Questions on material engineering

[khorpeggy]

i am really wondering does Material engineering has a future. I am wondering this as my friends made a few comments on this subject and i am currently very confuse

1. People who study Material Engineering will most likely very difficult to get a job or the job will be related to radioactive material.

2. People who study Material Engineering will have to study many other areas, hence there are some sort of like jack of all tread master of none.

Can somebody please please help me to verify whether these comments are true or not? I really need help for clarification.

 

[Astronuc]

1. People who study Material Engineering will most likely very difficult to get a job or the job will be related to radioactive material.

2. People who study Material Engineering will have to study many other areas, hence there are some sort of like jack of all tread master of none.

Nonsense. The challenge these days is to understand the nuances of alloy/ceramic/intermetallic behavior under challenging environments.

Take a look at ASM International (www.asminternational.org[/url]) and TMS ([url]www.tms.org[/URL]) websites to see what is going on in materials science and technology.

 

[Mapes]

I agree with Astronuc. We're in a golden age of materials science and engineering. I switched fields from mechanical engineering to materials science (and went back to grad school) because (1) the materials scientists I met seemed to be familiar with nearly every type of material, making them invaluable in research and prototyping positions in industry; (2) I wanted to learn how material properties arise, instead of just looking up values in tables; and (3) I was convinced that the opportunities for materials scientists and engineers are immense and larger than ever. Consider that in the area of metals, we're learning how to make single crystals (for creep resistance) or amorphous alloys (for strength), depending on an application's requirements. In IC fab, materials replacement has taken over size reduction as the mechanism to extend Moore's Law. And the biomaterials field is smoking hot with applications involving drug delivery, cancer treatment, and implantable devices. Go materials science!

But if you really want to work with radioactive materials, I'm sure that's possible too.

 

[Astronuc]

Other societies involved in materials, although primarily metals:

AISI - American Iron and Steel Institute
www.steel.org

AIST - Association for Iron and Steel Technology
www.aistech.org

ASME - American Society of Mechanical Engineers
www.asme.org

ASTM - American Society for Testing and Materials
www.astm.org

AWPA - American Wire Producers Association
http://www.awpa.org/

AWS - American Welding Society, Inc.
www.aws.org

ISSF - International Stainless Steel Forum
www.worldstainless.org/

ITA - International Titanium Association
www.titanium.org

ITSC - International Thermal Spray Association
www.thermalspray.org

MPIF - Metal Powder Industries Federation
www.mpif.org

NACE - National Association of Corrosion Engineers
www.nace.org

NiDI - Nickel Development Institute
www.nidi.org

SAE - Society of Automotive Engineers
www.sae.org

SPI - Society of the Plastics Industry
www.plasticindustry.org

SSINA - Specialty Steel Industry of North America
www.ssina.com

For ceramics, one can see

ACerS - American Ceramic Society
ceramics.org

Materials Science/Engineering go way beyond just composition and phase diagrams. There is a lot to know about the processing of the material in conjunction with the composition, and how that combination affects the microstructure and how ultimately a material performs/behaves in its intended environment. We may know a lot, but there's an awful lot more that we could know and need to know.

 

[khorpeggy]

Thanks a lot everyone.

Before this, I have totally no idea abt what is material engineering, just only have the basic knowledge. I have an offer on material engineering from a university and I don know whether should I take up the course or not. So I feel like learning more about it.