Master's Degree Focus Areas

This focus area will highlight the study of material properties and processing using advanced techniques to design, develop, and optimize high-performance materials for next-generation manufacturing technologies.

Suggested Courses:

• Additive Manufacturing and Materials (27-503/703)
• Special Topics: Principles of Digital Twins in Material Science and Advanced Manufacturing (27-508)
• Principles of Growth of Semiconductors (27-533/733)
• Data Analytics and Machine Learning for Materials Science (27-537/737)
• Processing and Properties of Thin Films (27-542/742)
• Additive Manufacture Lab (27-701)
• Texture, Microstructure & Anisotropy (27-731)

This focus area will emphasize the use of modeling, simulation, and data-driven approaches to understand, predict, and design material behavior at multiple scales.

Suggested Courses:

• Methods of Computational Materials Science (27-734) 
• Data Analytics and Machine Learning for Materials Science (27-737)
• Special Topics: Principles of Digital Twins in Material Science and Advanced Manufacturing (27-508)
• Computational Thermodynamics (27-719)
• Electronic and Atomistic Simulation Tools (27-735)
• Molecular Simulation of Materials (12-623)
• Computational Modeling, Statistical Analysis and Machine Learning in Science (09-615)
• Neural Networks and Deep Learning in Science (09-616)

This focus area will explore the design, development, and integration of materials in applications for energy generation, storage, and conversion technologies to support sustainable and efficient solutions.

Suggested Courses:

• Energy Storage Materials and Systems (27-700)
• Materials for Energy Storage (27-724)
• Materials for Future Energy Systems (27-728)
• Solid State Devices for Energy Conversion (27-729)
• Electrochemical Decarbonization Technologies (27-743, 06-644, 24-642)
• Photovoltaic Systems Engineering (18-865) - offered remotely with CMU Africa

This focus area will highlight ways in which materials can be manipulated at the nanoscale and how surface properties can be engineered to enhance performance in applications ranging from electronics to biomedical devices.

Suggested Courses:

• Bio-nanotechnology: Principles and Applications (27-514)
• Processing and Properties of Thin Films (27-542/742)
• Nanostructured Materials (27-565/765)
• Principles of Surface Engineering and Industrial Coatings (27-704)
• Applied Magnetism and Magnetic Materials (27-715)

This focus area will center on the design, fabrication, and characterization of semiconductor materials and thin-film structures for advanced applications.

Suggested Courses:

• Principles of Growth of Semiconductors (27-533/733)
• Processing and Properties of Thin Films (27-542/742)
• Quantum Mechanics of Materials (27-710)
• Foundations of Semiconductor Nanostructures (27-752)
• Electronic, Magnetic, and Optical Properties (27-770)
• Structure and Characterization of Materials (27-796)
• Bonding of Materials (27-797)
• Thermodynamics of Materials (27-798)

This focus area will explore the synthesis, characterization, and application of flexible, responsive, and biologically interactive materials for use in healthcare, biotechnology, and soft robotics.

Suggested Courses:

• Bio-nanotechnology: Principles and Applications (27-514)
• Tissue Engineering (27-520/720)
• Nanostructured Materials (27-565/765)
• Polymeric Biomaterials (27-570)
• Biomaterials (27-709)

This focus area will emphasize advanced methods for analyzing material structure, composition, and properties at multiple scales to drive innovation in material design and application.

Suggested Courses:

• Methods of Computational Materials Science (27-534/734)
• Data Analytics and Machine Learning for Materials Science (27-537/737)
• Special Topics: Advanced X-Ray Scattering (27-707)
• Quantum Mechanics of Materials (27-710)
• Electronic and Atomistic Simulation Tools (27-735)
• Practical Methods in Transmission Electron Materials Microscopy (27-741)
• Structure and Characterization of Materials (27-796)