r/materials

How do you find good project ideas without it being just a gimmick to fill your resume?

I'm currently doing B.Tech degree in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering. I'm in 2nd Yr. The issue I'm facing while searching for projects is I find a lot of ideas but I'm unable to filter out which is actually useful or interesting and good to go with and which are just resume fillers.

For example, right now I had an idea to make a Phase Diagram Analyser that would give the phase composition and phase %age at certain temperature for alloys and all but idk if its useful to invest time after that or its just not impressive at all. Similar thoughts for another one I thought to build a device that can measure the thermal conductivity of materials but again there are already a lot of them, will it be of any use if i build one as a project?

reddit.com
u/Independent-Rip7737 — 11 days ago

Anyone attending MS&T-2026?

Not sure if this is the right place to add this - But is anyone attending MS&T in Pittsburgh this week?
Would love to connect!

reddit.com
u/piwi109 — 12 days ago

Currently debating my undergraduate major plz help

Hi, I'm a high school senior with pretty average grades and I was pretty lazy 90% of the time but I'm trying to change that - Recently I got a 29 on my ACT and I plan to retake again. I need any tips or advice for which major to start out in undergrad with.

I really want to do Materials Engineering, my uncle works in the field with a textiles manufacturing business and I would be pretty excited and appreciate the versatility into specific industries like automotive & biomed devices. My only issue is the fact that I'm uncertain about my undergrad with my chances of getting accepted (think good but not T20 STEM schools in America) and the actual effect/value that it will have on me getting my masters and/or my PhD in MSE. I'm currently deciding between MSE itself, a more general/broad major like Mechanical or Chemical eng., or straight up Chemistry or Physics. Please note that I'm not certain on what MSE subfield I want to do specifically, I want to leave that up for my Masters/PhD to find out. Any and all tips are super appreciated!

reddit.com
u/HauntedRadios — 11 days ago