The Department of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering (DMME)

The Department of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering was established in 1992 to provide academic and research capability in materials science and engineering. The department has since grown into a centre of research excellence focusing primarily on surface engineering, and the development of novel materials and treatments.  

Materials engineering serves as the foundation for technological advances across many different industries. At DMME we believe that materials science and engineering drive innovation in both research and industry in everything from aerospace to medicine and therefore our researchers strive to develop a fundamental understanding of the properties and performance of materials but also develop materials - and surfaces - which have a significant impact on devices and systems and beyond.

 

In order to do so, a large variety of tools and techniques are employed to manipulate and control the structure of materials at an atomic level thus affecting the mechanical properties, tribological performance, and resistance to degradation tailoring these characteristics to a particular application.  

 

In collaboration with our academic and industrial partners, the department has been successful in attracting very substantial funding which has led to published research work but also investment in state-of-the-art infrastructure and facilities.

Our mission

DMME academics together with its technical staff strive to instil in engineering students a fundamental understanding of materials at the nano, micro and macro scales and an appreciation of how today’s materials advancements have enabled new technological breakthroughs across all engineering disciplines. We aim to train and educate young scientists and engineers to operate in industry and interdisciplinary environments.

 

This is achieved through the B.Eng course programme via the range of study units offered by the department and particularly for those students opting for the Applied Materials in Engineering stream of studies during their third and fourth years of study. MME study units include topics such as fundamentals of materials science and materials processing techniques to nanomaterials and biomaterials.

Collaboration with Industry

The department boasts excellent links with all local major local industries and is actively engaged in supporting local industry and society at large by providing expertise in the behaviour, properties and degradation of materials, products and structures. This includes the provision of technical services including testing and characterisation of materials, and also the application of surface engineering techniques and heat treatment.