Opportunities for MSE students are broad and diverse. Our faculty and staff are eager to help you make the most of your time here by joining competition teams, finding research opportunities, and pinpointing the best courses for your career goals.
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MSE students are able to participate in undergraduate Clark School competitions such as the Alumni Cup, where all departments gather to showcase the best Rube Goldberg machine.
Dylan Stone prepares samples for a ceramic 3D printer, which he uses to print thermal insulation materials.
Dylan Stone, pictured above, spent the Summer of 2026 interning in Professor Shenqiang Ren's lab, developing bio-based porous ceramic foams as a sustainable alternative to expanded polystyrene (EPS) insulation. Building on previous work with silica aerogels and cellulose foams, he was allowed to independently design and optimize my own material formulation. Inspired by the structure of culinary foams such as marshmallows and meringues, he adapted the concept of mechanical leavening to create highly porous ceramic foams using bio-derived polymers as foam stabilizers. He developed a rapid fabrication process that combined colloidal self-assembly, mechanical foaming, and bio-binders to produce lightweight materials with high porosity and low thermal conductivity. By incorporating carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) as a rheological modifier and foam stabilizer alongside hollow-shell nanosilica particles, he experimentally optimized the composition to achieve rigid, low-density foams with competitive thermal insulation and moderate mechanical strength. This work demonstrated how culinary-inspired processing techniques can be applied to advanced materials manufacturing to produce sustainable, high-performance insulation materials.
Want to learn more about what the MSE major offers? Check out our Student Stories below.
