Perspectives of Materials Education Development in Russia for the New Century
- PDF / 74,941 Bytes
- 3 Pages / 612 x 792 pts (letter) Page_size
- 44 Downloads / 192 Views
Perspectives of Materials Education Development in Russia for the New Century Yu. D. Tretyakov Russia has grown to the demand for freedom, but this freedom should be imperatively bound to everyday labour and doing one’s duty. —D.I. Mendeleev Every one of my students is a jewel. Every one will bring invaluable benefit, will put his life to alter the world to the better. —Lady Ester
Long-term forecasting is an ungrateful occupation even when it concerns weather forecasts. How much more complicated it is to forecast progress in human society. When viewing society as a system, its evolution follows the rules of nonlinear dynamics, leading inevitably to bifurcations. From that stage, the outcomes are unpredictable. Nevertheless, the temptation to foresee the future is part of human nature, beginning with Jules Verne, founder of science fiction, and ending with scientists who are certain of favorable results from biological cloning. Alas, the efficiency of forecasts is far from precise. Missing from the technologies and materials predicted by leading U.S. experts during the years of the Great Depression were TV, plastics, jets, and lasers. The success of long-term forecasting depends considerably on the evolution rate of the system. The more slowly the system evolves, the more accurate are our predictions. Fortunately, in the system under consideration—materials science, materials engineering and technology, and materials education—the rate decreases consistently. For example, the new generation of ceramic superconductors initiated a scientific revolution 15 years ago, in which we were able to obtain an increase of transition temperature from 23 K to 135 K within seven years. We were at the frontier of a wide-ranging technical revolution that would transform energy, transportation, medicine, and many other areas. However, despite considerable financial support and research projects, especially during the first five or six years following the discovery by J.Y. Bednorz and K.A. Muller, an unexpected problem arose. The materials engineering and technology needed to achieve a high critical current density in long-length wires are still being researched. Although the problems seem solvable, it will take 928
much time. This should not be surprising. It required half a century to move from discovery to wide application of metallic low-temperature superconductors even though these materials were much simpler both physically and chemically. Without these superconductors, it would be impossible to create modern tomographs. Let us turn to the problems of materials education, a system that evolves even more slowly than that of materials engineering and technology. Taking into account the basic scientific knowledge required in mathematics, physics, and chemistry taught in secondary school, and the 20 years or more it takes to create education programs up to the PhD level, we can just now begin to lay the foundation of what will be achievable in 2020 or maybe much later.
Students are under the impression that graduates in materials
Data Loading...