hey /sci/, what program would help me take enough physics/chemistry/math courses to do research on these techs while still using those credits accordingly for the degree itself instead of just squandering electives:
high temperature superconductors
Josephson junctions
multijunction photovoltaics
magnetic refrigeration
electroactive polymes
ultracapacitors
chemical vapor deposition
Selective laser sintering
machine learning
electron beam welding
Hall-effect thruster
Spherical Tokamaks
scramjets
nitroamines
rotaxanes
my current idea is materials science. thoughts? i guess an undergrad would never really touch on these areas, but i'd rather not be told "yeah you aren't gonna be able to do these until you have these 101 courses done".
>>7838807
Chemistry with a focus in physical chemistry. That alone will get you up to modern physics, linear algebra, and you'll take all the chem you need.
>>7838812
what about other math like functional analysis? would it pop up in research of a superconductor
>>7838822
Honestly I couldn't tell you, but I assume you wouldn't need functional analysis for superconductivity. I had only up to vector/multivariate calculus for my undergraduate major. Anytime a subject, like biochem physics, needed mathematics I hadn't taken yet or practiced, the applications were uniform enough that they were easily learned and understood in context.
>>7838833
that's what im thinking as well, but i'm stuck on what degree would give me the most resources in terms of skills that are hardest to just learn on my own when doing graduate/industry R&D for shit like this. i mean, i know there's going to be segmented stuff for each area, but if i can figure out how CVD chambers work by knowing enough mechanics and modern physics, that the chemistry side can be derived, i'd feel more comfortable than going the reverse with chemistry where the rotaxanes and polymers are straightforward, but crsytallography and lithography is just irksome or requires a bit more excerpting on my part with a graduate textbook. from what i understood a material science program is basically a chemistry/physics blend with applications as a focus, but if chemistry can cover a wider base i'll look into it as well.
for mathematics i think it won't be that overwhelming, but when i can i'll try to get at least up to PDEs so that i can grasp special case equations that pop up in fluid dynamics and electromagnetism for the junction/voltaic stuff.
>>7838807
Materials Science PhD here:
Many of those topics would be covered within a good materials science undergrad course, with a few exceptions: Tokamaks, Hall-effect thrusters, Scramjets and Machine Learning etc strike me as unlikely to come up in a standard course.
If you REALLY want to learn about a broad range of subjects my suggestion would be to take a "Natural Sciences" degree. This would encompass Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Materials and Maths topics (depending on your selections).
>>7838807
I research quite a few of those currently. I am an undergraduate student studying mechanical engineering with a minor in nuclear physics.
I am open to questions!
>>7838807
Electrical Engineering and physics double major.
>>7838807
>machine learning
Nice, now everybody wants to do machine learning with no computer science background...
>>7839543
well i'd probably do some data structures and stuff on the side. what kind of courses would you need to study machine learning? would combinatorics come in handy?
