Master of Philosophy Course
Modelling of Materials

One Year, Interdisciplinary Course

Applications are invited from students with backgrounds in materials science, engineering, physics, chemistry, chemical engineering, biology, mathematics, statistics or computing.

A collaboration between the Materials Science and Metallurgy, Engineering and Physics Departments of the University of Cambridge, with contributions from manufacturing industry. The course is approved and financially supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council of the United Kingdom.

Purpose

Computational Materials Science is thriving in both industry and academia. There are now numerous examples of profitable commercial products resulting from the application of this type of research. Given that most technological problems cover many fields of expertise, the objectives of this course are as follows:

To provide a broad training in materials and process modelling.
To instil confidence in a variety of techniques covering the engineering scale down to the atomic dimensions.
To deal with materials as a whole.
To inspire teamwork and the ability to communicate.
To teach project design and management.
To engender the proper documentation and reporting of software and outcomes.

Course Contents

Further details can be obtained from the Course Director, Dr Zoe Barber zb10@cam.ac.uk

General methodology of modelling
Ab initio methods and approximations
Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics methods
Thermodynamics and phase diagrams
Mesoscale and multiscale modelling
Kinetics and microstructure modelling
Process modelling (including finite elements)
Information theory, pattern recognition and neural networks
Structure-property relationships
Integrated selection of materials and processes
Management, IPR and dissemination

Industrial Input

Manufacturing industry and government laboratories strongly support this course. Industrial participation will include identification of technologically important problems in the modelling area, leading, for example, to topics for the Team Work Projects and full participation in the more extensive Individual Research Projects.

Assessment

Course Component

Written examination on course work
Standard Credit ^**
Literature Survey
Team Work Project
Research Project

Credit

22%
12%
6%
10%
50%

^**Standard Credit refers to credit given for completing set exercises, in the form of examples classes and computing.

Academic Staff

From the Materials Science and Metallurgy, Engineering and Physics Departments: Dr Z. Barber (Course Director), Professor H. K. D. H. Bhadeshia, Dr P. Bristowe, Dr R. Cameron, Dr D. Cebon, Professor T. W. Clyne, Dr J. Elliott, Dr S. Fitzgerald, Professor D. J. Fray, Professor A. L. Greer, Dr V. Kumar, Dr P. J. Hansip, Dr H. R. Shercliff

Class of 2003, 2004

Class of 2003	Class of 2004

Class of 2000, 2001, 2002

Class of 2000	Class of 2001	Class of 2002


Alcan Award, best student, Tom Illingworth, 2000	Alcan Award, best student, Chia Too, 2001	Rolls-Royce Award, best student, Katerina Plati, 2002

M.Phil. Degree award ceremony, November 2004

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