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PhD Qualifying Examination

New exam structure, starting 2004/2005 academic year.

Recognizing the interdisciplinary nature of Materials Science and Engineering, as well as the increased breadth of the field (now including biomaterials, nanotechnology, etc.), the PhD qualifying examination has been changed from our traditional exam (based primarily on physical metallurgy) to a broader structure.

It is strongly recommended that this exam be attempted at the end of the first year in the PhD program.

The exam will be offered once per year, and will have three components.

  1. Written portion, offered on Tuesday of the last instructional week in the Spring Semester.

    1. Morning session (3.5 hours). Covers the broad area of materials science and engineering at the undergraduate level. This portion of the exam is intended to ensure that PhD graduates of our Department have a general understanding of the field, outside of their area of research interest.

    2. Afternoon session (3.5 hours). Covers the three core courses (MY5100, MY5110, MY5260) at the graduate level. This portion of the exam tests the student’s knowledge in the areas that we consider to be the fundamental core of MSE, no matter what the thesis topic is.

  2. Research and presentation of a new topic

    1. Directly after the written portion of the exam, the student will be assigned a topic to study. This topic will be related to the research interest of the student, but will not necessarily be something that they have already studied for their thesis work. The student will have one week to study the topic, and prepare an oral presentation.

    2. On Wednesday of Finals week, the student will make the oral presentation to a group of faculty, and be questioned afterwards. The goal of this portion of the exam is to ensure that students can approach a new topic, research it in detail, communicate their findings effectively, and defend their work.

  3. Oral portion, directly after the research presentation

    1. Students will be questioned about topics discussed in the written exam. The purpose of this is to clarify any misunderstandings and learn what topics the students need further to study further.

Students will be informed of the results prior to the end of Finals week.