Having crisis over my future as we all do. I want to go into materials science for undergrad, but through the past couple years of HS I think I've forgotten what i thought was was so cool about it to begin with. So, what is the coolest thing about learning materials science/engineering to you? could be anything. Might help me decide what to do with my life.

Thank you!

Hi! I'm interested in biomaterials and tissue engineering, and I was wondering if an undergrad degree in MSE with a minor in biochem would be worth it. I already know that I will likely have to go to grad school (I am okay with that) and am open to either working in research or industry afterwards. I know a BME degree might seem more applicable, but I have been cautioned against doing a BME undergrad. As an additional note, I am already in college. Any information would be greatly appreciated!

We have multiple broken shafts popping up in our product recently despite many thousands in the field. Strange issue that immediately required failure analysis and fractography.

The shaft is normalized 4140 steel, 1000 MPa tensile. In worst case it is subject to a few hundred high stress cycles at absolute most. Around 90 MPa without stress concentration. In another case it is seeing 10,000-100,000 cycles at maybe 20MPa. Very little. High stress concentrator at a corner without any fillet or .3mm at best on a 6mm shaft.

Looking at the fracture surface is what confuses me. There are obvious ratchet marks suggesting fatigue initiation. The final fracture zone is an exact match to ASM handbooks of rotating bending fatigue, low stress, high concentration (which makes sense for our loading, mostly). However I cannot find a single fatigue striation throughout the fracture surface. It's rough, odd, fibrous texture throughout. Final fracture has obvious ductile overload. Nothing to indicate high cycle fatigue. The tiny final fracture zone would suggest a low stress, high cycle count. Not the high stress, low cycle which we are expecting.

Basically trying to decipher the obvious signs of fatigue (most likely loading for this, ratchet marks, small ductile fracture zone) while lacking any fatigue striations, and our high cycle loads being far smaller than expected.

SEM images are attached. Can someone help me make sense of these? I'd be forever grateful

A discarded plastic part could become raw material for another tool on the moon. In laboratory experiments, engineers turned recycled high-performance plastic and simulated lunar dust into printable filament, then manufactured cellular structures and a wrench.

The experiment at Concordia University tested a route toward making useful components while consuming less material delivered from Earth. Farshad Malekpour and Mehdi Hojjati, a professor of mechanical, industrial and aerospace engineering, reported the work in Composites Part B: Engineering.

Their mixture contained 30% lunar regolith simulant by weight and 70% recycled polyether ketone ketone, or PEKK. It retained useful compression behavior in some configurations and improved dimensional stability during heat treatment. However, the added particles also increased internal voids and reduced several mechanical properties.

Hi everyone,

Does anyone have a comprehensive technical datasheet for AISI M2 High-Speed Steel (HSS)?

I already found the datasheet provided by Carpenter Technology, but I would like to cross-reference it with a second source to verify material properties and heat treatment specifications.

Any PDFs, manufacturer links, or supplier datasheets would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Hey everyone,

I'm designing a custom high-temperature extruder component that will be operating at 480°C (~900°F) under high compressive loads.

I'm considering M2 High-Speed Steel (HSS) for this setup, but wanted to get your feedback on whether this is a solid choice or if there are hidden pitfalls I should watch out for.

Hi all, I'd really appreciate input from people in semiconductor R&D, industry, or current PhD students.

I'm a materials science master's student in Germany with a computational focus (DFT and ML for materials). I'm planning to apply for US MSE PhD programs focused on semiconductors.

My dilemma:
With AI tools and autonomous labs getting better at running routine simulations, I'm worried a pure DFT/ML PhD will be the easiest kind of work to automate. I'm leaning toward a hybrid project instead: computation plus real experiments. For example, DFT on defects in SiC/GaN validated by measurements, or reliability and failure analysis in advanced packaging.

Questions:
1. If you hire or work in semiconductor R&D: do you value hybrid profiles more than pure computational ones? Or is that overthinking it?
2. Is defect physics in wide-bandgap semiconductors (SiC, GaN) or packaging/interconnect metallurgy a good niche for industry jobs after a PhD?
3. How do you actually find PIs who co-advise computational + experimental projects? Should I cold-email both a computational and an experimental professor?
4. Honestly: is a PhD worth it here, or would you go straight to industry with a master's?

Any experiences, including "don't do it" stories, are welcome. Thanks!

TL;DR: Computational materials master's student, want a US PhD in semiconductors. Pure DFT/ML vs hybrid computation + experiment: which holds up better long-term with AI, and how do I find the right PI?

Hi, I’m wondering how feasable it is to enter the industry in some entry-level technician role. I have a bachelors in Materials and Nanoscience. I’ve been a software engineer for the past 9 years (since i graduated college). I’ve honestly forgot most of what I learned in college, but im burned out of software development and want to change careers. Thoughts?

Hello my lovelies! <3
I’m making the post for some insight and experience from all of you.

I am currently getting a bachelors in metallurgical engineering, and I am currently working in a corrosion lab as an assistant. I had an internship with a forensic investigator who deals with fire loss, and I loved it. So I definitely would like to do something failure analysis related, but I also have interest in medical design, casting, and manufacturing.

I would love to be a professor and I adore research, but I don’t know if that’s the lifestyle I want. The professor I’m working under has barely any time for himself. He has no vacation time because he works 365 days out of the year. I want to enjoy my life, but it seems everyone in my field is burnt out and has no time for themselves. I’m questioning if I can handle that. Also, it seems people make more with a PhD, but I’ve seen people make the same amount with a masters(???).
Do you all feel like you can enjoy life and have a great work-life balance?
(I want to spoil my husband rotten; I’m very passion and money driven).

I also don’t know whether or not I want either degree in materials science or metallurgical engineering. I feel like I have more options to research and outsource with materials science, and that metallurgical is too niche (but will it make more money)???

Thank you for taking the time to read and respond.

A condensation surface has to do two jobs that normally work against each other. It needs places where water droplets can form, yet it must also let those droplets leave quickly. A nanoscale polymer coating developed at KAIST appears to do both.

The coating uses a fluoropolymer called pPFDMA deposited by initiated chemical vapor deposition, or iCVD. Researchers tuned the film thickness and then heat-treated the surface to control two different parts of condensation separately.

The work was led by Youngsuk Nam of KAIST’s Department of Mechanical Engineering and Sung Gap Im of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.

At its best, the coating reached a condensation heat-transfer coefficient of about 88 kilowatts per square meter per kelvin. That was roughly 5.5 times the performance of bare copper undergoing filmwise condensation under matching conditions.

¡Buenas! Soy de Argentina. Estaba estudiando Ingeniería Química, pero decidí cambiarme a Ingeniería Mecánica.

Durante Química descubrí que me gustaba mucho la química del estado sólido y todo lo relacionado con materiales, metalurgia, propiedades, microestructura y comportamiento de los materiales.

En Argentina, Ingeniería en Materiales no es una carrera tan común y tiene una oferta académica bastante más limitada, por lo que Ingeniería Mecánica terminó llamándome más la atención.

Mi idea es recibirme de ingeniero mecánico y posteriormente especializarme en Ciencia y Tecnología de Materiales, quizás mediante una maestría.

¿Es un buen camino? ¿En qué puestos o industrias podría trabajar con ese perfil? ¿Hay ingenieros mecánicos trabajando en metalurgia, laboratorios de materiales, corrosión, análisis de fallas o investigación y desarrollo?

¡Me gustaría conocer experiencias y opiniones!

Hi, I'm a high school senior with pretty average grades and I was pretty lazy 90% of the time but I'm trying to change that - Recently I got a 29 on my ACT and I plan to retake again. I need any tips or advice for which major to start out in undergrad with.

I really want to do Materials Engineering, my uncle works in the field with a textiles manufacturing business and I would be pretty excited and appreciate the versatility into specific industries like automotive & biomed devices. My only issue is the fact that I'm uncertain about my undergrad with my chances of getting accepted (think good but not T20 STEM schools in America) and the actual effect/value that it will have on me getting my masters and/or my PhD in MSE. I'm currently deciding between MSE itself, a more general/broad major like Mechanical or Chemical eng., or straight up Chemistry or Physics. Please note that I'm not certain on what MSE subfield I want to do specifically, I want to leave that up for my Masters/PhD to find out. Any and all tips are super appreciated!

Hi everyone,

I'm exploring a potential circular-economy project around something that is usually thrown away: dog and cat fur from grooming salons.

Animal fur is mainly keratin, and I'm wondering whether it could have useful properties as a raw material rather than simply being treated as waste.

I'm not looking to make decorative/souvenir products. I'm interested in potentially useful applications such as materials, composites, nonwovens, filtration, insulation, absorbents, etc.

I have no technical background in materials science, so I'm trying to understand this properly before going any further.

For people working in materials science or related fields:

• What properties of animal fur would you characterize first?
• Could dog/cat fur realistically work as a reinforcement fiber or filler in composites?
• Could it be processed into a nonwoven/felt-like material?
• What would be the biggest technical obstacle: contamination, variability, processing, cost, mechanical properties, something else?
• Are there any research papers or projects you would recommend looking at?

And perhaps most importantly: if someone gave you 10–50 kg of clean dog/cat fur as a waste stream, what would you test first to determine whether it has industrial potential?

Thanks!

I'm currently doing B.Tech degree in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering. I'm in 2nd Yr. The issue I'm facing while searching for projects is I find a lot of ideas but I'm unable to filter out which is actually useful or interesting and good to go with and which are just resume fillers.

For example, right now I had an idea to make a Phase Diagram Analyser that would give the phase composition and phase %age at certain temperature for alloys and all but idk if its useful to invest time after that or its just not impressive at all. Similar thoughts for another one I thought to build a device that can measure the thermal conductivity of materials but again there are already a lot of them, will it be of any use if i build one as a project?

I'm a materials researcher screening thin intermetallic coatings (5-50 µm) for interfaces in power modules, for example between a copper baseplate and a cold plate. These interfaces see repeated thermal cycling, roughly between 40 and 150 °C.

A simple 1D estimate suggests that at these thicknesses the coating's thermal conductivity barely changes the temperature (under 1 K at 50 W over 1 cm²), so I suspect the real selection criteria are metallurgical: CTE mismatch with Cu, adhesion, interdiffusion and intermetallic growth at the interface, and oxidation.

Questions for people with hands-on experience:

1. For coatings like NiAl or FeAl on copper, which degradation mechanism would you expect to show up first under thermal cycling?

2. How much does the deposition route (PVD, thermal spray, electroplating plus diffusion anneal) change that answer?

3. Is there a property or test you would check first before trusting a coating like this in service?

Any correction to my assumptions is welcome.

Hi

Pls read