Materials Engineering
What is Materials Engineering?
Materials engineering is an interdisciplinary field that applies fundamental knowledge of the structure and properties of matter to the development of new materials that can be used in everyday life or for the most advanced technologies.
Materials engineers find efficient ways to separate minerals extracted from mines transforming them into useful materials such as light, resistant alloys for aerospace or biocompatible composites that can be used to regenerate bones.
Materials engineers can make tons of aluminum for beverage cans, cars, aircrafts or create nano-sized structures ten thousand times smaller than a hair which can be used to make lasers, solar cells, sensors for explosive detection or to deliver drugs directly into damaged tissues.
They use a breathtaking range of technologies from 1000 ton presses that can deform steel bars, to million volt electron microscopes to observe the atoms inside materials. Computational models complement their arsenal generating virtual materials and testing virtual components made of these.
Materials engineers are hired in a number of industries and research centres including Rio Tinto, Teck, Xstrata, Vale Inco, Pratt and Whitney Canada, Novelis, ArcelorMittal, the Canadian Space Agency, Natural Resources Canada and the National Research Council.
Why McGill Materials Engineering?
Successful people make successful programs. Our faculty has an international reputation with expertise covering the full lexicon of materials.
At the undergraduate level, our students enjoy intimate classes where they can get to know their professors and peers. Through our Co-op program, students have the opportunity to intern for a total of 12 months at different companies gaining precious experience for their future career. They can use state-of-the-art equipment in the department and have easy access to a number of facilities at McGill and other universities with whom we collaborate.
Graduate students take advantage of the knowledge, equipment and links that the faculty has with industry, and do research on the most cutting-edge topics.
Last, but certainly not least… we are the oldest Materials Engineering department in Canada in one of the most prestigious universities of North America situated in beautiful, cosmopolitan and vibrant downtown Montreal.
