Materials Science + Engineering Center
Solutions through science
UW-Eau Claire loves to collaborate on public-private partnerships that result in exciting projects involving the community. One well-established partnership is the Materials Science and Engineering Center. This unique center provides a perfect nexus for the expertise of Blugold faculty, the eagerness of student researchers, and the needs of area industry — where research and development puts knowledge to practical use solving the real-world materials issues of area businesses.
Blugolds make critical pandemic supplies
During the global pandemic, many have struggled with feeling helpless about ways to make a difference. This led to some ingenuity by materials science and engineering students, who put their heads together and turned campus 3D printers into PPE production lines.
Thanks to quick thinking, backed by Mayo Clinic Health System guidance, much-needed items like nasal swabs, face shields and face masks have been produced by students, faculty, staff and even alumni.
“We have resources on campus, so any time the community has a need that we can help meet, then we want to do whatever we can to make that happen,” said Dr. Doug Dunham, director of the Materials Science and Engineering Center.
Filling a gap for businesses
The center has been invaluable to small businesses that otherwise would not have the resources and access to the kind of instrumentation needed to bring solutions, products and processes to the market quickly and effectively.
The instrumentation and expertise of faculty and students in the MSEC is available to public and private sector associates. The MSEC faculty and staff provide elemental analysis, electron microscopy, materials characterization, cooperative R&D support, and consulting to both commercial partners and academic researchers.
The Materials Science and Engineering Center:
- provides research experiences for undergraduate students to enhance their education.
- advances the production and dissemination of scholarly research.
- facilitates interactions between faculty researchers and local companies.
- fosters collaborations between faculty in various science disciplines.
To see all of the services, programming, and instrumentation available through the center, see the navigation to the left.
Graduates from our program have the ability to use different instruments. If you are applying for a job and need to use a certain instrument, you already know how to do that or you need minimal or no training for that.