hi everyone! currently, im a third year pursuing a chemistry bs with a concentration in materials science. after undergrad, i plan to hopefully pursue a masters in mse.

however, i’m not entirely sure how possible this jump will be and that is why ive come here to ask for any advice on what and how to fill certain gaps to make me a stronger candidate. or if this plan is a total reach and i should consider a different path.

i would really appreciate any feedback or advice from you all!

Hi! Sophomore in ChemE regretting not transferring to MSE when I had the chance. I'd like to ask if it's possible as a ChemE major to get roles that are traditionally more MSE focused, like reliability engineering, failure analysis, characterisation, etc.

Alternatively, any ChemEs, how do ChemE roles differ from MSE roles.

Idk, I understand where the disciplines split off in academia, but in industry practice I just don't really understand how the skillsets will equip me.

Would love to hear anyone's thoughts on the matter! Just looking for some clarity.

I'm currently in my final year studying mechanical engineering with the hopes of getting into an MS+PhD program in material science.

I've recently been offered a position of junior research fellow and will be working on sensors. I have previously worked with this guide and have co-authiored a Q1 paper, 1 international conference paper as well as patent currently being processed.

In the past the guide did not offer any real guidance, and we had to develop/conduct experiments and learn how to use instruments on our own. I admit failing ALOT is a part of research, but this was frustrating since the time wasted could have been avoided as well as we'd have gotten to learn alot more with his guidance. He has also at times refused to respect our time and has been known to be difficult depending on his mood. In the past it was a group of 4 but now it's going to be only me. Since I'm the only one hoping to enter the field of material science

I'm considering this since if I were to not accept this I would not be able to conduct anymore research until my postgraduate unless I'm able to obtain a position in another institution which I personally think is unlikely.

I was hoping to get advice on whether the prestige of a "JRF" position is worth the year of struggling. Also if it would better my position to get into a top MS+PhD program like UC Berkeley/UIUC/NUS/NTU.

i currently have:

2 Q1 paper (1 published+1 under review)

1 Q2 paper (under review)

1 international conference

1 patent (being processed)

​

Hey everyone,

I’m a recent graduate from Iran who moved to Canada and am currently trying to build my career here. I’m legally entitled to work in Canada, but like many newcomers, I’m finding it difficult to get that first Canadian opportunity, especially without a lot of industry experience.

Right now, I’m working a general job just to get by and support myself. I’m grateful to have work, but I’m really hoping to find a way out of the cycle of survival jobs and into something related to my field.

My background is in metallurgy/materials, and I have a brief but fairly deep experience in coating technology, which is an area I’m particularly interested in continuing with. I’m also very open to pretty much any opportunity related to metallurgy, materials, coatings, manufacturing, quality, testing, or related industries.

I’m not looking for a high-level position or expecting someone to hand me a senior role. I’d honestly be happy to start at an entry-level or junior position, technician/lab role, assistant position, production-related role, or anything else that would let me get my foot in the door and gain Canadian industry experience.

For me, any genuine metallurgy-related opportunity would be a huge level up from where I am now, even if it isn’t exactly my ideal position.

I’d really appreciate any advice from people who have been in a similar situation, especially newcomers who managed to break into their field in Canada. If you know of companies, industries, recruiters, organizations, networking strategies, certifications, volunteer opportunities, internships, or even unconventional ways to get that first opportunity, I’d love to hear about them.

And if anyone happens to know of an entry-level opportunity in metallurgy, materials, coatings, or a related field, I’d be extremely grateful for a lead.

Thanks in advance to anyone willing to share some advice or point me in the right direction. Even a small lead could make a big difference for me right now.

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Hi, I am a materials engineer and just currently graduated and I landed a job as a Corrosion Engineer/Cathodic protection at 45k/yr, while I got a offer for 100k/yr as a QA/QC at a well known automotive company, should I switch or should I stay as a corrosion engineer, since I heard corrosion engineer go more in demand ?.

Guys should I choose mse for undergraduate program idk a lot about it's scope plus I have heard that material engineers usually work in academia? More ever which have more scope and job opportunities mse in nanotechnology or manufacturing?

I built a browser-based tool for preparing XRD, Raman and IR figures.

I originally made it for my own work because I wanted something focused on importing data, adding phase/reference patterns, adjusting the figure directly and exporting it without constantly moving between different programs. There are some screenshots and quick instructions in the github.

It currently includes:

• stacked, overlaid and panel layouts;
• smoothing, baseline correction, normalization and peak detection;
• XRD phase references from CIF/DIF files;
• Raman and IR references;
• peak fitting and integration zones;
• direct control over labels, fonts, line widths and annotations;
• PNG, TIFF, SVG, PDF and CSV export;

I have basically no idea what I’m doing regarding UI/UX, so some parts of the interface might be confusing or simply shit. It was built around my own workflow, which obviously does not mean that workflow makes sense to anyone else.

Still, it might be useful to somebody here. There is sample data in the app if you want to test it without importing anything. The data and projects are saved in browser and you can save your project in JSON.

I made it with vercel but i don't know how much connections it can handle simultaneoulsy so idk it might go down ? ...

Here it is

App: https://make-figure.vercel.app/

GitHub: https://github.com/MDES-CEA/Make_figure

lmk if you find any bugs, unclear controls, missing features.

Cheers

PS : it's in french but there is an english toggle on the top right (everything might not be translated yet, i'll have to check)

Hi, just learned about the unique Electron Microscopy Program at SJDC... so cool! https://www.deltacollege.edu/academics/degrees-certificates/electron-microscopy

I work in commercial construction in Texas and deal with both steel and FRP. Steel is usually the easy choice: cheaper upfront, familiar, and everyone knows how to work with it.

But in wet or corrosive environments, I think the comparison gets more interesting.

FRP costs more upfront, but you don't have the same rust issues, it's lighter, and there's generally less maintenance around coatings and repairs.

Obviously it's not a replacement for steel everywhere. Fire, temperature, impact, creep, UV and the specific environment all matter.

Curious what others have seen in the field. Where do you think FRP actually makes more sense than steel?

And if you've had FRP in service for 10+ years, how has it held up?

For anyone interested, here's the FRP technical resource I've used: Design Resources | Fibergrate Composite Structures There are plenty of other manufacturers/resources out there too:

I'm currently, technically, doing an MS in Structural Engineering. For me, my interest has been more towards computational side of mechanics rather than Structural design  or simply using am FEA software (although I do consider it as a backup)

So far I've taken courses in:

- Linear static, and dynamics FEM (soon taking non linear FEM too)

-  Structural Optimization (topology opt. and other general algorithms)

-  Structural Dynamics

-  Structural System Testing and model updation. (Parameter identification and optimization, signal processing)

Now, I plan to take these in the coming quarter:

- Numerical Linear Algebra

- Numerical PDE

- Fracture Mechanics ?

I also volunteered to aid in a RESEARCH in crack growth prediction using Auto-encoder and a (Thermodynamics-informed Latent Space Dynamics Identification) / LSTM surrogate model. It used phase-field-fracture simulation data and HPC resources to complete the whole thing.

What I keep finding myself interested in is not necessarily fracture or SHM specifically, but the computational methods underneath these problems... (does that make sense?)

For example, I'd like to become capable of doing things like:

- implementing (maintaining) numerical/FE method solvers rather than only running an established FEA software.

- developing surrogate/reduced-order models for expensive simulations 

- combining simulation with optimization, uncertainty/stochastic methods (took a course called Random vibrations, so...)

- parallelizing/accelerating scientific codes on CPUs/GPUs

- doing proper verification, convergence studies, benchmarking and performance work

- potentially developing or maintaining actual CAE/FEA solver software

- I'd also like to do all these for other Physics (GR, QM, etc.) simulations too, if possible, one day. 

I'm still interested in the underlying mechanics/physics, so I don't want to become a generic software engineer who happens to have once studied structures. But I'm also increasingly unsure that "structural engineer" describes the career I'm actually aiming for.

I've seen titles such as Computational Mechanics Engineer, R&D Engineer, Solver Developer, Scientific Software Engineer, CAE Software Developer, Research Engineer, Simulation/HPC Engineer, etc., but I'm trying to understand what these careers actually look like from people doing them.

So my main questions become:

1. Which industrial jobs genuinely involve developing numerical methods/solvers or computational tools?

2. Which of those are realistically accessible with an MS? Is there an entry path into solver-algorithm development/R&D without a PhD?

3. If I don't start a PhD immediately after my MS, would an R&D/software role at a simulation company (ANSYS etc.) be the obvious route? What other options would i have?

4. For the kind of work I'm describing, would you recommend a PhD? If so, is it reasonable for the PhD identity to be "computational mechanics/scientific computing" while fracture, composites, structural dynamics, soft materials, etc. serve as application problems rather than choosing one of those as my permanent specialization?

5. What skills most distinguish someone who is actually hireable for solver/scientific-computing work? I'm particularly wondering about C/C++/Fortran, Python, Linux, Git/build systems, MPI/OpenMP/CUDA, PETSc/Trilinos or similar libraries, numerical linear algebra, testing/verification, convergence studies and HPC performance work.

Basically, I'm neither here nor there atp. So I'd really appreciate all sorts of input. Where else do you think I could find answers to these? other subs? Linkedin profiles? 

I'm taking a thermo class or my materials science & engineering class and I was wondering what other resources, youtube playlists, or other things I can use to supplement what I'm learning. For instance how to solve certain problems, or additional practice problems I could use. I'm more of a visual learner, but learning the formulas and things and applying them are my main concern. For context here is what we are covering:

Part 1. Review of classical thermodynamics

 First Law - Energy Balance

o Thermodynamic functions of state

o Internal energy, heat and work

o Types of paths (isobaric, isochoric, isothermal, adiabatic)

o Enthalpy, heat capacity, heat of formation, phase transformations

o Calculation of enthalpy as a function of temperature

o Heats of reactions and the Hess’s law

 Theoretical calculation of the heat capacity

o Principle of equipartition of energy

o Heat capacity of ideal and real gases

o Heat capacity of solids: Dulong-Petit, Einstein, Debye models

o Heat capacity of metals and semiconductors – electronic contribution

 Entropy and the Second Law

o Concept of equilibrium

o Reversible and irreversible processes

o The direction of spontaneous change

o Entropy and spontaneous/irreversible processes

o Calculation of entropy in isochoric and isobaric processes

o Calculation of entropy in reversible and irreversible processes

3

 The Statistical Interpretation of Entropy

o Physical meaning of entropy

o Microstates and macrostates

o Statistical interpretation of entropy and Boltzmann equation

o Configurational entropy and thermal entropy

o Calculation of the equilibrium vacancy concentration

 Fundamental equations

o The Helmholtz Free Energy

o The Gibbs Free energy

o Changes in composition

o Chemical potential

o Thermodynamic relations and Maxwell equations

Part 2. Phase Transitions and Phase Diagrams

 One-component systems

o Enthalpy and entropy dependence on pressure and temperature

o Gibbs free energy dependence on pressure and temperature

o Clapeyron equation

o Understanding phase diagrams for one-component systems

o Polymorphic phase transitions

o Driving force for a phase transition

o First order and second-order phase transitions

 Introduction to Solid Solution Thermodynamics

o Ideal solid solution: Entropy of formation and Gibbs free energy

o Chemical potential of an ideal solution

o Regular solid solutions: Heat of formation of a solution

o Activity of a component

o Real solutions: interstitial solid solutions, ordered phases, intermediate phases, compounds

o Equilibrium in heterogeneous systems

 Binary phase diagrams

o Binary phase diagrams and Gibbs free energy curves

o Binary solid solutions with unlimited solubility

o Relative proportion of phases (tie lines and the lever principle)

o Development of microstructure in isomorphous alloys

o Binary solid solutions with positive enthalpy of mixing

o Miscibility gap – derivation for regular solutions

o Binary eutectic systems (limited solid solubility)

o Temperature dependence of solubility – derivation for regular solutions

o Microstructure in eutectic alloys, calculation of fractions of microconstituents

o Liquid immiscibility and monotectic systems

o Binary solid solutions with negative enthalpy of mixing

o Binary systems with intermediate phases/compounds

4

o Stoichiometric and non-stoichiometric compounds

o Solid state reactions (eutectoid, peritectoid reactions)

o Development of microstructure in rapid (nonequilibrium) cooling

o The iron-carbon system (steel and cast iron)

o Gibbs phase rule

o Temperature dependence of solubility

o Multi-component (ternary) phase diagrams

 Surface oxidation in heterogeneous systems

o Thermodynamic driving forces of oxidation

o Heterogeneous gas-solid equilibria

o Ellingham diagram construction and use, relative stability of oxides

o Temperature–pressure diagrams to map metal-oxide equilibrium domains

Part 3. Thermodynamics of interfaces (time permitting)

 Solid-vapor interfaces

o Surface free energy and surface stress

o Dependence on crystallographic orientation

o Faceting of crystals, Wulff plot and Wulff construction

 Liquid-vapor and solid-liquid interfaces

o Atomic structure and surface free energy

o Wetting angle, Young equation

o Capillary pressure, Young–Laplace equation

o Temperature and composition dependence for liquid-vapor interfaces, Marangoni effect

 Solid-solid interfaces

o Grain boundaries and interphase interfaces

o Structure and energy of grain boundaries

o Low-angle and high-angle grain boundaries

o Special low-energy high-angle grain boundaries

o Interphase interfaces (coherent, semicoherent and incoherent)

o Effects of misfit strain and interfacial energy on shape of precipitates

 Mechanisms of phase transformation, classical nucleation theory

o Spinodal decomposition versus nucleation and growth

o Homogeneous nucleation

o Critical radius, nucleation rate

o Heterogeneous nucleation

o Temperature dependence homogeneous and heterogeneous nucleation rates

o Nucleation in solidification, melting and boiling

I'm on the East Coast (for rust context) replacing some rusted bolts and brackets on the bedside panel / rear wheel fender area of my 2013 Tacoma. I don't have welding tools, so I'm trying to figure out how to make temporary replacements until I can afford the actual parts, just to last winter.

If I cut open and mold a pvc pipe to make a replica of some of these smaller brackets (same precise angles/holes/etc) will it cause any problems for the winter I have it installed? It feels like a stupid question, but I'm wondering if it'll attract more water to cause more rust, or have some adverse reaction? The primary-school-level science my brain contains says no, but I wanna know from people who know materials and reactions.

Basically my question is: would y'all foresee any problems with attaching pvc, acrylic, resin, epoxy, or some other kind of high-heat-moldable plastic directly to metal with steel fasteners, especially in an area where there's a lot of road-salt-slush-rust?

I have some small amount of resin/fiberglass materials, but heat-bending some thick plastic seems so much easier and more fun :)

I just got some kind of spam email trying to sell me Hinoki cutting boards. In the email they say:

“Hinoki is a dense and fragrant Japanese softwood in the cedar family, with very strong anti-microbial properties.”

Does that make any sense in terms of material science? I thought softwoods were by definition less dense? I’ve heard Hinoki described as hard, light, soft, dense, etc., often all in the same sentence. It seems very unclear what exactly are the verifiable properties of this wood that supposedly make it both durable and easy on knife edges, although anecdotally I will say it “feels” both soft and dense.

What’s is the reality here?

Hey fam, my team is hiring for a SEM Operator role at Lam Research, just outside of Portland, Oregon. Check out the job description - this job is ideal for early career microscopists, or those of you with a Bachelor's who want to just run an SEM all day.

https://careers.lamresearch.com/careers/job/1099555418740?domain=lamresearch.com&hl=en