About What Is MEMS?

The University of Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering has created a new department by combining the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. The new department, to be known as the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science (MEMS), will be the largest in the school in terms of students and faculty.

Core Strengths

MEMS has core strengths in the traditional areas of bioengineering, manufacturing, microsystems technology, smart structures and materials, computational fluid and solid dynamics, and energy systems research. Key focus is reflective of national trends, which are vying toward the microscale and nanoscale systems level.

Mechanical Engineering

Mechanical engineering is one of the oldest engineering disciplines, having culminated from the industrial revolution of the 19th century. Traditionally concerned with harnessing and converting energy forms, mechanical engineers are inherently multidisciplinary. For example, the design of a car engine combines the fields of chemistry, thermodynamics, heat transfer, fluid dynamics, electronic controls, dynamics and vibrations, materials science, and mechanical design. Although a mechanical engineer may specialize in one of those fields, a cursory knowledge of the each of the fields is necessary to interact with other engineers.

Materials Science and Engineering

Materials science and engineering is the engineering discipline that integrates fundamental knowledge of materials processing and synthesis, materials microstructure and chemistry, and materials properties and applies that knowledge to improve the performance of engineered products and design unique new materials for next-generation applications. “Materials” are conventionally classified by type (e.g., metals, ceramics, polymers) but also may be usefully categorized by function (e.g., structural, magnetic, electronic) or form (e.g., bulk, particulate, thin film). Modern approaches to materials science and engineering emphasize a basic understanding of the key issues in the processing, structure, and properties that unite all classes of materials and determine their intelligent utilization.

A degree in materials science and engineering from the University of Pittsburgh is the gateway to an extraordinary range of career opportunities in the aerospace and defense industries, telecommunications, transportation, microelectronics, the primary metals industries, polymer processing, etc. Materials science and engineering is also the ideal preparation for participating in the exciting emerging opportunities in nanoscience and engineering and advanced materials for biotechnology. Materials science and engineering is an enabling discipline for all of the other engineering disciplines and is a unique synthesis of engineering and the physical sciences.

News

Qing-Ming Wang, associate professor, was recently awarded a three-year research grant from the U.S. Army Research Office for the development of thin film bulk acoustic wave resonators for RF and microwave frequency control applications.

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