Materials Design and Innovation graduates first undergraduates
From left to right: Scott Broderick, associate professor in the Department of Materials Design and Innovation, Tony Butler, Krishna Rajan, Erich Bloch Chair and SUNY Distinguished Professor of MDI, Max Urban and Kat Marion Crever.
By Elizabeth Egan
Published May 21, 2024
In the summer of 2021, Max Urban had just finished his first year as a chemical engineering major at the University at Buffalo when he received an email that an undergraduate major in material science and engineering was being created. Having been interested in materials research since high school, Urban enthusiastically transferred into the program for his sophomore year.
In the first semester of the new program, there was only one other student. Over the next two semesters enrollment doubled, and the four students came to affectionately refer to themselves as the “guinea pigs.”
“Being such a small group of students in such a big school, in a brand-new program, meant we had amazing resources, both in terms of equipment and faculty, that many other programs do not have,” said Urban.
As a part of the class of 2024, the four students are the first cohort to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in material science and engineering from the Department of Materials Design and Innovation (MDI).
Since the department started in 2014, in a collaboration between the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the College of Arts and Sciences, it has graduated over 30 PhD students and 70 master’s students.
According to Krishna Rajan, Erich Bloch Chair and SUNY Distinguished Professor of MDI, the undergraduate program is the only one in the country that offers a curriculum concept based on integrating material science and artificial intelligence.
“We have built a curriculum to seamlessly connect all of these different fields, merging diverse skillsets, and we are very proud of that,” said Rajan. “Students graduating are ‘bilingual’ engineering or science students. It is unusual to train people with both skillsets at the same time, and we are proud of the fact that it is the first class to have experienced this genuinely new concept in education.”
Kat Marion Crever transferred into the program from the Rochester Institute of Technology where she was pursuing a degree in packaging sciences. She was intrigued by the prospect of joining a new program.
“I was very excited, particularly for the promise of new opportunity and the chance to set the stage for those coming after us,” said Marion Crever. “I found it especially rewarding for myself, as I am the first and only woman in our class. Representing myself and my fellow women in STEM has always been important to me, so walking as the first female MDI undergraduate is an accomplishment I am extremely proud of.”
While Marion Crever noted that she enjoyed all of her major-specific classes, she particularly appreciated a class taught by Olga Wodo, associate professor of MDI, where she learned about the fundamental principles of lifecycle analysis. Students learned about how engineers fit into a circular economy and gained insights into different elements of manufacturing ethics.
“Mindful engineering design is a topic that is greatly important to me, and seeing it highlighted in this way was something I deeply valued as a part of my undergraduate education,” Marion Crever said.
Rajan, who is also a SUNY Empire Innovation Professor, is highly optimistic about the opportunities that will be available to the students after graduation.
“Our students can fit into all kinds of companies and industries,” said Rajan. “People who can learn AI and apply it to a problem have an edge over other graduates. This means our students can go into subjects even outside of traditional engineering jobs and do remarkably well because they have this dual skill approach.”
All of the four students will either go into a graduate program or industry after graduation, with two of the students, including Marion Crever, continuing in the department to pursue their PhD’s.