News

ARWU recently released its academic rankings by subject areas.  Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) is one of the ranked subject fields.   Although the top 100 institutions ranked in this list have much overlap with other rankings, such as the U.S.News ranking of the top 100 universities for materials science, the specific positions of individual institutions actually vary a lot.   The top ranked institutions in MSE are also those that have attracted the most cited researchers in materials science.  The reputation of a materials science and engineering program has a strong dependence on its academic excellence, which is supported by...

Could your department use a new ball milling system? The Ceramic and Glass Industry Foundation (CGIF) affiliated with the American Ceramic Society is partnering with MSE Supplies to provide a new ball milling system to a U.S. university with a materials science and engineering program where ceramics, glass, nanomaterials, and other powder processing is part of the education program. Please help to forward this call for proposal announcement to your colleagues and schools where this donated equipment can be used to support the education and research programs.   The equipment is a MSE PRO™ Mini High Energy Vertical Planetary Ball Mill with four 50...

US News & World Report just publishes its 2018 ranking of the best graduate schools and programs in the U.S. (ranked in 2017).  Among the materials engineering programs, what are the changes from the 2016 to 2018 rankings? MSE Supplies (www.msesupplies.com) has compiled the ranking data in the most recent 3 years and noticed some interesting movement of ranking spots of some schools. Among the top 10 schools, CalTech has advanced the most on the rankings over the last 3 years, jumping from No. 8 to No. 5. University of Washington and Drexel University also showed positive movement in ranking.  Both schools moved up 6...

MSE Supplies: Electric car sales posted an estimated 60% growth rate in 2016. They’re poised for rapid adoption by 2022, when the cost of EVs is projected be same as internal combustion cars. However, the rapid adoption of EVs is dependent on the development of better performance and lower cost and safe batteries.  In addition to EVs, the ubiquitous handheld electronic devices and wearables are all hungry for longer life and safe batteries that are yet to be developed.   The good news is that a breakthrough new glass electrolyte-based all solid-state battery has been developed by UT Austin researchers, led by the Li-ion battery inventor...

　　The new perovskite solar cells have achieved an efficiency of 20.1 per cent and can be manufactured at low temperatures, which reduces the cost and expands the number of possible applications. Credit: Kevin Soobrian 　　A U of T Engineering innovation could make printing solar cells as easy and inexpensive as printing a newspaper. Dr. Hairen Tan and his team have cleared a critical manufacturing hurdle in the development of a relatively new class of solar devices called perovskite solar cells. This alternative solar technology could lead to low-cost, printable solar panels capable of turning nearly any surface into a power...