Guide to Graduate Study in Area V:
Welcome to Area V - The Nature of the Area
This guide is primarily written for entering graduate students who have come from undergraduate universities other than MIT, and who intend eventually to obtain a PhD at MIT. It is intended as a planning guide for the first two years, which is the normal period for obtaining the masters degree and completing the departmental Technical Qualifying Exam (TQE).
For administrative convenience, the faculty and graduate students in the department are divided up into six primary research "areas" according to their preferences. And although the area definitions are somewhat arbitrary—and the boundaries between them often quite artificial—many of these areas have a long history and well-established culture. Area V is certainly no exception, and as a result, its boundaries are deliberately fuzzy and there is considerable overlap and many connections with other areas.
Area V can be described in the following way. Take the fields of semiconductor electronics, quantum electronics, solid state physics; add circuit theory, electromagnetism, some knowledge of signals and systems plus computer science; then, season the mixture with some applied physics and a bit of solid state chemistry and mechanical engineering. The totality includes the range of activity that goes on in the Materials and Devices Area. The title itself has the virtue of putting the significant boundary markers on the Area: at one end, Materials and at the other, Devices. The territory in between is multidisciplinary, a fact reflected in the make-up of the faculty which is a mix of those who hold doctorates in electrical engineering and those with doctorates in physics and materials science. In addition, several faculty members hold appointments jointly with other departments.
Although the Department, at the graduate level, is organized into six areas, these groupings represent centers-of-gravity of research interest and are by no means parochial enclaves. Faculty members and students will often have interests that extend outside their primary area. This breadth of interest can be seen by examining the Department's pamphlet describing "Research Interest of Faculty Members," where it will be noted that faculty in Area V also have interests in such topics as electromagnetics, electronic systems, communication, control, computers, and biomedical engineering. The factor common to all faculty in our area is the recognition of the role of electronic and optical materials as a vehicle for developing new devices at the frontiers of technology. Moreover, there is the awareness that many opportunities for creating novel devices would be foreclosed if we were to limit ourselves to "off-the-shelf" materials. The result is that we have put together a range of facilities for materials synthesis, device processing, fabrication, and testing, that for quality and scope can be matched by few universities.
Leslie A. Kolodziejski, Area V chair
Fall, 2008