An Approach to the Teaching of Functional Materials for Materials Science and Engineering Undergraduate Courses
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An Approach to the Teaching of Functional Materials for Materials Science and Engineering Undergraduate Courses Trevor R. Finlayson and Barry C. Muddle School of Physics and Materials Engineering, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia. 3800 ABSTRACT Traditional materials science and engineering texts have, for the most part, focussed on instructing the undergraduate student on the physical properties of materials and providing a significant knowledge base from which, subsequently, to consider materials applications. With the increasing demand for professional materials scientists and engineers to embrace all classes of materials in their everyday applications, it is increasingly important for undergraduate teaching to increase the awareness of students to applications through a focus on functionality rather than just providing a thorough knowledge and understanding of material properties. This has become even more important in the area of “nanostructured” materials where functional devices are designed at the material fabrication stage. In this paper, recent experiences in the teaching of functional materials for electronic, thermal and optical applications, to a second level undergraduate student group, comprising both “science” and “engineering” students, are outlined and some initial outcomes from the assessment of the group discussed.
INTRODUCTION Reference to any of the traditional undergraduate materials science (MS) texts [1,2,3] provides evidence of a fairly traditional approach to materials education based on a thorough grounding in chemical bonding between atoms, crystal structures and defects for assemblies of atoms, and phase equilibrium diagrams for binary mixtures, from which to develop an understanding of structure - property relationships spanning mechanical, electrical, (sometimes optical), thermal and magnetic behaviour. Materials utilization and the engineering of materials, specifically for their utilization, have occasionally been treated in chapters towards the back of the book. An exception is to be found in the approach by White [4], in which the learning of materials science is based on the principles on which physical properties of materials are based. In White’s case [5], her approach appears to work successfully for both undergraduate and graduate students majoring in other disciplines (chemistry, physics, biochemistry or earth science) and for whom an understanding of material properties is essential. But materials pervade our everyday experiences. While materials used in structures ranging from wood, through steel, to polymers and composites have played a key role in the development of humanity [6], materials science and engineering (MS&E), as a discipline, is generally recognized as a relatively recent development with acknowledged beginnings in academic departments in the USA in the early 1950s, followed by a steady growth into the research and industry environments by the 1990s [7]. Somewhat coincidentally, in Cahn’s chapter entitled “Precursors of Materials Scien
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