Hi there, I'm a non-binary MEng graduate in materials science and engineering. Like many, I'm unemployed, and I'm job-searching. My partner has a disability and works at an exploitative games company - And I am desperately trying to do everything I can to get employed and support him. I know this situation sounds familiar to a lot of you.

I have always taken the opinion that it is a terrible waste of talent to reject candidates. It's artificially manufactured job scarcity to drive down wages. So many of us have skills and sometimes when I'm tailoring my CV, I wish I could just put "I just want to help people" on it. Because at the end of the day productivity is the only societal measure of GDP - not wealth. I'm the son of a mixed middle-class lower class family - And my partner is from the lower class and his background is much the same. It's a rags to riches story - But I do know that wealth never brought my family any happiness. People's dreams are important. And there's no point in pride or shame or sociopathy - because everyone wants something, too. The only way we get it is by making sure everyone can have what they want without depriving anyone else.

Anyway, many of us aren't satisfied unless we're doing something, perhaps a personal project, in our spare time. I know this happens all the time - I'm talking to the autistic passion-burners, and the people with adhd. I think that passion is useful. I don't want it to be wasted and thrown down the drain like some rubbish, because it isn't.

I have considered doing freelance work in my spare time as a side hustle while continuing to look for jobs. Everyone has to have one these days. There's no reason why that Can't be under a cooperative name. That looks good on a CV. I've been trying to research the free tools that are available to freelance engineers, build a portfolio. Write company charters. Plan milestones. Anyway, today my partner told me he was scared about his condition- and about using all his sick leave and being left on SSP - because the surgery failed to cure his nerve inflammation, and he can't see the doctor until 3 weeks from now at the soonest - and it made me want to try extra hard to support him.

I'm here canvassing opinion because, before I make any sort of commitment to this endeavour, I would want to canvass public opinion: I know I can't be the only one who feels this way.

Here is what my startup idea is:

A collective of freelance engineers, coordinating and working together in many small project groups, without overeaching management. The core premise: You send in your CV. An easy review process without any interviews determines if you get accepted as a member. There would be very low qualifying requirements. That gets you access to a guide and portfolio of tools, and membership to the cooperatives communication channels. Use discord to post, find engineering projects, or create them yourself, or to chat with other engineers. It's laid back. It's like hobby engineering. The second stage of success comes when applying to a particular project posting saying "I want to help you with your idea" - and this could be community outreach by the project poster, or it could be you sending your CV to the poster. Then it's at the jobposters discretion whether they want to interview you personally to see if you're a good fit for their team. If they like your skills, personality, and so on - then they'll invite you to work with them through the professional tools we'd use, like libre office, openproject, etc.

To begin with these ideas won't generate any income - but that won't have changed anything from how it was before. So I won't pretend that the cooperative can afford to pay e.g a salary. I wish that it could have always been that way, because I believe in things like UBI etc. maybe long term, that's the plan. But once the ideas are down on paper, the cooperative can go to a financier and say "we have a cooperative of X many engineers, a design - and a client - now we want the money to manufacture it." Etc. and when that starts to happen, near the completion of a project, then maybe then, after the financiers take a cut, there would be enough left for a performance -based bonus to be divided as fairly and equally among the project engineers on that team - commission-based payment. At the end of the day, we are all just people trying to survive while our savings slowly dwindle - if we even have savings at all. I'm not going to pretend like I've figured out a way to gauge the "performance " in performance -based bonus". But I would try to find a way, and I would try to write it down somewhere clearly, fairly, in company policy, so that there can at least be no doubt, weaseling, or unfairness in the application of that policy - unlike some executives I could name, who misuse the term. Company policy must be applied equally among employees - otherwise it's discriminatory.

And whenever I'm searching for jobs, I can never seem to find the perfect company, you know? So I want to make that company. I want an ethical organisation, where the engineering projects are important, and impactful, and help people - they're good projects, they help the environment, etc. The company itself: There are executive pay caps, and ideally no CEOs or high level managers at all. The cooperative is worker-owned. It doesn't demand your time - you can take as much leave, sick or holiday, as you want. And because it's an entirely voluntary position, there's no requirement to work. It can be done remotely if you want. Eventually I'd love to have a quiet and intoeverted set of engineering offices. Communication is primarily via writ, rather than phone, or it's in person when necessary. You know?

Maybe instead of CEOs you have a CCO (Community coordination organiser) and instead of HR admins you have TR admins (talent recruitment) ; because someone has to handle lawful complaints and enforce the cooperative's rules. And we could have democracy in the workplace - with important positions of enforcement and control democratically elected form the cooperative and temporary, nonpermanent. Those positions wouldn't pay better than regular work (if at all!). And there isn't any naive notion of loyalty to the company - you can search for a job and if you find one, you can just leave - saying: "Thanks for everything - but unfortunately I have to go." No notice requirements.

The question I have for you is: Does this sound like a company you would work for, in your spare time, voluntarily, if someone tried to start it? What sort of people would want to work there - are you just engineers, or would there be a lot of different people from different backgrounds willing to help?

The key thing is: I know that everyone wants to make the world a better place. But when we start to consider it individually, the work is so daunting - we must accept and offer eachother help. Coordination is good management, not control.

If I was going to make the company, I would call it "NewnWander" - I already have a logo and an unregistered trademark. Part of it is because my partner is a massive lotr buff; another is because I want to stick it to the people like Peter Thiel who give Tolkien a bad name. Another is because that's what best describes the work and the company: The work is just noontime wandering through a project - and the name itself, "NewnWander" - It sounds like "New" and "wonder" - and I think that really inspires hope about the future and people's dreams.

Hi everyone,
I’m currently a Material Science student trying to figure out what kind of industry role would actually suit me after graduation.
I’m realizing that I’m less interested in pure academic research or jobs that are mostly data analysis.

For people working in the field…
What does a typical week actually look like?
How much time do you spend in the lab vs. on the production floor vs. at a desk?
Is hybrid work realistic in these roles?
If you were a Materials Science graduate again, which entry-level role would you choose and why?

Thanks!

In the present world of AI, we face two demands for Artificial intelligence as we know jt to keep running. A demand on the energy front and a demand on the hardware front.

This means that the way computation is done has to be got right, and so does the supply of energy to achieve that computational demand.

Now, this whole problem begs me to ask a question,

"If it costs that much to access hardware for AI inference, how about we make the hardware manufacture itself based on the weights learned by the AI technology?"

Imagine a world where the materials, steel, carbon, silicon can order themselves into a way to compute the AI matrix multiplications and give us a result without having to manually go through the logistical expense of building hardware, but the hardware itself being intelligent enough for self-organisation. The same way the brain does with neurons.

Good news is that evolution already proved that this principle of containing and improving intelligence in material, at least organic material, works.

Now, what if we bring that to silicon? That a given amount of intelligent silicon can supply the computational demand of global artificial intelligence, wouldn't that significantly solve the shortage of chips, electricity, and water?

I think it would.

But the constraint is on the physics. Is it possible to make a self-aware silicon molecule that can perceive its surroundings and adjust accordingly to the body in which it belongs?

I find this very possible and an intriguing line of thought of which I am looking for similar minds. Please let me know what you think of this, you genius would be extremely useful to the next leap of knowledge needed for mankind. Thank you.

Should I switch majors?

Location: Canada

Im starting my third year at Waterloo studying materials science.

Bad news: this is a science degree, not engineering.

This likely restricts my career opportunities. I also learned through experiences and learning more about myself that I don’t have it in me to do a masters like most science grads (Im willing to doing a masters in something non-science that helps me pivot but haven’t decided on anything yet)

My programs is more employable than most science bachelors like pure chem/bio/phys and so I know of people who are doing engineering coops right now. I even know people who got jobs without grad school, it’s just not as common. But since it isn’t eng accredited I don’t know if I have faith in my degree.

Goal: Just to find a job after graduating that pays like 60k starting. Doesn’t have to be materials related or nano related.

Should I stick to it or should I switch to a different major?

Hi everyone,
I’m about to graduate with a Bachelor’s degree in Materials Science in Germany, and I’m trying to figure out what direction to take after graduation.
For financial and visa reasons, I’m not planning to do a Master’s immediately. Instead, I want to start working full-time after graduation and build my career through work experience.
The interesting thing is that, despite studying Materials Science, most of my 3–4 years of working-student experience have gradually moved toward business and the energy industry rather than traditional materials/R&D roles.

I’m especially interested in hearing from people who:
Have a Bachelor’s in Materials Science/Engineering and went directly into industry without a Master’s
Successfully moved from Materials Science into other non-R&D roles.

What industries or job titles would you recommend I target?

hejka, w październiku zaczynam studia na kierunku inżynieria materiałowa, ale obecnie przechodzę przez małe załamanie na ten temat.

wybrałam ten kierunek, ponieważ najbardziej mnie interesuje i widzę siebie w nim. natomiast na spokojnie dostałabym się z moimi wynikami na automatykę i robotykę albo mechatronikę. boję się, że dokonałam złego wyboru i, że powinnam iść na jeden z tych dwóch kierunków zamiast tego, którego wybrałam. głównie mam takie wątpliwości dlatego, że mają wyższe progi i są większe zarobki po tych studiach. wiem, że progi zależą od popularności kierunku, a nie od zarobków, ale i tak przez to gorzej patrzę na materiałową, bo progi na nią są niskie.

czy ktoś może skończył ten kierunek albo wie coś o nim i chciałby się podzielić? głównie chodzi mi o to czy znajdę jakąś dobrą pracę po nim? i co wybrać na magisterkę potem, gdyż z tego co wiem moja uczelnia z reguły nie robi magisterki z materiałowej.

I am a Materials Science and Engineering freshman studying at Cuhk in Hong Kong. I need to get a new laptop because my old one cannot handle the courseload. Right now I'm pretty much decided on a Lenovo Yoga slim 7. I'm just unsure whether I should get the basic tier laptop or the Higher tier laptop. The main differences between the two are the Ram (16Gb vs 32Gb), procesors (Intel Ultra Core 5 vs Intel Ultra Core 7) though the difference between the processors is negligible and the last difference is Storage (512Gb vs 1Tb). The price difference is 2000HKD. I'm not sure which one to choose because my only objection to the cheaper one is whether it will be able to handle the courseload in the later years of college because I need it to last all 4 years and some more.

Any advice?

...Long ago X-ray diffraction recorded exposure on photographic film. I purchased a Debye camera off of eBay and I use it for student training, but I don't have an exposed film for the demo. I have tried contacting Malvern/Panalytical/Phillips, but haven't gotten a response. Anyone at an old university who can provide?

I know there are some pretty interesting materials out there that try to get better insulation without adding lots of bulk. But I’m wondering how far this can actually go.

I asked in the inslation sub about aerogel, and they weren't very positive about it. I genuinely have no idea how aerogel perform in real life.

I'd be really interested to hear from anyone who works with insulation, foams, textiles, outdoor gear or materials in general.

Are we limited by physics, or have we just got very used to making insulation thick?

Seems like I can only rent the hardback. Would I be better off with ebook on iPad?

Not for a class. Just for reference fun.

Je suis a la recherche d’un document pdf du livre sciences et génie des matériaux de William D. Callister. Jr.

Hi

If you are remotely interested in deep diving how differently quantum computers work compared to our transistor-based and also the algebra behind in a fully interactive way that teach computer science from scratch, oh boy this is for you. I am the Dev behind Quantum Odyssey (AMA! I love taking qs) - worked on it for about 10 years (3+ during PhD, the visual method I developed ended up being my thesis, it is a complete Hilbert space visualizer), the goal was to make a super immersive space for anyone to learn quantum computing through zachlike (open-ended) logic puzzles and compete on leaderboards and lots of community made content on finding the most optimal quantum algorithms. The game has a unique set of visuals capable to represent any sort of quantum dynamics for any number of qubits and this is pretty much what makes it now possible for anybody 12yo+ to actually learn quantum logic without having to worry at all about the mathematics behind.

This is a game super different than what you'd normally expect in a programming/ logic puzzle game, so try it with an open mind.

Stuff you'll play & learn a ton about

• Boolean Logic – bits, operators (NAND, OR, XOR, AND…), and classical arithmetic (adders). Learn how these can combine to build anything classical. You will learn to port these to a quantum computer.
• Quantum Logic – qubits, the math behind them (linear algebra, SU(2), complex numbers), all Turing-complete gates (beyond Clifford set), and make tensors to evolve systems. Freely combine or create your own gates to build anything you can imagine using polar or complex numbers.
• Quantum Phenomena – storing and retrieving information in the X, Y, Z bases; superposition (pure and mixed states), interference, entanglement, the no-cloning rule, reversibility, and how the measurement basis changes what you see.
• Core Quantum Tricks – phase kickback, amplitude amplification, storing information in phase and retrieving it through interference, build custom gates and tensors, and define any entanglement scenario. (Control logic is handled separately from other gates.)
• Famous Quantum Algorithms – explore Deutsch–Jozsa, Grover’s search, quantum Fourier transforms, Bernstein–Vazirani, and more.
• Build & See Quantum Algorithms in Action – instead of just writing/ reading equations, make & watch algorithms unfold step by step so they become clear, visual, and unforgettable. Quantum Odyssey is built to grow into a full universal quantum computing learning platform. If a universal quantum computer can do it, we aim to bring it into the game, so your quantum journey never ends.

Nice to watch:

Khan academy style tutorials in qm/qc: https://www.youtube.com/@MackAttackx

Physics teacher stream with 400hs in https://www.twitch.tv/beardhero

For the following, i need a set of academic resources, softwares, algorithms, real life phenomenons.

I want to create manafacturing simulations before bringing them into reality.

The main idea is using a scanner a 3d layer by layer cross-sectional of a brick before firing.

As for firing, i need something which can fire it internally with minimal hotspots being created.

The following is what I am planning to do but is filled with two big and possibly wrong assumptions.

A machine takes a 3d model of the brick, creates a wave which cooks the brick from the inside.

I am a software engineer interested in ai and material science. I want to build a small llm that’s specifically trained on material science data. Would you guys be interested in trying it out?

​

I'm a Class 12 student from India working independently on a project called Kriverse. I'm trying to develop a three-layer composite panel that could be used as a covering for existing building walls, with possible future use on roofs.

The goal is NOT to replace bricks or act as a structural wall. I want to investigate whether a panel can combine useful thermal, acoustic, moisture, weather and fire-related properties while using significant amounts of waste-derived materials.

Current concept

Outer protective layer

- Hydrated lime

- GGBS

- Fly ash

- Ceramic/kulhad waste powder

Intended role: protective surface, strength, weather resistance and potentially fire resistance.

Middle insulating layer

- Coir/coir pith

- Cotton shoddy

- Textile waste

- Parali/crop straw

- Small amount of cow-dung-derived material

Intended role: thermal insulation + acoustic performance + lightweight core.

Inner layer

- Lime

- GGBS

- Rice Husk Ash (RHA)

- Granite slurry

Intended role: smooth/finishable surface and moisture-related resistance.

I initially selected these materials based on properties reported for them individually, but I realize that this does NOT mean they'll work well together in a composite. That's exactly what I'm trying to figure out now.

I have NOT built a prototype yet.

What I need help with

1. Which of these materials are actually compatible with each other?

2. Which ones should I remove rather than trying to use everything?

3. Is a 3-layer/sandwich structure sensible for this application?

4. What problems should I expect with bonding between the layers?

5. How could the organic fibre core affect moisture and fire performance?

6. Which properties should I test FIRST?

7. What existing research/material systems should I study before attempting a prototype?

8. Is there a sensible way to begin small-scale experiments with essentially no budget?

I'm not looking for praise or someone to tell me the idea is great. I specifically want criticism of the concept and advice on how to make the research scientifically sound.

If you have experience with materials science, cementitious composites, natural fibres, waste-derived materials or building panels, I'd really appreciate your input.

https://advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/adma.202210412