By: Erwin P. Enriquez, Ph.D
Motivated
by rapid advances in the technological applications and daily uses of materials
--metals,
ceramics, polymers, composites, and electronic materials -- the Departments
of Chemistry and Physics of the Loyola School of Science and Engineering
will now offer the 5-year Double Major Programs: B.S. Chemistry/B.S. Materials
Science and Engineering and B.S. Physics/B.S. Materials Science and Engineering.
The two programs have curricula that will imbue a future materials scientist
and engineer with sound foundation in the fundamentals of materials properties
and design: structure, properties, processing, and performance of materials.
There is
increasing need for trained materials scientists and engineers in the country.
The reason is to supply the manpower requirements of the high-tech industries
in semiconductor packaging, and also to supply the current demands of local
companies who are gearing up for more globally competitive products (e.
g., paints and coatings, packaging, food, and others). The Department of
Science and Technology has long recognized the strategic importance of advanced
materials research in the country’s S&T development, and thus
a Materials Science Sector is one of its priority areas. Two sub-sectors
formed were focused on (1) electronic materials and (2) polymers
.
Presently, the essential manpower for the said pursuits comes mainly from
the various science and engineering departments in the country, but very
few trained directly with a materials degree. So far, only the University
of the Philippines College of Science and College of Engineering offer MSE
degree programs, previously only in the master’s and doctoral level,
and more recently, a bachelor's program. Furthermore, with the rapidly emerging
field of nanotechnology, a new kind of training program is essential for
the future engineers, one that is strongly founded on the molecular-level
understanding of materials and future devices; and this type of training
naturally stems from the basic sciences such as Chemistry and Physics.
The Ateneo
de Manila University-Loyola Schools is envisioned to play a significant
role in both manpower development and research in this important area. Research-wise,
the Department of Chemistry is already active in the area of polymers where
faculty expertise and research facilities are available. State-of-the-art
equipment in the Polymer Laboratory for general polymer research and characterization
are available, and funded projects are being undertaken involving developing
materials applications using abundant, indigenous resources of the country
and problems identified from industry linkages of the department. The Ateneo
Physics Department and the Electronics and Communications Engineering Program
are also already keyed to contribute to the electronics and telecommunications
industry via the Materials and Photonics Laboratories of Physics, and the
ECCE labs.
The new B.S. MSE Program shall be offered through a ladder, 5th year program from either a B.S. Chemistry or Physics 4-year program. This scheme should provide the necessary skills needed in the analysis, design, and production of materials that will supply the needs of the local and multinational companies in the country (e.g., electronics materials, semiconductors, ceramics, sensors, the plastics and rubber industry, cement and concrete, packaging, etc.).
An MSE program
coming from a Science background at the Ateneo -- with its liberal arts
setting and a Jesuit tradition of service and excellence -- will be particularly
unique in defining the total training of the materials scientists and engineers.
In a published survey of managers and project specialists
,
it was found that the major cause for project conflict in industry is not
really the lack of technical expertise but rather attributed to the following:
(1) goals-priority definition, (2) personality, and (3) communication. These
are traits that have been strongly built into an Ateneo education.
Materials
Science and Engineering is a relatively new field, in the sense that it
was only roughly around the 1960’s, for example, when a departmental
degree program concerned with “interdisciplinary” study of materials
was started in the U.S.
In history,
materials, in the form of hunting weapons and other paraphernalia, were
already in existence even prior to the Bronze Age. It was in the recent
years, after the first wave of industrial revolution, when a more systematic
study of materials was pushed through. With the current wave of computer
and information technology come the design, engineering, and study of materials
that reaches down to the sub-micron or nanometer scale (nanotechnology).
Thus, the archaic training grounds of metallurgical and ceramics engineers
are now replaced by a more encompassing field of Materials Science and Engineering.
The materials engineers are concerned not only with developing and improving
materials properties, but also in being able to design, tailor and process
these materials with more specific and specialized end uses.
The design
of an appropriate curriculum for an MSE program remains to be a challenge
.
What is clear, however, is that the MSE program is a very interdisciplinary
field encompassing the natural sciences and engineering (Figure 1). An example
is the Higher School of Materials Sciences (HSMS) curriculum, which was
developed at the Lomonosov Moscow State University. It served as a “model
of interdisciplinarity” that aimed to “educate a new generation
of materials researchers who would not be just specialists, but generalists
with practical experience as well as excellent basic-science background.”
This program was formed without the conventional engineering departments
in metallurgy, polymers or ceramics, but rather drew from the expertise
available from the chemistry, mathematics, physics, and computer sciences
departments. Likewise, in many universities abroad, a typical materials
and engineering department draw its faculty pool from the various departments:
mathematics, physics, chemistry, engineering, and others. The Ateneo program,
building on its strengths in semiconductor and electronics materials and
polymers will follow these examples; the program draws its faculty from
the current expertise available in the School of Science and Engineering
Departments.
Figure 1. The proposed Ateneo MSE program is designed to cater to current needs, but with an added flexibility to keep pace with fast-changing technologies. The School of Science and Engineering already offers programs in Electronics and Communications Engineering, Computer Science, Mathematics, Chemistry, and Physics.
The 5-year B. S. Materials Science & Engineering Program aims to train materials scientists and engineers suited for work settings that involve or relate to any of the basic materials -- metals, plastics, ceramics, composites, emulsions, semiconductors, and others: manufacturing, process operation and control, materials evaluation and analysis, technical management, sales, and marketing, education and training, or research and development.
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For
example: Chaudhary, P. Materials Challenges for the Next Century: Information
Technology--A Play of Materials, MRS Bulletin, July 2000.
PCASTRD Primer on Materials Science,
July 1994.
These equipment were acquired through
the ESEP/World Bank grants, DOST-PCASTRD projects, or the CHED-COE funds
of the department.
Kezsbom, D. 1991, cited in G. H.
Pearson, Industrial Perspective on Materials Chemistry Education, in
Materials Chemistry: An Emerging Discipline edited by L. V. Interrante,
L. A. Casper, and A. B. Ellis (ACS, Washington D.C., 1995).
Roy, R. Materials Science and
Engineering Education. MRS Bulletin 17 (1992) 22.
See for example, the issue of the
Materials Research Society Bulletin on Materials Education, ibid.
Tretyakov, Y. D. Lomonosov
Moscow State University Develops Interdisciplinary Degree Programs in Materials
Science, MRS Bulletin 25 (2000) 97.
