Graduate Programs in Material Science and Engineering

Materials science and engineering centralize multiple disciplines: materials science, metallurgy, physics, biology, chemistry, nuclear engineering, and mechanical engineering. UCF researchers in the field have contributed to scientific advances as diverse as medicine and space exploration. UCF’s MSE graduates are sought-after by industry. Many become entrepreneurs by securing patents and starting promising companies.

THE UCF DIFFERENCE

REPUTATION OF EXCELLENCE

Ranks as the No. 54 top graduate MSE program by U.S. News and World Report Best Graduate Programs 2020. The National Research Council, part of the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Science ranked UCF among the top MSE programs in the country.

HIGH-IMPACT RESEARCH

Since 2016, MSE’s research funding has totaled more than $10 million, to support a wide variety of topics in bioengineering, magnetics, nanotechnology, structural and energy materials, semiconductors, additive manufacturing and more. See page 2 for highlighted projects.

WORLD-CLASS FACULTY

Students work alongside and publish with distinguished researchers who are internationally renowned for their contributions to science. They author approximately 80 refereed publications yearly. MSE has 21 core faculty, 20 program faculty, and two lecturers.

POWERFUL PARTNERSHIPS

Our faculty work with numerous industry and government agencies, including Lockheed Martin, Siemens, National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Dept of Energy, U.S. Dept of Defense, U.S. Dept of Agriculture, NASA and many more.

PRIME LOCATION

UCF is a large metropolitan institution located in Orlando, a regional economic powerhouse surrounded by industry. Research opportunities, jobs and internships are plentiful. The Central Florida Research Park, adjacent to UCF, is the nation’s 7th largest with more than 120 companies and 10,000 employees. With UCF as a founding partner, the Florida High Tech Corridor Council has, since 1996, generated more than $1.3 billion to the Florida economy and 4,000 new jobs.

FACTS OF INTEREST

The Advanced Materials Processing and Analysis Center (AMPAC) began in 1998 to promote research, education and economic growth in central Florida. AMPAC’s ongoing research excellence led to the creation of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering in 2012. The Materials Characterization Facility is where researchers and industry partners advance their work, increase competitiveness and boost the region’s economy. It provides classroom education and hands-on training on state-of-the-art equipment and user-friendly support services with expert advice and data interpretation.

HIGH-IMPACT RESEARCH

A proposal to the Joint NSF/SRC program “Energy-Efficient Computing: from Devices to Architectures” by Prof. Kevin Coffey et al has been funded for $1 million over three years. It involves multi-disciplines – physics, materials and chemistry – and researchers at Columbia University, MIT and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Assistant Prof. Kristopher Davis received $1.58 million from the U.S. Dept of Energy to develop high-speed measurement techniques that can identify potential sources of power degradation in photovoltaic modules, focusing on the metal contacts that carry current. Assistant Prof. Lorraine Leon and the team’s article, in the journal Advances in Colloid and Interface Science, highlights the advantages of polypeptides, versus synthetic polymers, to form polyelectrolyte complexes at varying length scales. With the potential for numerous delivery applications, the research emphasizes heterogenus complexes formed using nucleic acids. Prof. Yongho Sohn and team have been awarded a Cooperative Agreement with U.S. Army Research Laboratory with an initial installment of $490,000 for research involving additive manufacturing of metallic alloys. Assistant Prof. Elizabeth Brisbois and the team develop polymer coatings to make implanted medical devices more biocompatible. A $374,000 grant from JDRF is supporting her effort to develop a coating for insulin-delivery cannulas that can stay in the body a month longer than current devices which must be changed every two days, which could dramatically improve diabetic patient care.4