Curriculum

Undergraduate

• Metallurgical and Materials Engineering plays an important role in all manufacturing processes which convert raw materials into useful products adapted to human needs. The primary focus of the Metallurgical and Materials Engineering program is to provide undergraduates with a fundamental knowledge-base associated with materials-processing, their properties, and their selection and application. Upon graduation, students would have acquired and developed the necessary background and skills for successful careers in the materials-related industries. Furthermore, after completing the program, the student should be well prepared for management positions in industry or continued education toward a graduate degree.
  Currently, there are two programs available to register:
  – Program A (30% of the courses are given in English)
  – Program B (100% of the courses are given in English)

Master’s degree

• The master’s degree program provides training in fundamentals of metallurgical and materials engineering at a more advanced level than the undergraduate program. To receive the master’s degree, one must take 24 credits of courses (12 credits from the mandatory courses and the rest form the elective courses). Some students take three to five classes per semester and graduate in one year, but most take 3-4 semesters to graduate. Master’s degree students have to conduct a research with a professor in the lab and write a Master’s Thesis. Students who do exceptionally well in the master’s degree program and decide that they would like to stay at ITU to earn a Ph.D. degree may petition into the Ph.D. program.

Ph.D. degree

• The Ph.D. program is designed to give students a broad and deep understanding of metallurgical and materials engineering so that they will have long and fruitful careers as researchers and/or educators. When a student graduates from our program, he or she will be one of the world’s leading experts in the area of their thesis research, but will also be equipped wtih the intellectual tools needed to switch into new research areas. During the first year of the Ph.D. program, students take at least six courses from our core curriculum and meet with professors to determine who will be their research advisor. Some students start doing part-time research with one of the professors. During the summer after the first academic year, students typically start doing research under the guidance of a professor in the Metallurgical & Materials Engineering Department. In the second year, students continue to do research and typically take two or three courses per semester. At some point during the time period of their second year, they take a qualifying exam, which they must pass to get a Ph.D. degree. In the first part of the exam, they give a 20-minute presentation on their proposed area of Ph.D. thesis research. A committee of four professors, which includes the student’s advisor, questions the student on the proposed topic for twenty minutes. Finally, the professors ask questions for 80 minutes on topics from the core curriculum. Students are expected to demonstrate an understanding of the fundamentals of metallurgy and materials science and to show that they can think clearly on aspects that are important for their research. Students who do not pass the qualifying can take it again. Once students pass the qualifying exam, they continue to take classes and do their thesis research.The final stage of the Ph.D. program is to write a Ph.D. dissertation and pass the university oral examination, which involves giving a public seminar on the dissertation and answering questions from a private panel of four professors. Most students complete the entire program in five years and receive several employment offers as they write their dissertation.