Structured Course Requirements for MS and PhD Students

Credit Requirement

Post-bachelor’s PhD students are required to complete a minimum of 64 credits, of which 24 credits must be the structured courses required for the MS degree. There are no structured course requirements for post-master’s PhD students, but such students are required to complete 32 credits applicable to the degree, all of which must be at the 500 level or higher. It is, however, strongly suggested that the post-master’s PhD student take appropriate core courses to pass the PhD qualifying examination. A minimum of 16 credits of research/dissertation coursework is required for post-bachelor’s PhD students and 8 credits for post-master’s PhD students.

Curriculum

MS and post-bachelor’s PhD students must take six structured courses (24 credits) from the list below. These are the four core courses and two concentration courses in a given concentration area listed below. The remaining courses are not restricted, provided they have some engineering, science, or engineering management content. Only one 400-level course may be taken with advisor approval if needed as a prerequisite for another course in the program.

MSE Curriculum Core (4 courses)

  • MS/EC 577 Electrical, Optical, and Magnetic Properties of Materials* or MS/PY 543 Introduction to Solid-State Physics*
  • MS/ME 505 Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics
  • MS/ME 503 Kinetic Processes in Materials
  • MS/EC 574 Physics of Semiconductor Materials or MS 504 Polymers and Soft Materials or MS/ME 582 Mechanical Behavior of Materials or MS/ME 508 Computational Methods in Materials Science

* Both courses listed above cannot be used to satisfy credit requirements.

Concentration

(2 courses from any one concentration area)

Biomaterials
  • MS/BE 506 Physical Chemistry of Cell Structure and Machinery
  • MS/BE 521 Continuum Mechanics for Biomedical Engineers
  • MS/ME/BE 523 Mechanics of Biomaterials
  • MS/ME/BE 524 Skeletal Tissue Mechanics
  • MS/BE 533 Biorheology
  • MS/ME/BE 726 Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering
  • MS/ME/BE 727 Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering II
  • MS/BE 736 Biomedical Transport Phenomena
  • MS/ME 742 Bio-Fluids and Structural Mechanics
  • MS/PY 744 Polymer Physics
  • MS/PY 771 Biophysics
Materials for Energy & Environment
  • MS/ME 527 Transport Phenomena in Materials Processing
  • MS/ME 532 Atomic Structure and Dislocations in Materials
  • MS/ME 535 Green Manufacturing
  • MS/ME 545 Electrochemistry of Fuel Cells and Batteries
  • MS/EC 573 Solar Energy Systems
  • ME 779 Solid-State Ionics and Electrochemistry
  • MS/ME 781 Electroceramics
Electronic/Photonic Materials
  • MS/EC 560 Introduction to Photonics
  • MS/EC 575 Physics of Semiconductor Devices
  • MS/EC 578 Fabrication Technology for Integrated Circuits
  • MS/EC 770 Guided-Wave Optoelectronics
  • MS/EC 774 Semiconductor Quantum Structures and Photonics Devices
  • MS/EC 776 Fundamentals of Nanoelectronics
  • MS/EC 777 Nanostructure Optics
Nanomaterials
  • MS/ME 530 Introduction to Micro- and Nanomechanics of Solids
  • MS/ME 555 MEMS Fabrication and Materials
  • MS/ME 718 Advanced Topics in Nanotechnology
  • MS/ME 735 Computational Nanomechanics
  • MS/EC 777 Nanostructure Optics
  • MS/ME 778 Micromachined Transducers
MSE elective courses
  • MS/ME 507 Process Modeling and Control
  • MS/ME 526 Simulation of Physical Processes
  • MS/ME 534 Materials Technology for Microelectronics
  • MS/ME/EC 579 Microelectronic Device Manufacturing
  • MS/ME 580 Theory of Elasticity
  • MS/PY 783 Advanced Characterization of Materials
  • MS 784 Topics in Materials Science

GPA Requirement

Doctoral students must maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.0 to remain in good academic standing and to graduate. All graduate courses are counted in the GPA. Only grades of B- or better fulfill PhD curricular requirements. This requirement applies to post-bachelor’s and post-master’s PhD students.

Master of Science and Master of Engineering students must maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.0 to remain in good academic standing and to graduate. All graduate courses are counted in the GPA. Only grades of C or better fulfill MS or MEng curricular requirements.

Advisors

Upon entry into the Materials Science & Engineering Program, each student will be appointed an academic advisor from the MSE faculty. The advisor will act as the student’s primary academic advisor until the student selects a research advisor(s).

Qualifying Examinations

Doctoral students must demonstrate competency in applied mathematics and pass the materials PhD qualifying examination by the end of their second year. The qualifying examination is derived from the courses listed in the core curriculum (see above), and has a written and an oral component. It is strongly suggested that students complete their prospectus defense within 2 years of advancing to PhD candidacy. This examination consists of an oral examination defending a research prospectus developed by the student. The Prospectus Defense Committee will typically also later serve as the PhD Dissertation Committee.

Residency Requirement

Doctoral students must satisfy a residency requirement of at least two consecutive academic-year semesters of full-time graduate study at Boston University.

Language Requirement

There is no foreign language requirement for the Materials Science & Engineering degree. However, basic mastery of spoken and written English as determined by oral presentations, written reports, and publishable manuscripts, is a requirement for the PhD.

Dissertation or Thesis

The PhD candidate is expected to carry out original research under the guidance of a research advisor(s), who will monitor their progress toward the degree. Doctoral students must defend a written dissertation before a Dissertation Committee by the end of the fifth year of candidacy. The student must have at least a one-year gap between their prospectus defense and final dissertation defense. The Dissertation Committee must have a minimum of five members including the chair. At least two members of the committee must be affiliated with the Division of Materials Science & Engineering, and at least two members must be affiliated with the College of Engineering.

The MS candidate must write a thesis. Thesis students enroll in ENG MS 901 for at least 4, but no more than 8, credits toward their MS degree. Thesis work is likely to entail several semesters of research; as a result, completion of the master’s degree usually requires more than one year. Students are therefore encouraged to discuss their research interests with faculty at the beginning of their master’s program.

Before a student enrolls in ENG MS 901, a Thesis Committee must be formed and the student should submit to the MSE Graduate Programs Manager a thesis plan signed by the members of the student’s committee. The Thesis Committee consists of a thesis advisor and at least one additional reader (at least one member of the MSE faculty). The student must submit a written thesis proposal (approved by the readers) at least one semester before the thesis presentation, and no later than the first semester of enrollment in ENG MS 901.

The thesis is publicly presented with the members of the student’s Thesis Committee present, and the final version must be approved by all readers. The deadline for submission of the thesis is one month prior to graduation.

Admission and Financial Aid

PhD graduate students may obtain financial aid in the form of competitive teaching fellowships or research assistantships available from grants or contracts held by faculty members. Annual (12 month) stipends are approximately $28,950. Other traineeship funding may also be available to U.S. citizens and permanent residents.