Materials engineering deals with metals, ceramics, and polymers, and plays a key role in technological innovations such as smartphones and medical devices. You’ll learn about the properties of materials from a microscopic perspective in courses like Modern Physics, and get hands-on experience with a variety of laboratory equipment. Materials engineering plays an important role in a variety of fields, including sustainable energy, environmental protection, and the development of advanced technologies, and will lead the way to future technological innovations.
The Department of Materials Engineering is a major that deals with the overall materials we use. In other schools, the Department of Materials Engineering is known as the Department of New Materials Engineering. The Department of Materials Engineering studies the materials we use, which are broadly divided into metals, ceramics, and polymers (polymer compounds). At SNU, students study all three fields as undergraduates because they don’t choose their favorite field like at other schools. Then, when they go to graduate school, they choose one of the three fields to study.
The importance of materials engineering plays a huge role in our daily lives. Everything we use – smartphones, cars, medical devices, and so on – involves the research and development of materials. For example, smartphones require thin, lightweight, yet strong metals, glass, and flexible polymers. The process of developing and improving these materials is what materials engineering is all about. In the case of medical devices, it is also important to develop biocompatible materials so that they are harmless to the human body while still fulfilling their functions.
I’m only a sophomore, so I’ve only taken a few classes in the Materials Engineering Department, but the most impressive course I’ve taken so far is ‘Modern Physics of Materials,’ which is a course that looks at materials from a physical perspective, and especially since it’s a ‘modern physics’ course, it analyzes materials from a microscopic perspective, which is a very small level. I was interested in the comparison between microscopic phenomena that we can’t see with our eyes and macroscopic phenomena that we can see with our eyes. I liked this subject because it was similar to my usual idea that ‘what you see is not everything’, and I was impressed by the fact that it explains the phenomena that cannot be explained by macroscopic classical physics, such as electrons passing through walls, or the fact that matter has the property of waves and splitting.
Among the phenomena that cannot be proved macroscopically, this subject is particularly effective in explaining the optical properties of materials. In modern physics, the electrons that make up atoms make up the bulk of what we learn, because optical phenomena are related to electrons. For example, if you have a red material, it explains why it is red in terms of the energy level of the electrons, and if it is transparent, it explains why it is transparent in terms of the energy level of the electrons. I found out that you can find out the unique energy level of a material and think about the corresponding color wavelength by calculating the difference in light energy. Through this course, I also learned how we can artificially make a material have the color we want.
Among the experimental instruments, I was interested in the lesson on how the scanning tunneling microscope (STM) works. Many of the materials we use are at the atomic or molecular level, and even with the best microscopes, we can’t see their structure directly with the naked eye. The scanning tunneling microscope utilizes the ability of electrons to pass through materials. This passage is called ‘tunneling’ and the degree of tunneling can be used to reveal the structure of these very small materials without the need to see them.
Learning in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering is organized through theory and experimentation, and you will learn skills that can be applied in a variety of industries. Through this learning process, students develop the ability to solve various technical problems in the future. As such, I liked the course ‘Modern Physics of Materials’ and its experiments and experimental tools the most among the courses I have taken so far. I would like to pursue research related to this area in graduate school because it is difficult to study because it is invisible, but there is great satisfaction in the process of research.
The future of materials science is very bright. The role of materials science will become increasingly important in various fields such as sustainable energy, environmental protection, and the development of advanced technologies. For example, the development of next-generation batteries, improving the efficiency of renewable energy resources, and the development of biomaterials will become increasingly important. Therefore, studying materials science will play an important role in leading future technological innovation.
