Materials engineers design, produce, and evaluate materials and their use. They bring valuable expertise in materials to just about every industry, often working closely with other engineers, to make a real difference in the world.
Materials engineering is all around us. From buildings to transportation to the electronic devices we use every day, the materials involved have been designed or chosen carefully for the task. Materials engineers understand the properties of matter (both natural and synthetic) and atomic structure.
The materials we use and how we make them can determine the function, feasibility, cost, environmental impact, and many other aspects of things we create.
Materials engineers are experts on materials—how they are made, how and why materials are useful, and how materials can be made better. Materials engineers are concerned with every stage of a material’s life cycle, from mining to recycling. They design new materials, devise processes for making and disposing of materials, select the best material for a particular job, monitor its performance, and figure out why a material failed.
Materials engineers take science innovations and use them in real-world applications that exploit their desirable properties. Materials science is also involved in forensic engineering: airplane crashes and failure analysis of structures (bridges) and equipment.