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B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering

Cornell’s Bachelor of Science in Materials Science and Engineering program pushes the boundaries of innovation by blending physics, chemistry, and biology with cutting-edge engineering. Students explore the mechanical, chemical, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties of materials – advancing metals, semiconductors, and nanoparticles to revolutionize technology.

Format

In-Person

Page Contents

Note: This page provides a general overview. For complete and accurate information, please refer to the Engineering Undergraduate Handbook and consult with your advisor. For current course offerings and information, refer to the Cornell University Registrar: Courses of Study.

Eligibility and Academic Standards

Affiliation Eligibility Requirements

Cornell Engineering undergraduates who meet the eligibility requirements can affiliate with the Material Science and Engineering major. Preparation for affiliation should be done thoughtfully and intentionally in advance with guidance from and coordination with the student’s academic advisor.

A number of curriculum requirements are set by Cornell Engineering. These include Approved Electives, Technical Communications, and the Liberal Studies Distribution requirement. Not discussed are the additional common college requirements usually taken before affiliation such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, and freshman writing seminars.

Students who are on track to complete by the end of the fourth semester must take the following required courses, and completion of at least 24 credits from these courses, when applying for affiliation:

  • MATH 1910, with a minimum grade of C-
  • MATH 1920, with a minimum grade of C-
  • MATH 2930, with a minimum grade of C-
  • MATH 2940, with a minimum grade of C-
  • PHYS 1110
  • PHYS 1112/1116
  • PHYS 2213/2217
  • CHEM 2090
  • CS 1110/1112

Additionally, students must have a cumulative GPA equal or greater than 2.0 in the completed required math, physics, and chemistry courses (including MSE 3010 if taken) and at least a grade o C in ENGRD 2610 or ENGRD 2620.

For any course that is repeated, the most recent grade will be used for affiliation requirements. However, repeated grades will be included for GPA calculations.

Students who will not satisfy these requirements by the end of the fourth semester should contact our department about alternative paths to affiliation.

Academic Standards

Good standing requirements for materials science and engineering:

  • Semester GPA > 2.0
  • Cumulative GPA > 2.3
  • No failing (F) grades
  • C- or above in at least 12 credits per semester
  • At most, one grade as low as a C- in the Major required courses, materials electives, materials applications electives, and the outside technical elective
  • Adequate progress toward the completion of the degree each semester

Common Engineering Curriculum

The common graduation requirements for engineering are detailed in the engineering handbook. Within these requirements, we have the following recommendations:

  • CHEM 2090

    Common Core Chemistry

  • Physics 2214

    Optional

  • ENGRD 2610 or ENGRD 2620

    Required for affiliation and graduation.

  • Recommended Courses

    Appropriate courses beyond the required ENGRD 2610 and ENGRD 2620 are:

    • ENGRD 2020
    • ENGRD 2110
    • ENGRD 2520
    • ENGRD 2640
    • ENGRD 3200
    • ENGRD 2100
    • ENGRD 2202
    • ENGRD 2600
    • ENGRD 2700

Required Engineering Distributions

  • ENGRD 2610 or ENGRD 2620

    Mechanical Properties of Materials: From Nanodevices to Superstructures or Electronic Materials for the Information Age.

Other Relevant Engineering Distributions

  • ENGRD 2020

    Mechanics of Solids

  • ENGRD 2100

    Introduction to Circuits for Electrical and Computer Engineers

  • ENGRD 2110

    Object-Oriented Programming and Data Structures

  • ENGRD 2202

    Biomedical Transport Phenomenon

  • ENGRD 2520

    The Physics of Life

  • ENGRD 2600

    Principles of Biological Engineering

  • ENGRD 2640

    Computer-Instrumentation Design

  • ENGRD 2700

    Basic Engineering Probability and Statistics

  • ENGRD 3200

    Engineering Computation

Required Major Courses

  • ENGRD 2610 or ENGRD 2620 taken with either MSE 2620 or MSE 2620

    Electronic Materials for the Information Age

    Properties of Materials: From Nanodevices to Superstructures

  • MSE 2060

    Atomic and Molecular Structure of Matter

  • MSE 3010

    Materials Chemistry

  • MSE 3030

    Thermodynamics of Condensed Systems

  • MSE 3040

    Kinetics, Diffusion, and Phase Transformations

  • MSE 3070

    Materials Design Concepts I

  • MSE 3050 or MSE 4020

    Electronic, Magnetic, and Dielectric Properties of Materials

    Mechanical Properties of Materials, Processing, and Design

  • MSE 3110 and MSE 3120

    Junior Laboratory I and II

  • MSE 4071

    Materials Design Concepts Transition

  • MSE 4070

    Materials Design Concepts II

  • MSE 4030 OR MSE 4050/4060

    Senior Materials Laboratory

    Senior Experimental Thesis I/II

Electives

  • Materials Electives
  • Materials Application Electives
  • Outside Technical Electives

Materials Electives

Two electives from the following list are required. Note that not all courses are offered every year.

  • MSE 4100

    Physical Metallurgy and Applications

  • MSE 4610

    Biomedical Materials and Their Applications

  • MSE 5210

    Properties of Solid Polymers

  • MSE 5310

    Introduction to Ceramics

  • MSE 5320

    Glass: Structure, Properties and Modern Applications

  • MSE 5430

    Thin Film Materials Science

  • MSE 5440

    Soap Bubbles, Snowflakes, and Steps: Interfacial and Surface Phenomena in Materials Science

  • MSE 5550

    Introduction to Composite Materials

Materials Application Electives

Specific Requirements

  • Four Materials Applications Electives from at least two (of five) different categories
  • Two must be MSE courses and two must be taken from other departments (non-MSE number). Note that many courses are cross listed with multiple departments and students should be sure to enroll in the appropriate version.
  • The five application categories, and a list of currently approved courses are listed below.
  1. Biotechnology and Life Sciences
  2. Energy and the Environment
  3. Nanotechnology
  4. Information Science and Technology
  5. Materials Research

This list is not exhaustive and there are numerous other courses at Cornell that focus on materials applications. Students are encouraged to petition to accept other courses as materials application electives. These petitions should be submitted to the Director of Undergraduate Studies and should include the category in which the proposed course should be counted, a brief explanation or why it is appropriate for a materials science major, and copies the catalog description and syllabus if available. All Materials Electives can be used as Materials Applications Electives without petition. If a Materials Elective is used as a Materials Applications Elective the other three Materials Applications Electives must be from two distinct categories.

Biotechnology and Life Sciences Electives

  • BEE 3400

    Design and Analysis of Biomaterials

  • BEE 3650

    Properties of Biological Materials

  • BME 3210

    Multiscale Biomaterial Analysis

  • BME 5810 / MAE 5680

    Soft Tissue Biomechanics

  • BME 5830

    Cell-Biomaterials Interactions

  • BME 5850

    Current Practice in Tissue Engineering

  • BME 6210 / CHEME 6310

    Engineering Principles for Drug Delivery

  • BME 6670 / AEP 6630 / BIOG 6630 / MSE 5630

    Nanobiotechnology

  • CHEME 4810 / BME 4810

    Biomedical Engineering

  • FSAD 4390 / BME 5390

    Biomedical Materials and Devices for Human Body Repair

  • MAE 4640 / BME 4640

    Orthopedic Tissue Mechanics

  • MSE 5230

    Physics of Soft Materials

  • MSE 5235

    Design of Soft Materials

  • MSE 5620 / BME 5620

    Biomineralization: The Formation and Properties of Inorganic Biomaterials

Energy and the Environment Electives

  • CEE 3710

    Structural Modeling and Behavior

  • CEE 4750 / CEE 6750

    Concrete Materials and Construction

  • CEE 6725 / MAE 5120

    3D Printing Parts that Don’t Break: From Processing to Performance

  • CHEME 5310

    Principles of Electrochemical Engineering

  • CHEME 6660

    Analysis of Sustainable Energy Systems

  • CHEME 6662

    Solar Energy Module

  • ECE 4840 / MAE 4590 / NSE 4840 / AEP 4840

    Introduction to Controlled Fusion: Principles and Technology

  • MAE 4580 / AEP 4130 / CHEME 4130 / ECE 4130 / NSE 4130

    Introduction to Nuclear Science and Engineering

  • MSE 4330 / MSE 5330

    Materials for Energy Production, Storage, and Conversion

  • MSE 5520 / MAE 6450

    Additive Manufacturing: Fundamentals and Processes

  • MSE 5250

    Organic Optoelectronics

  • MSE 5740

    Fundamentals and Applications of Electrochemistry

Nanotechnology Electives

  • CHEME 6440

    Aerosols and Colloids

  • ECE 4320 / MAE 4320

    MicroElectro Mechanical Systems (MEMS)

  • FSAD 4460

    Nanotechnology in Fibers and Textiles

  • MAE 4130

    Mechanics of Composite Structures

  • MSE 4890 / MSE 5890

    Colloids and Colloid Assemblies for Advanced Materials Applications

  • MSE 5120 / MAE 5130

    Mechanical Properties of Thin Films

  • MSE 5410 / ECE 4360

    Nanofabrication for Integrated Circuits

  • MSE 5425

    Properties, Characterization, and Applications of Nanomaterials

  • MSE 5880

    The Science of Nanoparticles: Synthesis, Characterization, and Applications

Information Science and Technology Electives

  • AEP 4450 / ECE 4380

    Electromagnetic Metamaterials

  • ECE 4070

    Physics of Semiconductors and Nanostructures

  • ECE 4300

    Lasers and Optoelectronics

  • ECE 4360 / MSE 5410

    Nanofabrication and Characterization of Electronics

  • ECE 4370

    Fiber and Integrated Optics

  • ECE 4570

    Silicon Device Fundamentals

  • ECE 4820 / MSE 4820

    Plasma Processing of Electronic Materials

  • ECE 5350

    Semiconductor Physics

  • ECE 5370

    Nanoscale Device Physics

  • ECE 5390 / MSE 5472

    Quantum Transport in Electron Devices and Novel Materials

  • MSE 5420

    Flexible Electronics

  • MSE 5435

    Organic Electronics: Materials and Processing

  • MSE 5450

    Magnetic and Ferroelectric Materials

  • MSE 5460 / ECE 5570

    Compound Semiconductors Materials Science

Materials Research Electives

Students are required to take Materials Applications courses from at least two different categories. Two of these must be an MSE course and two must be taken from other departments (non-MSE number). Note that many courses are cross listed with multiple departments; students should be sure to enroll in the appropriate version of the course. Courses with cross listed headers other than MSE are completely acceptable to be listed on the Graduation Checklist under Materials Electives and Materials Applications Electives; remember to list all headers for each cross listed course.

This list is not exhaustive and there are numerous other courses at Cornell that focus on materials applications. Students are encouraged to petition to accept other courses as materials application electives. These petitions should be submitted to the Director of Undergraduate Studies and should include the category in which the proposed course should be counted, a brief explanation or why it is appropriate for a materials science major, and copies the catalog description and syllabus if available. All Materials Electives can be used as Materials Applications Electives without petition. If a Materials Elective is used as a Materials Applications Elective the other three Materials Applications Electives must be from two distinct categories.

  • A Research Involvement Course and MSE 4901

    One semester of research involvement at sophomore, junior, or senior level.

  • AEP 4400

    Quantum and Nonlinear Optics

  • AEP 4500 / PHYS 4454

    Introductory Solid State Physics

  • AEP 5510

    Symmetry & Equivariance

  • CHEM 3590

    Honors Organic Chemistry I

  • CHEM 3600

    Honors Organic Chemistry II

  • CHEM 3890

    Honors Physical Chemistry I

  • CHEM 6290

    Electrochemistry

  • CHEM 6700

    Fundamental Principles of Polymer Chemistry

  • CHEM 7870

    Computational Methods of Physical Chemistry

  • CHEME 6400

    Polymeric Materials

  • CHEME 7740

    Principles of Molecular Simulation

  • EAS 3090

    Earth Materials

  • EAS 4190

    Geofluids

  • FSAD 3350

    Fiber Science

  • FSAD 4360

    Fiber Chemistry

  • FSAD 6160

    Rheology of Solids: Dynamic Mechanical Analysis of Fibers and Polymers

  • FSAD 6200

    Physical Properties of fiber-Forming Polymers and Fibers

  • FSAD 6660

    Fiber Formation: Theory and Practice

  • FSAD 6860

    Mechanics of Fibrous Assemblies and their Composites

  • MAE 4670

    Polymer Mechanics

  • MSE 4510 / MAE 4240

    Materials Processing and Manufacturing

  • MSE 5240

    Synthesis of Polymeric Materials

  • MSE 5320 / CHEME 5320

    Glass: Structure, Properties and Modern Applications

  • MSE 5340

    Particulate Science and Engineering: Fundamentals and Applications

  • MSE 5710

    Analytical Techniques for Materials Science

  • MSE 5715 / ECE 4060

    Engineering Quantum Mechanics

  • MSE 5720

    Computational Materials Science

  • MSE 5730 / CHEME 5740

    Probability, Statistics, and Data Analysis for the Physical Sciences

Outside Technical Electives

An Outside Technical Elective can be any advanced (2000 level or above) technical (engineering or physical science) course that fits into the student’s educational objectives.

Advanced Math Requirement

At least one elective course (Approved Elective, Engineering Distribution, Materials Application Elective, or Outside Technical Elective) must meet the advanced mathematics or mathematical/ computational modeling requirement. Courses meeting this requirement will normally be at the 3000 level or above (with some 2000 level exceptions) and include a significant amount of advanced mathematics or mathematical/computational modeling beyond that required for MATH 2930 or 2940. Areas appropriate include statistics, complex variables, discrete math, number theory, Fourier and related transforms spaces, Hilbert spaces, advanced programming languages, numerical analysis, finite element simulations, machine learning and AI, and simulation algorithms.

  • AEP 2550

    Engineering Quantum Information Hardware

  • AEP 4210

    Mathematical Physics I

  • AEP 4380

    Entrepreneurial Strategy for Technology Ventures

  • BEE 4600

    Deterministic and Stochastic Modeling in Biological Engineering

  • BME 2000 (also ENGRD 2202)

    Biomedical Transport Phenomena

  • BME 5400

    Biomedical Computation

  • BTRY 3080 (also ILRST 3080/STSCI 3080)

    Probability Models and Interference

  • CEE 3040

    Uncertainty Analysis in Engineering

  • CEE 3710

    Structural Modeling and Behavior

  • CEE 4840

    Applied Modeling and Simulation for Renewable Energy Systems

  • CHEME 4800

    Chemical Processing of Electronic Materials

  • CS 2024

    C++ Programming

  • CS 2800

    Discrete Structures

  • CS 3110

    Data Structures and Functional Programming

  • CS 4220

    Numerical Analysis: Linear and Nonlinear Problems

  • CS 4780

    Machine Learning for Intelligent Systems

  • CS 4787

    Large Scale Machine Learning

  • ECE 3250

    Mathematics of Signal and System Analysis

  • ECE 4110

    Random Signals in Communications and Signal Processing

  • ENGRD 2110 (also CS 2110)

    Object-Orientated Programming and Data Structures

  • ENGRD 2700

    Basic Engineering Probability and Statistics

  • ENGRD 3100 (also ECE 3100)

    Introduction to Probability and Inference for Random Signals and Systems

  • ENGRD 3200 (also CEE 3200)

    Engineering Computation

  • ENGRD 3220 (also CS 3220)

    Introduction to Scientific Computation

  • MAE 4700

    Finite Element Analysis for Mechanical and Aerospace Design

  • MAE 4730

    Intermediate Dynamics and Vibrations

  • MAE 5930 (also SYSEN 5300)

    Systems Engineering and Six Sigma for the Design and Operation of Reliable Systems

  • MATH 4720

    Statistics

  • MSE 5720

    Computational Materials Science

  • MSE 5730 (also CHEME 5740)

    Probability, Statistics and Data Analysis for the Physical Sciences

  • ORIE 3500

    Engineering Probability and Statistics II

  • ORIE 4580

    Simulation Modeling and Analysis

  • ORIE 5581

    Monte Carlo Simulation

  • PHYS 4480

    Computational Physics

  • PHYS 6553

    General Relativity I

  • STSCI 3080

    Probability Models and Inference

  • STSCI 3100

    Statistical Sampling

  • STSCI 4120

    Nonparametric Inference and Sequential Analysis