University of Toronto, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering
Engineering Outreach
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What if you could extract silicon to build solar cells from a renewable resource like rice? Or, create lighter, yet stronger materials for automotive and aerospace applications that would decrease our consumption of fossil fuels? As our manufactured products become more complex, the demand is ever increasing for materials engineers to enable advanced technology for a sustainable future.
The department of Materials Science & Engineering (MSE) is where advanced engineering meets cutting-edge science. As one of the most interdisciplinary fields of engineering, the MSE curriculum builds on foundations in chemistry, physics, mathematics, and adds specialized engineering knowledge that can be applied in areas such as nanotechnology, biomaterials, adaptive polymers, advanced semiconductors, photovoltaics, and forensics.
As a materials engineer, you will understand the characteristics and properties of materials, and possess the necessary skills to synthesize, process, and apply them to engineering design. Your expertise in advanced materials will enable new and sustainable technologies, creating innovative solutions for the global environment.
One area of focus within the materials engineering undergraduate program is to ensure students learn about the properties and processing of materials through a combination of theoretical and real-life applications. It all starts by learning how engineering materials are made and how they behave in different situations — their characterization, mechanical properties, high-temperature behaviour, environmental degradation, and failure analysis.
The upper years of the undergraduate program are designed with four theme areas found in Materials Science & Engineering (please see below right). You may choose to specialize in one of them after Year 2, take a hybrid and combine several theme areas, or pursue a more general approach by taking courses across all four themes – the choice is yours to make. In Year 4, a research thesis and an industrial plant design project will provide you the opportunity to study materials engineering in a practical context.
As a more specialized field of engineering, the Department of Materials Science & Engineering has smaller class sizes than other disciplines in the Faculty. This allows for additional opportunities to interact with your professors and other teaching staff.
To get to know some of our students in the Materials Science and Engineering program as well as recent graduates of this program, please visit the Meet Our Students section.
For more information about Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Toronto, please visit www.mse.utoronto.ca.
Erin was the President of the University of Toronto Sailing Club for the 2009-2010 season, and her sailing accomplishments have taken her around the world, most notably to Australia, Brazil, and Fiji.