This is an era of great excitement and opportunity in the materials field, particularly for those of us in universities. Our field has expanded greatly in recent years. Materials scientists and engineers have joined forces with physicists, chemists, electrical engineers and others to pave the way for major technological advances. Remarkable strides in instrumentation have brought insights unimagined a decade ago. The realization is growing in so many other fields of research and education that further advances are limited largely by the capabilities of materials. There is no field of engineering that could not improve the efficiency or performance of its products, if better materials were available.

Some of the reasons for and the developing impact of the rapid broadening of the field of materials are presented and the impact of the concomitant shift away from the domination of metals on education and research is assesed. Both the opportunities presented by this view of the materials spectrum and the inherent dangers of over reaction and hyperbole are presented.

The topic of education optimized for materials research is treated In sequence at four hierarchical levels starting with the most general.

Materials Research is the earliest and best developed example within the physical sciences and engineering of an integrative field (discipline?). Yet very little thought and no research (including the relevant cognitive science) has addressed the subject of how best one can educate a cadre of materials researchers. The author will adduce Inductive and anecdotal data to point some fruitful directions in reorganizing the approach to education in integrative knowledge fields.

The first important thesis of this paper is that we have failed to analyze correctly the appropriate hierarchical relationships among individual scientific disciplines, engineering departments, and technological research groupings.

The second major point is that education for materials research is done is several departments (materials science, physics, electrical engineering, chemical engineering, etc.) and Indeed that some mix of disciplinary roots is desirable for the materials research cadre. Improvements will be proposed in four areas: (1) Optimum content of MSE curriculum, (2) the widespread introduction of MSE minors, (3) under-representation of electronic materials, pol ymers, ceramics.

The third aspect deals with the modularization of the content and teaching materials to allow adaptation to local needs in a field like materials research. The international materials community has done rather well by establishing the Materials Education Council and the Journal of Materials Education, for producing and disseminating print media. The status and usage of JME will be described.

Ceramic Engineering or Ceramics has existed as a separate academic discipline in the United States for over ninety years having been founded to ensure the application of the principles of chemistry to the fabrication of ceramic products. With the maturation of the traditional ceramic industries, including refractories and glass, and the growth markets of high technology ceramics for electronic and structural applications, the requirements of a ceramic engineering education are undergoing rapid change. The current status of the ceramic industry and its impact on education and the ceramic education infrastructure are reviewed. Within this framework and the property and structure emphasis unique to ceramics, a model undergraduate degree curriculum is presented.

Two phenomena are converging on the American technological scene which offer challenging implications and opportunities to engineering education. The first relates to the impacts of the wave of small, entrepreneurial companies emerging on the American industrial scene. The second relates to recent developments in university structure and policy innovations to promote university/industry linkages and regional economic growth. Entrepreneurship is encroaching into academic life and policies and could well become a dynamic feature of the university world and its technology transfer activities.

The U.S. Department of Energy is one of the principal government sponsors of materials R&D, both at universities and at the DOE National Laboratories. The National Laboratories are a major employer of graduates with materials education. I will discuss some of the Laboratories' specific needs as well as some of the special opportunities offered at the laboratories for materials education.

Opportunities in the materials science and engineering field appear quite plentiful into the next century. An increasing number of materials engineers will be needed by industry to develop new materials as well as adapt current ones to new needs. Is there a shortage of metallurgical/materials engineers? Academic institutions with existing or developing programs in materials may affect significant increases in enrollment by “marketing” materials high technology. The Department of Metallurgical Engineering at The University of Texas at El Paso has made exceptional progress in recruiting and retaining prospective engineering students into this technical area. What has been successful at UTEP may also benefit other academic programs.

Materials properties are crucial to the operation of electron devices. Based on this fact, the inclusion of the study of material science as an integral part of an electrical engineering curriculum is examined. The trends in the curriculum over a period of time are considered with respect to the growth of technology. A nationwide sampling of the electrical engineering curriculum over ten year periods is cataloged. Tabulated results are presented. Based on these results, a view of future curriculum that incorporates material aspects is presented.

The Open University was founded in 1969 with the aim of providing educational opportunities for adults who wish to study at home or work in their own time. Like all universities in the United Kingdom it is funded mainly from central government finance supplemented by student fees. It has the right to grant degrees at undergraduate and postgraduate level. In common with all other UK universities it employs external assessors and examiners from other higher learning institutions in order to maintian standards and to ensure equivalence of qualification throughout the country. In addition, the university offers a wide range of other educational material such as single courses at degree level, specialist short courses on scientific/technological updating, general community education etc. About 120,000 people are registered (1985) as students of which approximately two thirds are engaged in obtaining an undergraduate degree. The university is ‘Open’ in that it does not insist on any formal entry qualifications and accepts students on the basis of a ‘first come first served’ principle. Approximately 50,000 applications are received each year and the number finally accepted is about 18,000. This number is determined by the grant in aid from central government. Although the nature of the student body changes with time, there tends to be a 55:45 ratio of male to females.

The Johns Hopkins University Center for Nondestructive Evaluation (CNDE) has recently been established as an interdisciplinary center for research and instruction which draws on the resources and talent of the School of Engineering, the Applied Physics Laboratory, and the School of Medicine. The nondestructive evaluation techniques developed and employed are especially useful to control and improve product quality in manufacturing processes and to assure the highest level of reliability for materials, parts, and products. The center is dedicated to research which will lead to more sophisticated and accurate methods for the nondestructive evaluation of materials and systems and to the education of talented students who will enter the NDE field. The CNDE is a cooperative venture between the University, Industrial Affiliates, and Government Agencies. The present paper will describe the CNDE and the current and planned educational program in materials education.

Most sports equipment in common use today represents highly developed engineering structures. Many of the equipment items have evolved empirically, but nonetheless can be used to illustrate basic principles of materials engineering, applied mechanics and kinetics. Using the most common items of sports equipment (footballs, tennis racquets, vaulting poles, etc.), a new course has been developed which introduces first year science and engineering students to materials science and engineering, as well as basic engineering, using a medium they can relate to personally—sports. Emphasis is placed upon the factors which make the equipment functional. These factors include both the basic materials from which the equipment is made and its fundamental design. Detailed treatment is given to the origin of the various species of materials. The processing used to produce the full spectrum of properties required of the various equipment items and the important structure-property relations in the equipment's use are presented. “Hands-on” experiments, guest lectures by world authorities in several fields of sporting activities and equipment use demonstrations compliment the lecture-recitations of the course.

Alfred University is one of only eleven ABET accredited Universities in the U.S. offering Bachelor's degrees in Ceramic Engineering. The New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University is one of the statutory colleges of the State University of New York system. Funding for the College comes from S.U.N.Y., but the College is an integral part of Alfred University and is administered by the Alfred President and Board of Trustees.

Materials Science and Materials Engineering are recognized as essential areas of growth for advancement in applications of new devices and materials. The educational program at the university level must be dynamic in nature to keep pace with advances in science and instrumentation. State University of New York at Buffalo has sponsored an interdisciplinary proposal solicitation to promote efforts in the forefront of science. Materials-related efforts are described herein which will lead to improved external funding of research, improved educational programs, more sophisticated instrumentation, high quality graduate students, and high quality faculty.

Uniqueness Of Plastics As Materials Starting with the Hyatt brothers' development of the plastic billiard ball in 1868, the plastics industry has grown exponentially during the present century, until it now occupies more than 5% of the industrial work force. The rapidly growing importance of plastic materials is a result of the many unique qualities they offer, which distinguish them from conventional structural materials such as metals, ceramics, wood, leather, textiles, and paper. Among these unique qualities are generally easy processability, light weight, wide range from rigidity to flexibility, toughness, wide range from adhesion to lubricity, abrasion resistance, wide useful temperature range, grades with high resistance to burning, electrical and thermal insulation, electrical conductivity when desired, wide range of color and appearance from highly transparent to completely opaque, weather resistance, chemical resistance to most inorganics and many organics, and often low to moderate cost.

This work is a part of a larger program, aimed at improving teaching of materials science and engineering (MSE) and also at better communication between teachers and learners. Since every incoming Drexel University student is provided with a microcomputer, the objective of this project was to develop learning tools for MSE usable with a microcomputer.

We have used TK! Solver, a meta-expert system, capable among other things to solve overdetermined systems of simultaneous equations. In distinction to standard programming, interchanging the roles between unknown and known parameters does not require program changes. Various operations which ordinarily would involve attaching subroutines from a libraryare accomplished by simple choices from menus. We have developed a large number of TK! Solver models for MSE, covering various materials properties (mechanical, thermophysical, electrical…), as well as all important classes of materials.