Materials Certificate/Endorsement

The Materials Certificate/Endorsement Program, administered through the Bagley College of Engineering, is available to qualified students who complete an organized plan of study in the interdisciplinary field of materials science and engineering at Mississippi State University.

The University’s various departments offer a range of materials-related courses in both the science and engineering fields, such as biomaterials, electronic and semiconductor materials, composites, polymers, metals, ceramics, and construction materials. We also have a wide range of supporting courses in the areas of materials modeling, mechanics, processing, and characterization, along with special topics in fatigue, fracture, and corrosion.

As part of an organized plan of study, including Directed Study courses under the direction of a Materials Faculty Member, these courses allow students to pursue an interdisciplinary education and training program tailored to individual interests.

The Materials Certificate/Endorsement Program is available to both traditional and non-traditional students. This allows industry to offer employees further training in materials, as well as provide current university students the opportunity to pursue an interdisciplinary materials specialty.

To be admitted to the program, students must first successfully complete freshman chemistry (CH 1213, CH 1223), freshman calculus (MA 1713, MA 1723), and physics (PH 2213, PH 2223). If you would like to propose an exception to these courses, it must be discussed with the MWG faculty advisor who will handle each request on a case-by-case basis.

To receive the Materials Certificate/Endorsement, students must then complete four additional courses and a 3 hour Directed Study course under the direction of a faculty member of the Materials Working Group. The four traditional courses should be chosen from the “Level” course list.

• One Course from Level I
• Two Courses from level II
• One Course from Level III
• Plus, One Course Directed Study

A grade of “C” or better must be attained in all four courses, including the Directed Study course. Only one course in Level II can be from the Special Topics category.

In all cases, it is the student’s responsibility to provide official transcripts of all courses taken prior to admission into the program.

Level I (3 hours):

Introduction to Materials Science

• ABE 3813 - Biophysical Properties of Materials
• CE 3314 - Construction Materials
• CHE 3413 - Engineering Materials
• ME 3403 - Materials in Mechanical Engineering Design

Level II (6 hours):

Basic Materials Properties

• CE 4633 - Concrete Structures
• CH 8990 - Polymer Chemistry
• ECE 4243 - Introduction to Physical Electronics
• EM 4133 - Mechanics of Composite Materials
• EM 4213 - Advanced Mechanics of Materials
• FP 4323 - Physical Properties of Wood
• PH 3613 - Modern Physics
• ME 4113/6113 - Material Selection in Design
• ME 4123/6123 - Failure of Engineering Materials
• ME 4133/6133 - Mechanical Metallurgy
• XX 4990 - Special Topics: Courses under development related to basic materials properties (Contact MWG members of individual department)

Level III (3 hours):

Applied Materials Courses

• ABE 4523 - Biomedical Materials
• ASE 4990 - Space Environment and Effects
• CHE 4990 - Particle and Crystallization Technology
• ECE 4283 - Semiconductor Processing
• EPP 8144 - Transmission Electron Microscopy
• EPP 8223 - Scanning Electron Microscopy
• FP 4423 - Mechanical Properties of Wood
• ME 4413/6413 - Casting and Joining
• ME 4423/6423 - Machining and Forming
• ME 4624/6624 - Experimental Methods in Materials Research
• PH 4813 - Introduction to Solid State Physics
• XX 8990 - Graduate Special Topics in Materials (approval required)

Directed Study (3 hours)

Please note that 4xxx courses may be taken at the graduate level as 6xxx.

Materials related course may be found in the following BCoE Departments: Aerospace, Agricultural & Biological, Chemical, Civil & Environmental, Electrical & Computer, Industrial & Systems, and Mechanical; as well as in Chemistry, Physics & Astronomy, and the College of Forest Resources.

Other materials related courses are often presented through collaboration with staff at the following Centers: Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems (CAVs), Center for Computational Sciences (CCS), Geosystems Research Institute (GRI), Institute for Imaging & Analytical Technologies (I²AT), Institute for Clean Energy Technology (ICET), and the Raspet Flight Research Laboratory (RFRL).

These departments and programs offer exciting research and education opportunities in a variety of contemporary research fields:

• nanomaterial processing and modeling
• polymers and polymeric composites
• casting and fusion welding
• solid state welding or joining
• fatigue and fracture
• metallurgy
• electronics and semiconductors
• organic superconductors
• ceramics
• corrosion
• waste remediation and recycling
• computational materials
• biomaterials
• tissue engineering substrates
• materials design and selection
• materials characterization techniques