The Materials Science and Engineering program prepares students for a variety of jobs, teaching them production processing, characterization, selection, and design of materials. Materials are important to every aspect of engineering, making the study of materials an important part of creating many of the items used today. In this major you learn to design and develop materials from metals and other resources used for the creation of new products, as well as learn the processes used to create new materials and alloys. In this major one learns to examine and assess materials at different levels in order to determine their usefulness, as well as how to create new materials.

A materials engineer uses analysis of materials in order to try and improve designs of products; for example, one might work to make a golf club lighter but stronger. Material engineers test and evaluate new materials; they design materials as well. They work to improve strength, corrosion resistance, and fatigue resistance.