Materials Engineering

Entry requirements

The normal minimum entrance requirement is an upper second class honours degree or master's degree.

Months of entry

October

Course content

Materials Engineering research is concentrated in the following focus areas:

• Structural integrity
• Energy materials
• Advanced materials processing and joining
• High temperature testing
• Residual stress
• Nanotechnology
• Smart materials

The group has a thriving research student community, with access to excellent research facilities and internationally leading expertise.

We are partners in the EPSRC Doctoral Training in Nuclear Energy Futures programme (CDT NEF) with Imperial College London, Cambridge University, University of Bristol and Bangor University, offering a number of OU research projects in structural integrity, high temperature performance and energy materials.

PhD research projects in Materials Engineering at the OU are usually sponsored by industry. We have a strong track record of working collaboratively with engineering companies in the aerospace and nuclear power sectors (e.g. Airbus, Rolls-Royce, EDF Energy, AREVA and TWI). The impact of our research is attested by the success of our business unit StressMap which draws upon our world-leading research in residual stress measurement using particle beam diffraction and the contour method.