It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at UCF. It is my honor to be the chair of a department that continues to gain national and international prominence.
Our department offers a world-class graduate program, which was founded in 1999 by UCF’s Advanced Materials Processing Analysis Center, a center focused on research and education that is housed within the MSE department. The graduate program distinguished by offering an outstanding selection of courses taught by our brilliant faculty mentors who are also active in a wide range of sponsored research. Currently, more than 50 students are pursuing our graduate degrees, which include a master’s degree and doctoral degree, and I am very pleased that the program has grown steadily since its inception.
At the undergraduate level, we offer a minor as well as a bachelor’s degree in materials science and engineering.
Along with the programs, our faculty has grown steadily as well. Our department is now comprised of 14 core faculty members, two senior lecturers and researchers as well as 26 affiliated faculty members. This is one of the most interdisciplinary and thriving departments at UCF and in the nation, and our faculty have excelled in both research and teaching over the years.
We engage in cutting-edge research of ceramics, polymers, and metals, smart materials and coatings, composite materials, sensors, thin films, nanotechnology, soft and hard materials, optics and state-of-the-art materials characterization. Our faculty also explore the exciting new areas of additive manufacturing, biomaterials and prosthetics and energy research.
In 2010, The National Research Council, a part of the National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Science, ranked UCF among the top MSE programs in the country in their assessment of research doctoral programs at U.S. universities.
Our faculty members have also received many prestigious awards over the years, including the NSF CAREER Award, and the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award. Our faculty are also fellows of the American Institute for Medical and Biomedical Engineering, the American Society for Microbiology, the American Ceramic Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Vacuum Society, the National Academy of Inventors, the Electrochemical Society and many more.
The future of the MSE department looks very bright indeed. We have led and participated in several of UCF’s Provost Cluster Hire Initiatives, and we have built strong partnerships with the Department of Electrical Engineering, the Florida Solar Energy Center, the NanoScience Technology Center, and the UCF College of Medicine. Recently, we hired a senior lecturer and researcher with BRIDG, a boutique microelectronics fabrication facility in Central Florida, to support our Advanced Manufacturing Center in Osceola County. MSE faculty also have access to the cutting-edge, newly constructed Materials Characterization Facility and the Advanced Microfabrication Facility, both of which offer space to conduct research and hand-on training.
As a team, our collective mission is to cross new frontiers in academics and research and to achieve long-lasting working partnerships across the public and private platform. As always, there will be challenges ahead of us as we continue to expand our programs. However, we can certainly overcome these hurdles with the help of our superb faculty and staff. In addition, we intend to continue our outreach to the community and our alumni. I will continue to foster the interdisciplinary partnership between MSE and other UCF departments, centers, institutes, and colleges.
We will continue to strive to provide the highest quality research and education to our students, and I hope you will continue to support our department. Please join us in our quest for innovative interdisciplinary research, outstanding academics, and ground-breaking science. We hope to become a global partner and magnet for domestic and international students as well as researchers from diverse backgrounds, cultures, demographic groups and genders. Please feel free to reach out to me or drop by for an informal discussion.
I am very encouraged by the journey thus far. It is truly an exciting time for our program and department. So let’s journey together into new frontiers!
Go Knights!
Sudipta Seal, Ph.D.
Chair, Department of Materials Science and Engineering