Lab, Research, Design

Participation in laboratory research is an important component of the undergraduate experience in Cornell MSE. It provides students with a unique opportunity to put what is learned in the classroom into practice in a lab environment. Among the many benefits of this program are:

• Valuable teamwork experience in a world class research group.
• Practical hands-on knowledge in areas that range from experimental design and project management to interpretation and presentation of results.
• Opportunities to work with state of the art lab equipment and technology.
• Authoring research publications.

MSE Laboratory, Research, and Design Courses

Hands-on experience and design are important parts of an engineering education. Most sophomore courses in MSE have a laboratory component (2610, 2620, & 2060). All juniors take laboratory courses (3110 and 3120) that complement the junior level core courses (3010-3050) as well as courses in technical and professional skills (3111) and design (3070). Seniors may decide between an intensive one semester senior laboratory course (4030 offered in fall term only) or a two semester senior thesis project (4050/4060).  The senior thesis involves research sponsored by a faculty member and culminating in a final thesis manuscript.  

Seniors must also take a design course either in the fall (5070/4 credits) or spring (4070/3 credits).  The fall version (5070) incorporates multidisciplinary project teams in more realistic engineering design.   In addition, many MSE undergraduates participate in faculty research projects for academic credit (x900, x910; x of 2, 3 and 4 stands for sophomore, junior and senior years, respectively). One semester of research involvement (MSE 2910, 3910, or 4910) may be used as an application elective. Other research involvement courses (MSE 4900 and non-MSE) may be used as advisor approved electives only.