Faculty affiliated with the University of Notre Dame’s Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) doctoral program gathered in late May for a half-day session to review the program’s first three years and discuss ways to build on the program’s strong start moving forward.
![MSE Faculty Retreat Group](https://mse.nd.edu/assets/523074/400x/mse_faculty_retreat_group.jpg)
The agenda topics, led by members of the program staff and governing committees, included:
- the current state of the program
- survey feedback from MSE students
- a benchmark study with similarly structured MSE programs in the U.S.
- goals for Notre Dame's program over the next five years
- the direction of materials research in the next 20 years
- upcoming materials research center grant opportunities
![MSE Faculty Retreat](https://mse.nd.edu/assets/523076/400x/mse_faculty_retreat.jpg)
- Review the materials course page from the students’ perspective to identify better ways to organize the courses. This could benefit current students, and serve to attract new students.
- Continue efforts to raise the visibility of the program and enhance graduate recruiting. Toward this end, the following ideas were proposed: revive the Materials Research Society student chapter; investigate and potentially join the Materials Research Council; have affiliated students and faculty cite the materials program in their publications and presentations.
- Establish metrics to better measure the program’s progress, including materials research, to better evaluate the program’s impact.
- Further examine national program rankings, and evaluate the risks, rewards, and timing to enter these national rankings.
- As an outlook, autonomous materials discovery will accelerate the development of new materials and the understanding of measurements.
The MSE leadership committees will follow up on these and other inputs from this half-day session.
The MSE program is open to current and incoming Ph.D. students in seven departments/programs in the College of Engineering and College of Science. For more information, please visit the program website (mse.nd.edu) or email MSE-list@nd.edu.
Originally published by mse.nd.edu on July 12, 2023.
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