ||
| EE 218: Power Semiconductor Devices and Technology | ||
| EE 222: Applied Quantum Mechanics I | ||
| EE 223: Applied Quantum Mechanics II | ||
| ENGR 240: Introduction to Micro and Nano Electromechanical Systems | ||
| ENGR 241: Advanced Micro and Nano Fabrication Laboratory | ||
| ME 210: Introduction to Mechatronics | ||
| ME 220: Introduction to Sensors | ||
| Materials Characterization [Back to Top] | ||
| Either Physics or Chemistry | ||
| Students pursuing this focus area will learn more about the tools and techniques used in advanced materials characterization, particularly at the micro- and nanoscale. | ||
| MATSCI 236: An Introduction to Quantitative X-ray Microanalysis | ||
| MATSCI 320: Nanocharacterization of Materials | ||
| MATSCI 321: Transmission Electron Microscopy | ||
| MATSCI 322: Transmission Electron Microscopy Laboratory | ||
| MATSCI 323: Thin Film and Interface Microanalysis | ||
| MATSCI 324: Optics of Microscope Design for Materials | ||
| MATSCI 326: X-Ray Science and Techniques | ||
| APPPHYS 201: Electrons and Photons | ||
| BIOE 220: Introduction to Imaging and Image-based Human Anatomy | ||
| BIO 232: Advanced Imaging Lab in Biophysics | ||
| CHEM 131: Instrumental Analysis Principles and Practice | ||
| CHEM 174: Physical Chemistry Laboratory I | ||
| CHEM 176: Spectroscopy Laboratory | ||
| CHEMENG 345: Fundamentals and Applications of Spectroscopy | ||
| Materials for Energy Technology [Back to Top] | ||
| Either Physics or Chemistry | ||
| Students pursuing this focus area will learn more about materials used in modern energy technologies, potentially including solar cells, wind turbines, batteries, and fuel cells, as well as other emerging energy production or storage devices. | ||
| MATSCI 156: Solar Cells, Fuel Cells, and Batteries: Materials for the Energy Solution | ||
| MATSCI 302: Solar Cells | ||
| MATSCI 303: Principles, Materials and Devices of Batteries | ||
| CEE 107A: Understand Energy | ||
| CHEM 174: Physical Chemistry Laboratory I | ||
| EE 116: Semiconductor Devices for Energy and Electronics | ||
| EE 153: Power Electronics | ||
| EE 237: Solar Energy Conversion | ||
| EE 293B: Fundamentals of Energy Processes | ||
| ENERGY 102: Fundamentals of Renewable Power | ||
| ENERGY 153: Carbon Capture and Sequestration | ||
| ENERGY 201C/ENERGY 293: Energy Storage and Conversion: Solar Cells, Fuel Cells, and Batteries | ||
| ENERGY 295: Electrochemical Energy Storage Systems: Modeling and Estimation | ||
| PHYSICS 199: The Physics of Energy and Climate Change | ||
| PHYSICS 240: Introduction to the Physics of Energy | ||
| Materials Physics [Back to Top] | ||
| PHYSICS 41, 43, and 45 recommended | ||
| Students pursuing this focus area will gain a deep foundational knowledge of materials physics, with topics focusing on quantum mechanics, statistical mechanics, and waves and diffraction, and other advanced topics. | ||
| MATSCI 184: Structure and Symmetry | ||
| MATSCI 185: Quantum Mechanics for Materials Science | ||
| MATSCI 195: Waves and Diffraction in Solids | ||
| APPPHYS 201: Electrons and Photons | ||
| APPPHYS 204: Quantum Materials | ||
| EE 222: Applied Quantum Mechanics I | ||
| EE 223: Applied Quantum Mechanics II | ||
| PHYSICS 70: Foundations of Modern Physics | ||
| PHYSICS 110: Advanced Mechanics | ||
| PHYSICS 120: Intermediate Electricity and Magnetism I | ||
| PHYSICS 121: Intermediate Electricity and Magnetism II | ||
| PHYSICS 130: Quantum Mechanics | ||
| PHYSICS 131: Quantum Mechanics II | ||
| PHYSICS 134: Advanced Topics in Quantum Mechanics | ||
| PHYSICS 170: Thermodynamics, Kinetic Theory, and Statistical Mechanics I | ||
| PHYSICS 171: Thermodynamics, Kinetic Theory, and Statistical Mechanics II | ||
| PHYSICS 172: Solid State Physics | ||
| Mechanical Behavior and Materials Processing [Back to Top] | ||
| PHYSICS 41, 43, and 45 recommended | ||
| Students pursuing this focus area will learn more about the mechanical behavior of materials, including how to characterize them, and how these mechanical properties influence the design of technologies. | ||
| MATSCI 151: Microstructure and Mechanical Properties | ||
| MATSCI 183: Defects and Disorder in Materials | ||
| MATSCI 198: Mechanical Properties of Materials | ||
| MATSCI 312: New Methods in Thin Film Synthesis | ||
| MATSCI 358: Fracture and Fatigue of Materials and Thin Film Structures | ||
| AA 240: Analysis of Structures | ||
| AA 256: Mechanics of Composites | ||
| AA 280: Smart Structures | ||
| CHEMENG 140: Micro and Nanoscale Fabrication Engineering | ||
| CHEMENG 170X: Mechanics of Soft Matter: Rheology | ||
| ENGR 240: Introduction to Micro and Nano Electromechanical Systems | ||
| ENGR 241: Advanced Micro and Nano Fabrication Laboratory | ||
| ME 127: Design for Additive Manufacturing | ||
| ME 152: Material Behaviors and Failure Prediction | ||
| ME 283: Introduction to Biomechanics and Mechanobiology | ||
| ME 303: Soft Composites and Soft Robotics | ||
| ME 335A: Finite Element Analysis | ||
| ME 340: Mechanics – Elasticity and Inelasticity | ||
| ME 345: Fatigue Design and Analysis | ||
| ME 348: Experimental Stress Analysis | ||
| Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology [Back to Top] | ||
| Either Physics or Chemistry | ||
| Students pursuing this focus area will learn more about how materials properties change at the nanoscale, including the new and interesting ways in which these changes can be exploited for novel technologies. | ||
| MATSCI 316: Nanoscale Science, Engineering, and Technology | ||
| MATSCI 320: Nanocharacterization of Materials | ||
| MATSCI 346: Nanophotonics | ||
| MATSCI 380: Nano-Biotechnology | ||
| EE 334: Micro and Nano Optical Device Design | ||
| ENGR 240: Introduction to Micro and Nano Electromechanical Systems | ||
| ENGR 241: Advanced Micro and Nano Fabrication Laboratory | ||
| Self-Defined Focus [Back to Top] | ||
| Students may also define their own Focus Area containing a minimum of 9 units (3 courses) that comprise a cohesive program of study. Many students use this option to create an interdisciplinary Focus Area that combines parts of the listed Focus Area options above. Students should also choose this option if including courses not listed in one of the Focus Area tracks and must submit a departmental deviation petition form, as described here. The approved petition form should be included with their final program sheet when conferring their degree. |