Slenzak 1

Joseph Slenzak
Dr. Christie L. Daniels
WRA 110
October 16, 2014
Materials Science and Engineering In The Real World
When we were kids, we dreamed of becoming astronauts and firefighters. And now, we
are finally able to take that leap of faith and try to achieve our childhood dreams. College is
meant to be the first step into the real world. And for a lot of students, thats incredibly terrifying.
Choosing a major is like trying to predict the score of the Michigan vs. Michigan State
football game 4 years before it even happens; its incredibly difficult. For starters, there are
literally hundreds of different majors offered at every school across the United States of America.
And finding that perfect major that suits your interests is incredibly difficult. Secondly, just
because a major sounds good freshman year, doesnt mean youre going to stick with it for all
four years. In 2012, a study performed at Penn State reported that roughly 80 percent of the
incoming freshman class (some of which had already declared their major) believed they still
dont know what their major will ultimately be. And on top of that, almost half of them will most
likely change their majors throughout their college career (Simon). I am one of those students.
I started as a mechanical engineer when I came to Michigan State. However, through some
experimentation I have somehow landed in materials science and engineering. And that is what
this paper will be focusing on.

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From my understanding, materials science is designing and engineering new materials
that can be used by other fields and professions to enhance and benefit everyday living. Materials
Science and Engineering as an undergraduate degree is defined by the College of Engineering at
Michigan State University as: learning to select and create materials used to realize engineering
designs in fields such as bioengineering, microelectronics and aerospace. They also learn how to
manipulate the elements of matter into the atomic arrangements that insure efficient and costeffective materials performance, demanded by todays advanced applications. (Michigan State
University). This may seem confusing and broad at first, but thats because it is an incredibly
broad field of study. Materials science research affects many different aspects of our lives. It may
be something as simple as creating a new, safer plastic to be used in the action figures for kids.
Or it might be as complicated as creating a new, lightweight plastic that is also incredibly durable
to be used in prosthetics for amputees.
One of the main reasons why this major is so popular with many students is the job
security. Engineering is a field of study that is known for having a myriad of jobs available for
students shortly after they graduate college. This was certainly the case when I talked to Duyen
Van Thuy Do, a materials science graduate student. Duyen explained to me that one of the main
selling points that drew him to engineering was the surplus of jobs waiting for him when he
got out of college (Do). And a big reason for this surplus of jobs, according to the college of
engineering at Michigan State University, is because materials science and engineering majors
create the stuff that is needed by all other engineers to carry out their designs. They know how
to develop materials for new productshow to coerce atoms into the right configurations. They
are also detectives, conducting failure analysis to find out why a part fractured or broke and

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solving the problem to prevent future failures. (Michigan State University). This shows how
vital materials science engineers are to the overall flow of the engineering world. Without
materials science engineers, a lot of the different aspects of engineering would be lacking their
essential resources used to execute their jobs and projects. It would be like telling a contractor to
build a mansion without nails or screws. And one of the big things materials science engineers
contribute to the engineering industry is the engineering of new materials that may have certain
properties such as tensile strength or heat tolerance that allow engineers and other professions to
create greater projects. This may include supplying screws to a contractor that can withstand 10
times the weight load than the screws he/she was using previously. And its little things like that
that creates such a high demand for materials science engineers in todays society.
All of these materials cannot be engineered or discovered without the utilization of
technology. When performing experiments, there is a universally accepted set of guidelines
known as the scientific method. This is a seven
step process consisting of: observe, question
your observations, check with other scientists
to see if thy are observing the same results,
create a hypothesis based on what you have
observed, test your hypothesis, review the
results and form a conclusion (this may be
repeated as many times as necessary), then
finally communicate the results. This set of
rules known as the scientific method is used to

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ensure that all scientists are conducting their experiments along the same general guidelines.
Materials science engineers have several different machines and tools at their disposal that allow
them to perform various experiments on various substances in an efficient and accurate manner
in order to engineer better materials. Some of the machines Duyen uses on a daily basis to
perform his various experiments include the Scan Electron Microscope and the Transmission
Electron Microscope. A Scan Electron Microscope (commonly referred to as an SEM) is a type
of microscope that uses electrons instead of light to form an image. The SEM has allowed
researchers to examine a much bigger variety of specimens. The scanning electron microscope
has many advantages over traditional microscopes. Because the SEM has a large depth of field, it
allows for more of a specimen to be in focus at one time. The SEM also has much higher
resolution, so closely spaced specimens can be magnified at much higher levels. All of these
advantages, as well as the stunningly clear images, make the scanning electron microscope one
of the most useful instruments in research today. (Schweitzer). In addition to the SEM, the
Transmission Electron Microscope (commonly referred to as the TEM) is another popular type
of microscope used to perform experiments. The transmission electron microscope operates on
the same basic principles as the light microscope but uses electrons instead of light, similar to the
SEM. (Celine). However, there are a couple significant differences between the two
microscopes: the type of electron transmission used to view the specimens and the level of
magnification supported by the microscope. SEMs use a technique known as scattered electrons
to focus on the specimen. While TEMs use the technique known as transmitted electrons, hence
the name: Transmission Electron Microscope. And possibly the most situationally important
difference is the varying levels of magnification. The TEM has the ability to reach a maximum

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magnification level of 50 million, while the SEM is only able to reach a maximum magnification
level of 2 million. (Celine). This is significant when dealing with incredibly small specimens
such as atoms and subatomic particles. Duyen explained that the main use for the microscopes
is to identify and examine the molecular structures of various materials. (Do). This is important
when examining failed materials. By using a Transmission Electron Microscope or Scanning
Electron Microscope, materials science engineers are able to identify possible faults or
weaknesses in the molecular structures of the materials they are studying. This allows the
engineers to diagnose the issue and start working towards finding a solution to this problem. The
solution might be as simple as adding extra material to the product. Or it might be as complicated
as creating an entirely new material that has a greater tensile strength than the previous material.
And this is all possible with the use of a SEM or TEM, among many other machines.
When a new material or polymer is engineered, it is vital to the field that those findings
are published and credit is given accordingly. According to Matt Klenk, another materials
science and engineering graduate student, there is a general procedure that is followed when
conducting and completing a set of experiments. A majority of the communication of results
and findings is done through accredited journals and letters. Upon the completion of these
experiments, Matt will document his findings and try to find an appropriate audience for them.
The author and journal editors make a choice to publish determining who will read the results,
and a peer review systems ensures intellectual honesty. A lot of his time is spent writing. Another
major way scientific findings are communicated is through conferences, where an individual will
have the opportunity to communicate their work through informal conversations, poster
presentations, and lectures of varying length and complexity. (Klenk). This is especially

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important in the workplace. It is noted and emphasized in the scholarly journal composed by
Marsha Ing, Wenson W. Fung and David Kisailus that it is not uncommon for several engineers
of different disciplines to form an interdisciplinary team or group in order to solve a problem.
(Ing, Wenson, and Kisailus). In fact, this is possibly one of the most effective ways to solve a
problem presented. However, a great level of communication skills is required for this technique
to be effective. Ing, Wenson and Kisailus conducted an experiment designed to address the
following questions: What is the structure and intensity of the undergraduates research
experience? How does the structure and intensity of the undergraduates research experience
vary between students? How does the structure and intensity of the undergraduate research
experience relate to the undergraduates ability to communicate their research to a broad
audience? (Ing, Wenson, and Kisailus). There were two main measures that Ing, Wenson and
Kisailus focused on during this experiment: a weekly survey of undergraduate research
activities and an assessment of undergraduates communication skills. (Ing, Wenson, and
Kisailus). The study consisted of eight students from a single Materials Science and Engineering
laboratory that were asked to provide the number of hours spent engaging in each of the 11
activities provided to them. These activities consisted of: understanding a scientific journal
article, designing an experiment, understanding the purpose of the experiment in relation to the
larger research project, learning how to do a research project, understanding why the experiment
is set up and conducted in a particular way, conducting an experiment, problem solving or
troubleshooting, manipulating data, analyzing and interpreting data, preparing an oral/poster
presentation and writing a manuscript. (Ing, Wenson, and Kisailus). In addition to the 11
activities, the students were asked to indicate whether or not they received guidance from a

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graduate student or a faculty member. As well as indicating whether or not they were able to
share their ideas for the 11 activities performed. (Ing, Wenson, and Kisailus). This would create a
solid foundation for understanding how undergraduates work on and communicate their ideas.
And by including whether or not they received help from a graduate student or faculty member
and whether or not they were able to share their ideas allows Ing, Wenson and Kisailus to gauge
the different levels of communication exhibited by the various students. This experiment was
conducted over the course of a 10 week span, in which the students were sent weekly reminders
to complete the online survey about the 11 activities they completed during the week. And at the
end of that 10 week period, the students were given the opportunity to display their experiments
at a local museum. And the beauty of this is that the respective student were essentially given
grades by complete strangers based on how well their work communicates their ideas. This
allows Ing, Wenson and Kisailus to receive another perspective on how the students are doing
during the experiment. This experiment showed that on average, the students spent the most of
their time conducting their experiments and the least amount of time understanding why the
experiments were conducted in a particular way. There were also a couple major variations
between the students. Most of these variations came from the mentoring and idea sharing aspect
of the experiment. Some students were able to receive more mentoring and opportunities in
terms of numbers of weeks and different activities. And other students did not receive mentoring
and the opportunity to share their ideas for the same activity. An example of this would be that
one student received a significant amount of mentoring during the time they were conducting
their experiment, but did not have many opportunities to share their ideas about the experiment.
Using the data compiled over the 10 week experiment, Ing, Wenson and Kisailus were able to

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conclude that there was a positive and significant relationship between communication scores
and students who received both mentoring on research activities related to conducting and
interpreting experiments, and the opportunity to share their thinking across more than a single
week. This supports the notion of students being active participants in the research process and
the need to be in ongoing supportive environments. (Ing, Wenson and Kisailus).
When reading that scholarly journal, there were a couple things I noticed in the
formatting and how the document was organized. It was very evident that this was a formal
article because of the language used throughout the journal. There were very few instances in
which the authors used significant pronouns, such as he, she or they. When referring the students
involved in the study, the authors always referred to them as students or undergraduates, not he
or she. It was also interesting to note the absence of the word you. It showed that at no point
were they ever talking to the audience. Their main focus was to communicate their results to
the broad audience that may read their journal. Another significant part of this journal was the
organization. Ing, Wenson and Kisailus organized their journal in a methodical manner. They
started with an introduction, followed by the method, results, discussion and conclusions and
finally the references. By organizing their article in this form, they were able to create a proper
flow that took the reader through each step of their study in the order in which they occurred.
Materials science and engineering may seem like an incredibly complicated major to go
into. And for most people, it is incredibly difficult. But that doesnt mean that it is impossible.
Materials science is a field of study that has a lot of positives, such as job security and general
impact on products we use and are surrounded by everyday. Materials science and engineering

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majors create the stuff that is needed by all other engineers to carry out their designs. They use
their educations and the various machines and tools in their workplace to conduct experiments to
identify issues with current materials that have failed or even engineer completely new materials
that can be used more effectively by other engineers for their respective projects. And as far as
relevance goes for any discipline of engineering, this is definitely one of the more important
disciplines. Because of the impact materials science engineers have on the engineering industry,
materials science engineers are vital to the flow of the engineering industry. This daunting task
of becoming a materials science engineer, however, comes with some words of advice. As with
many things in life, choosing the right major requires some trial and error. During his
undergraduate years, Matt Klenk studied chemistry ad biology and ultimately got a major in
Chemistry. And shortly after graduating college he got a job designing steering columns for cars
and trucks. But after being around cars for about 2 years, he realized that he wanted to get a
graduate degree in materials science and engineering. And his biggest advice is to do what you
love. As cliche and cheesy as that may seem, its true. Theres no point being stuck doing a job
that you hate for the rest of your life. If youre going to be stuck doing something for at least 40
years (30 if youre lucky), you might as well be doing something that you are passionate about.
Duyen summed it perfectly: MSE affects all of my thinking and behaviors. You would say that
is a professional disease, but truly when I see a product I'll think what material is made of, how
to improve it or if it is a plastic one, I'll think of how to design it by injection method or
molding. (Do). And ultimately that is the type of passion you need in order to succeed in any
major.

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Works Cited
Celine. "Difference Between TEM and SEM." Difference Between Similar Terms and Objects.
Difference Between, 1 Mar. 2012. Web. 6 Nov. 2014. <http://www.differencebetween.net/
science/difference-between-tem-and-sem/>.
Do, Duyan Van Thuy. E-mail interview. 1 Nov. 2014.
Ing, Marsha Wenson, W. Fung, and Kisailus, David. "The Influence of Materials Science and
Engineering Undergraduate Research Experiences on Public Communication Skills."
Journal of STEM Education : Innovations and Research 14.2 (2013): 16-20. ProQuest.
Web. 7 Nov. 2014.
Klenk, Matt. E-mail interview. 3 Nov. 2014.
Michigan State University. "Undergraduate Degree - Materials Science and Engineering."
Michigan State University Office of Registrar. Michigan State University, n.d. Web. 16
Oct. 2014. <http://www.reg.msu.edu/AcademicPrograms/ProgramDetail.aspx?
Program=2499>.
Schweitzer, Jim. "Scanning Electron Microscope." Purdue University Radiological and
Environmental Management. Purdue University, n.d. Web. 6 Nov. 2014. <http://
www.purdue.edu/ehps/rem/rs/sem.htm>.
Simon, Cecilia Capuzzi. "Major Decisions." The New York Times. New York Times, 2 Nov. 2012.
Web. 16 Oct. 2014. <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/04/education/edlife/choosing-onecollege-major-out-of-hundreds.html?_r=0>.