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2019 Program
11th International Materials Education Symposium

Poster Teaser Session

Symposium Day One: Thursday, April 11

time session
8.00 am Registration, Coffee, and Poster setup
8.45 am Prof. Mike Ashby, Engineering Department, University of Cambridge, UK
Marc Fry, Granta Education Division, UK
Welcome Address
  SESSION 1: INNOVATION IN TEACHING
9.00am Session Chairs
Dr. Kiara Bruggeman
, The Australian National University, Australia
Dr. Hugh Shercliff, University of Cambridge, UK
Session introductions
9.05 am Prof. Paloma Fernández Sánchez, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain
“Basso continuo” approach for an introductory course on Materials Science
9.25 am Prof. Peter Goodhew, NMiTE, UK
How to found an Engineering university
9.45 am Poster Teaser Session
Marc Fry
, Granta Education Division, UK
25 x Poster Presenters invited to give a one-minute presentation
10.10 am One-hour Poster Session
Coffee
11.10 am Dr. Noel Rutter, Monash University, Australia
Integrating Professional Skills into Traditional Undergraduate Degree Programmes
11.30 am Dr. Roald Lilletvedt, Norwegian University of Science & Technology, Norway
To combine problem-based learning and laboratory testing, seemed like a good idea
11.50 am Prof. Jose Ygnacio Pastor, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Spain
Materials Selection Competition, an innovative challenge to motivate engineering students
12.10 pm Dr. Frederic Veer, TU Delft, The Netherlands
Teaching and working with boring materials
12.30 pm Session discussion led by the session chairs
12.55 pm Lunch and Symposium photograph
  SESSION 2: BIO-BASED AND SUSTAINABLE RELATED EDUCATION
2.00 pm Session Chairs
Prof. Bill Clyne
, University of Cambridge, UK
Alessandra Hool
, ESM Foundation, Switzerland
Session introductions
2.05 pm Prof. Mike Ashby, University of Cambridge, UK
Fibers — the neglected child of the Materials family
2.25 pm Prof. John Abelson, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
Teaching Sustainability: Engineering Possibility Meets Business Case
2.45 pm Prof. Gerhard Glatzel, Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig, Germany
A practical approach to teach sustainability
3.05 pm George Fereday, London Metropolitan University, UK
Back to the future – Traditional woodworking techniques for enhanced sustainability in construction
3.25 pm Afternoon Tea
4.00 pm Dr. Gavin Williams, University of Sheffield, UK
Materials Education for Electronic Engineers
4.20 pm Prof. Nuria Salan-Ballesteros, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain
The pioneers timeline
4.40 pm Prof. David Dye, Imperial College London, UK
From flipping to MOOCing, a learning experience in course design
5.00 pm Session discussion led by the session chairs
5.25 pm Symposium Award Ceremony
5.35 pm Marc Fry, Granta Education Division, UK
Introduction to the next Symposia
5.45 pm Close
6.45 pm Symposium Dinner, all attendees welcome (pre-registration required)
Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge

 

Symposium Day Two: Friday, April 12

time session
8.30 am Registration and Coffee
  SESSION 3: ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND INDUSTRY
9.00 am Session Chairs
Dr. Jessica Gwynne, University of Cambridge, UK
Marc Fry, Granta Education Division, UK
Session Introductions
9.05 am Richard Jennings, Cambridge Enterprise, University of Cambridge, UK
Material Success from Knowledge Transfer
9.25 am Willem Bulthuis, Former High-Tech Executive, Business Angel, Corporate Venture Capital Advisor, Germany
Material for Better Business
9.45 am Poster Teaser Session
Marc Fry
, Granta Education Division, UK
25 x Poster Presenters invited to give a one-minute presentation
10.10 am One-hour Poster Session
Coffee
11.10 am Prof. Uta Klement, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden
Integrating innovation aspects into a materials course: A project-based approach
11.30 am Prof. Sybrand van der Zwaag, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
Entrepreneurship and Self-Healing Materials
11.50 am Dr. Johan Bijleveld, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
Analysis of Materials: students have to pay for ‘inside’ information and still like it!
12.10 am Dr. Mwarumba Mwavita, Oklahoma State University, USA
Exposure of undergraduate research students to entrepreneurial activities – leveraging NSF Innovation
12.30 pm Session discussion led by the session chairs
12.55 pm Lunch
  SESSION 4: ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING
2.00 pm Session Chairs
Prof. Paloma Fernández Sánchez, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain
Dr. Noel Rutter, Monash University, Australia
Session Introductions
2.05 pm Dr. Amber Genau, University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA
Engineering Materials and Rocket Design
2.25 pm Prof. Steffen Ritter, Hochschule Reutlingen, Germany
AM Field Guide and ADDIMAT- Cleaning up with the biggest misconceptions about 3d printing
2.45 pm Ernst Goedvolk, Saxion University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands
Applied research and education in 3D metal printing (SLM) for SMEs - a story of failure and success
3.05 pm Raphael Geiger, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark
Inspiration through lab teaching – building and running up a multipurpose drone composite lab
3.25 pm Afternoon Tea
3.50 pm Prof. John Des Jardins, Clemson University, USA
Materials Selection and Use in Bioengineering Senior Design Courses
4.10 pm Dr. Hugh Shercliff, University of Cambridge, UK
Materials in Schools Education
4.30 pm Session discussion led by the session chairs
4.55pm Close and final photograph

Presentation Abstracts

“Basso continuo” approach for an introductory course on Materials Science

Prof. Paloma Fernández Sánchez, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain

The present experience has been developed in an introductory course on Materials Science. It is included in the third year of the degree in Physics (first approach to Materials Science and, in most cases, the last one) compulsory for all students following the Applied Physics Minor. The background of the students is very heterogeneous since disciplines as far from Materials like Meteorology and Atmosphere Sciences must be considered in this branch of the degree. A proper Project Based Learning approach is not feasible due to three main points: the short duration of the course and the work overload for the students; the lack of previous experience on PBL (for the students); the background and projection of the students. We have followed two approaches simultaneously: a more linear or academic one moving from atoms and atom arrangements to solids and their properties, and the other, what we have called the “basso continuo” to follow a thread, in fact a close loop, through an object, to incorporate the acquired knowledge. Task 0: Before Starting. The students are given three images (sport articles shop; kid’s park; urban street), they must select an object and try to find out what material it is made of. Index book type approach: The course is divided in three blocks, combining lectures, open and standard exercises Block 1: Binding; crystal structure; defects Block 2.- Types of Materials Block 3.- Properties of Materials Basso continuo approach: Divided in three steps, along the whole course focused on the object selected in task 0 Step 1: Analyse the type of bonding and try to relate it to the most relevant property regarding the given use Step 2: Find out the appropriate material according to own criteria Step 3: Find out information on the rest of the properties of that material.


How to found an Engineering university

Prof. Peter Goodhew, NMiTE, UK

Compared to raising money for a few electron microscopes, founding a university is rather a large project. It is also an experiment which is not guaranteed to succeed. In this presentation I will describe the first ten years of such an experiment, from the original idea to the inauguration of a new institution. The institution is the New Model in Technology and Engineering, based in Hereford, UK. The vision for this engineering-focused prospective university includes a large number of innovations – no lectures, exams or degree classifications to mention but three. The implementation of the vision involved local and national politics, money, professional bodies, lawyers, academics from many countries and – at last – engineers. As it happens, several of those involved were and are materials engineers and they are challenged by the question I will ask you at the conference: How can we ensure that graduates have developed a sufficiently sophisticated understanding of materials without having attended a single lecture on our subject?


Integrating Professional Skills into Traditional Undergraduate Degree Programmes

Dr. Noel Rutter, Monash University, Australia

A challenge which is common across many technical undergraduate university programmes is how to effectively incorporate Professional Skills (which might also be “Transferable” skills) into the course. Some universities have been able to radically rethink their approach, or start with a completely blank slate, but others face the challenge of needing to “retrofit” such aspects in a way which complements and supports the more theoretical technical aspects without diluting them. We should consider how important such skills are, whether they need to be specifically delivered as part of Materials Science and Materials Engineering courses, and if so how best to do that. In relation to the importance of such skills, some of the outcomes of a curriculum review conducted by academic staff in a materials department will be highlighted, looking at the range of views held on this question and some general conclusions. The different approaches to delivering courses which focus on such skills will be described and assessed. Finally, a case study will be discussed in which a significant number of such skills have been introduced into an activity which had previously focussed only on computing and programming, and plans will be outlined for transfer of this approach to a rather different design-based unit at a different institution.


To combine problem-based learning and laboratory testing, seemed like a good idea

Dr. Roald Lilletvedt, Norwegian University of Science & Technology, Norway

Problem based learning (PBL) is an activity used for enhancing problem-solving skills of students and for preparing the students for a future workplace. PBL has been used at NTNU Materials Science and Engineering with good results for several years. A poster presentation in 2018 described the aspects of a modified and extended version of PBL with laboratory testing used in a corrosion course at junior level [1]. Earlier feedback from the students in this course have indicated that they were content with this type of active learning. However, in this year’s survey the students were not that positive. Group size, group composition, too open task, too confined task and too long deadline were some of the feedback on “worst experience”. The extended version of PBL can be split in six steps. Only one of these steps (feedback from teacher) was regarded as very important for learning outcomes and motivation by more than 30 % of the students. In addition, only 25 % of the students agreed that they had learnt more about the corrosion type covered in this PBL, compared to the other types covered in traditional lectures. This was also confirmed by the results from the exam. Making the groups smaller and performing the PBL as a shorter and more intense work package are possible measures, but this will require more resources, teachers and laboratory engineers. Other possible improvements will be discussed and evaluated. [1] Lilletvedt, Roald. Problem-based learning in corrosion with laboratory testing of solutions. 11th International Materials Education Symposium; 2018-04-12 - 2018-04-13


Materials Selection Competition, an innovative challenge to motivate engineering students

Prof. Jose Ygnacio Pastor, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Spain
Sara Onrubia, Education Division, Granta Design, UK

Linking technical attributes to soft skills, such as team work, creative thinking, decision making, time management and conflict resolution, are highly valuated competences nowadays. We have introduced a platform where students (from an undergraduate to a master’s level) can both showcase their passion for Materials Science and Engineering and promote their soft skills. The Materials Selection Competition is an international event coordinated between Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM) and Granta Design Ltd. It has been developed exclusively for Spanish-speaking countries. It will be hosted for the fifth time in May 2019. Students will be working in teams to develop a case-study based on real world problems around engineering, design, or sustainability using CES EduPack software. An educator will mentor them during this project. Once the various teams have each developed a whole case-study, they will have to defend their project (either online or in person) in front of a panel of judges. They will evaluate the students based on the following criteria: knowledge of materials acquired through their courses as well as motivation, originality, and resourcefulness. Last year, we received more than 60 initial project proposals from 4 different countries (Spain, Colombia, Mexico and Argentina); 8 of which were defended in the final round. After the competition, a survey was sent out to both academics and students regarding their experience. The feedback received was very positive and encouraged the need for such events in the future of Engineering Education.


Teaching and working with boring materials

Dr. Frederic Veer, TU Delft, The Netherlands

Teaching and working with boring materials Most students have a preconception that composites, Ti alloys, advanced ceramics are the ultimate goal of materials science. Certainly if we look at a typical materials science textbook the amount of effort that is spent on complex phase diagrams of Ti alloys or the structural efficiency of high modulus carbon fibres makes them look very critical. If we compare however the volume of these materials in actual use with the global volume of Adobe dried mud bricks you can question the proportion of time spent on high tech materials. There is a need for the materials science of boring materials and teaching this well leads to new possibilities addressing real needs of people. Recently a course on building with adobe has started at TU Delft. There are also several graduate thesis assignments on boring materials such brick made from sand bound with gelatin. These unspectacular materials however require a good grounding in basic materials science to understand them, while the low cost makes a lot of hand on experience and in depth research possible. Boring materials do not need to result in boring materials science classes and exercises and can be of significant benefit to both teachers and students.


Fibers —The Neglected child of the Materials family

Prof. Mike Ashby, University of Cambridge, UK

Global fiber production now exceeds 100 million tonnes per year. About 35 % of this is natural fibers – cotton, flax, hemp, coir, sisal and the like – attractive in part because they are renewable and bio-degradable. The rest – 65% – is man-made: polyester, cellulosics, polypropylene, nylon and more, culminating in the newer “super-fibers”: Kevlar, Spectra, Dyneema, Vectran, and Zylon. Such is the scale of synthetic fiber production that it now accounts for about 20% of all plastic production, valued at around $55 trillion in 2017. Their economic importance is high, but so too is their environmental impact: their breakdown is a major source of plastic particulates in rivers and oceans. On the global Materials stage, fibers are big players.

Material Science courses and texts include fibers (particularly carbon and glass) but tend give them only limited space, leaving the details to the Textile community whose approach to their characterisation has taken its own independent path. Given their economic and environmental importance and the remarkable properties that some possess, they might be given a more visible role. This talk assembles information about fibers in a format adapted to Materials Science teaching and illustrates its use in engaging case studies.


Teaching Sustainability: Engineering Possibility Meets Business Case

Prof. John Abelson, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA

The Energy and Sustainability Engineering program at the University of Illinois was launched with a focus on the scientific and technical possibilities for – and fundamental limitations on – improved efficiency in energy conversion and use, including the role of materials. We soon learned that the biggest challenges faced by our students are (i) to understand how engineering choices influence the tradeoff between capital cost, operating cost, and avoided CO2 emissions; and (ii) to construct a compelling case for the development and deployment of new technologies. Each of these involves an articulation of the return on investment that depends strongly on the anticipated cost of CO2 emissions (which favors investment in reduced-carbon technologies), and by economic discounting (which emphasizes short-term returns over lifecycle impact). I will present several examples of the framework concepts we provide to students, and which they come to understand via homework problems, small group work, and term projects. “Framework” means that students do not become proficient in a subject, but rather, reach a threshold of knowledge that is sufficient to advance credible proposals and to dialogue with domain experts. The knowledge they gain is also troublesome, because it makes the pathway to solution more difficult or less certain. The examples include the following. (i) Optimizing the energy efficiency of a home: what are the tradeoffs involving insulation and equipment as a function of time and discounting? (ii) Riding the “learning curve” of new technologies: how fast and how low can technology costs be driven, and who pays for the learning process? (iii) Balance of systems: the overlooked consideration, and what it implies for cheap photovoltaics.


A practical approach to teach sustainability

Prof. Gerhard Glatzel, Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig, Germany

Since 1713 (Hans Carl von Carlowitz, Sylvicultura Oeconomica, Freiberg, Saxonia) everyone knows that wood is the byname of sustainability. Wood stores CO2 and its production in the forest releases O2. Are therefore all products made from or with wood sustainable? A closer look at common knowledge facts about sustainability reveals many uncertainties when precise data are necessary. A teaching situation at university level requires both precise data and generalized principles, but in the case of sustainability these depend on the boundaries of the chosen system and may tend to a high degree of complexity due to the multidisciplinary nature of the problem. Industrial Designers are more responsive to intuitive learning situations and less to cognitive teaching approaches. For the teaching on master level (Transformation Design) we chose a hands-on project using sustainable materials like wood, flax, cork and plant oil based epoxy resin to build a foiling pedal boat. The boat is not ready yet, the project went through all possible depths of student projects but reached the goal of conveying important facts on the principles of sustainable designing. The project was finalized with a written student report.


Back to the future – Traditional woodworking techniques for enhanced sustainability in construction

George Fereday, London Metropolitan University, UK

Traditional wood-working techniques are inherently sustainable. The use of locally sourced green wood, simple hand tools and dry construction methods minimise the impact on the environment. Woodworking crafts can inform contemporary timber building practices that are dominated by global supply chains, synthetic materials and robotic automation. In the undergraduate architecture programme at the CASS School of Architecture, we expose students to process and material efficient techniques that offer the opportunity to rediscover lessons from the past that might make construction more sustainable in the future. Students are tasked with designing, manufacturing and testing experimental timber structures fit for contemporary purposes that are produced using re-interpretations of sustainable techniques from the past. Examples include: • use of undried, low-value, ungraded, domestically grown timber, • materials optimisation through use of small section timbers in structural assemblage • experimentation with zero-waste cleft-wood splitting techniques. • use of coppiced domestic timber species such as Sweet Chestnut (Castanea sativa) timber for durability, low sapwood content, rapid harvest cycles and propensity for straight grain. Students find creative ways to transliterate the most sustainable aspects of traditional woodworking techniques that add value, reduce environmental burdens and inform production efficiencies of contemporary timber construction.


Materials Selection and Use in Bioengineering Senior Design Courses

Prof. John Des Jardins, Clemson University, USA

As part of an undergraduate biomedical engineering degree, biomaterials instruction is considered a fundamental component of a student’s curriculum. In this field, special consideration is given to materials that are compatible with the human body, for it is these “biocompatible” materials that will ultimately find use in biomedical devices and surgical instrumentation. As part of the senior design program, students are often tasked with the evaluation of predicate devices, and the design and development novel devices. Fundamental to this process is the consideration and selection of the optimum materials for use in the intended design. Biocompatibility features heavily in this design process, and students make use of extensive registries that allow them to evaluate previous uses and failures that are associated with biomaterial use. As part of this symposium talk, we will provide an overview of the undergraduate biomaterials curriculum, and explore how biocompatibility constrains and guides the bioengineering field. We will then provide an overview of the senior design process, and share the tools and techniques that are used to allow students to practice the development and evaluation of biomedical devices. Finally, specific case studies of senior design products that have been developed in collaboration with clinical collaborators will be shared, to provide some context for how these tools and techniques are mastered by the student innovators.


From flipping to MOOCing, a learning experience in course design

Prof. David Dye, Imperial College London, UK


Materials Education for Electronic Engineers

Dr. Gavin Williams, University of Sheffield, UK

Electronic engineering students spend a large proportion of their course studying the design and operation of semiconductor devices and systems. Highly sophisticated integrated circuits (ICs) are at the heart of the many electronics products on which modern society depends; yet they typically account for less than 1% of the mass of an electronic product. The remaining 99% comprises the packaging for the ICs; interconnections between the ICs; a power supply or internal battery; sensors; a display; plugs, sockets and switches and a case. Building a successful electronic product entails dealing with all of these components – not just the 1% semiconductor. This paper describes a hands-on approach to introducing students to the many materials aspects of electronic product design and manufacture. It makes use of the large stream of Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment (WEEE) generated by the university. The students are given items of WEEE and have to dismantle them in a logical manner. As they proceed they answer questions about their construction and function. Items that are studied include compact fluorescent light bulbs; telephones; data projectors and disc drives. Simultaneously the laboratory sessions introduce them to the safe use of mechanical tools (screw drivers, saws, drills). The labs are complemented by lectures and seminars were the students get to discuss their findings. The students enjoy the flipped learning nature of the course and we find that their ‘nous’ is improved. This becomes important when they come to their final year projects, in which they design and construct their own electronic system.


Introduction to the next Symposia

Mr. Marc Fry, Education Division, Granta Design, UK


Material Success from Knowledge Transfer

Richard Jennings, Cambridge Enterprise, University of Cambridge, UK

Commercialisation of academic research results is an important source of innovation and stimulus for economic growth. It complements the traditional ways of disseminating knowledge through the production of trained and educated students and through academic publications. The commercial potential of materials science is huge but commercialisation of results in this sector brings with it its own challenges not least because the nature of the work is so varied and in Cambridge at least occurs in many departments across the University. The cognate industries that might use these results are of course equally varied. Nevertheless there are some real opportunities and general principles to guide knowledge transfer which this talk will attempt to summarise using some local case histories to illustrate the process and to encourage researchers to think about commercialising their results where that may be an effective way of dissemination their results to society . It may even generate some useful revenue.


Integrating innovation aspects into a materials course: A project-based approach

Prof. Uta Klement, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden

A course is described which has the aim to (1) introduce different material concepts and explore how they can be used to achieve improved materials properties for creating new products, and (2) provide better understanding of the principles and practices of innovation and entrepreneurship in technological contexts. The course is divided into lectures on materials concepts (60%), lectures/exercises on innovation aspects (20%), and presentations from company representatives and entrepreneurs providing hands-on experience and credibility. A project work and sales pitch are introduced for having the students actively explore how new materials and techniques can lead to new business opportunities. The course has been well received by the students. When reflecting on how the course is impacting their understanding and attitude towards innovation, the students expressed that they wished to have been exposed to innovation aspects earlier and on a continuous basis throughout their education.


Entrepreneurship and Self-Healing Materials

Prof. Sybrand van der Zwaag, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands


Analysis of Materials: students have to pay for ‘inside’ information and still like it!

Dr. Johan Bijleveld, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands

In the MSc curriculum of Aerospace Engineering at the TU Delft one of the elective courses is devoted to materials characterization. This course consists of six lectures where a number of characterization techniques are explained. To connect to their engineering future, the last lecture is a group assignment in class where groups of four to six students are given a different problem from the real aerospace industry. They are also given an amount of fake money with which they can buy experimental data related to either the structure or the composition of the material. There are ten different characterization techniques they can choose from, each having a different, realistic, price. Once a technique is selected they pay the money and get back an envelope, until they have solved the problem or run out of money. Some of the techniques are not relevant, and as a result they get back an empty envelope. Each challenge requires input from 3 or 4 techniques. At the end of the 30 minutes game, the groups have to present which problem they were confronted with and what information they bought and why. The students like this concept and are engaged. The learning outcome is high, also because they have to discuss in the groups on which experiment to buy. We believe that this challenge is an effective way to finalize the series of lectures. The first six lectures are focused on understanding and applying the individual techniques, in the last session the learning level goes up to integration of all the techniques and judging the value of each technique for their problem. The course is assessed with a classic written exam and the challenge only has a learning goal, but one of the exam questions follows the concept as practiced during this classroom game.


Exposure of undergraduate research students to entrepreneurial activities – leveraging NSF Innovation

Dr. Mwarumba Mwavita, Oklahoma State University, USA

The potential that materials-based solutions hold for global challenges such as in biomaterials, energy, environment and aerospace is undisputed. Therefore, it is imperative to groom undergraduate engineering and science students with a broad-based materials science and engineering back-ground, in order to maintain technological leadership position of the country in the 21st century. Our Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program is based on the premise that interdisciplinary research training including entrepreneurship is essential for a complete research experience in Materials Science. Our objective was to expose undergraduate scholars to a variety of materials research with applications in energy, aerospace, defense, environment and agriculture. Undergraduate scholars were (1) provided hands-on materials research experience in multidisciplinary engineering projects, (2) introduced to cutting-edge materials characterization methods through a 2-day national workshop on Advanced Materials Characterization webcast for easy access, (3) exposed to entrepreneurial routes to commercializing materials research in collaboration with the School of Entrepreneurship by leveraging the OSU Innovation Corps site program, and, (4) educated students about graduate programs and careers. This hypothesis was tested by including a student with an innovation and entrepreneurship background with an undergraduate student performing research and conducting multiple customer discovery interviews to evaluate if the research is needed and if it has commercial potential. It was observed that including entrepreneurial activities such as customer discovery and the Innovation Corps program in the research experience changed the way in which the students viewed the research question. The students were more enthusiastic about their research and were able to communicate their findings and goals in a clear fashion at the end of the REU program. Participation in the REU program has resulted in three graduated students accepting jobs at start-up companies and two of those students to participate in proposal writing activities.


The pioneers timeline

Prof. Nuria Salan-Ballesteros, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain

By reviewing the inauguration data of universities around the world, it is easy to see that access has been very different for men and women. Sometimes, this difference is a few decades but centuries in some cases between university inauguration data and first woman recruitment. And checking about first female engineers, these differences could be so surprising. Currently, there are men and women in engineering, all over the world, but population data are still far from-peer percentages in many cases. From the data collected in a survey about the first women graduates in engineering / materials engineering, an animated time line is created that allows us to visualize the location of these pioneers over time. With this exercise, it should be possible to visualize how inclusive or conservative our universities have been, when compared with its homonyms from all over the world. When everything is done, everything is still to be done.


Engaging design students with advanced and sustainable materials and technologies

Prof. Barbara Del Curto, Politecnico di Milano, Italy

Materials teaching is currently part of a paradigm shift in the design education. It becomes crucial, indeed, to provide design students with an up-to-date knowledge about new and sustainable materials and technologies with the aim to prepare them to more effectively cope with the Industry 4.0 challenges. “Nanotechnologies and functional materials for design” is a monographic course (6 ECTS) that tries to answer this need by introducing students to the topic of emerging materials (neo-materials in the Circular Economy, smart material systems …) and advanced technologies (surface technologies, additive manufacturing …). The course, structured in ex cathedra lectures, seminars and meetings with companies and industry experts, learning-by-doing activities with materials, cover the following topics: “Advanced technologies for design” and “Smart, sustainable and innovative materials”. The first module introduces future designers to the basics of additive manufacturing (AM) and to advanced surface technologies as sol-gel, providing also examples of practical applications (self-cleaning, antibacterial, abrasion resistant coatings, …). In the second module, the unconventional properties and behaviors of functional materials (chromogenic, light-emitting, shape changing, advanced thermoregulating materials) are presented together with the topic of materials for the circular economy (biobased and biocomposites materials, natural coatings for improved properties). At the end of the course, students are called to develop a research essay focusing on one material they considered “innovative”. Over the years, the course has deeply changed: its contents were adapted to the evolution of materials and technologies, and its teaching modality was re-modeled according to the different possibilities of materials exploration (active learning, DIY tutorials …). In 10 years, more than 150 researches have been collected. The essays represent a picture of how design students dealt with and addressed the topic of innovative materials over the last 10 years.


AM Field Guide and ADDIMAT- Cleaning up with the biggest misconceptions about 3d printing

Prof. Steffen Ritter, Hochschule Reutlingen, Germany

In recent years there has been a real hype about 3d printing and additive manufacturing processes. In particular, consumer 3d printing has given rise to unrealistic expectations of the possibilities of 3d printing technology, especially in the USA. For a factually correct assessment of the processes, their differentiated and technically precise evaluation is necessary. The formnext AM Field Guide, a ultra compact handson introduction, provides a first overview in an extremely compact way. Additive manufacturing offers a multitude of different manufacturing processes, which are not always comprehensible to the user at first glance due to their complexity. In order to fully exploit the potential of these processes, it is essential to understand the technologies behind them and to master the associated upstream and downstream steps. The AM Field Guide provides a structured overview of the individual processes as well as the entire product development process. It also supports with important questions that will help to define the right technology for production, depending on the application and material. To foster proper understanding of the respective AM processes it is essential to create an understanding of the used materials. Basic characteristics of currently available materials used in 3D printing are shown through CES EduPack to contour the actual AM material world. The ADDIMAT project shows, that especially further material development is one of the key issues for the future success of additive manufacturing.  


Engineering Materials and Rocket Design

Dr. Amber Genau, University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA

For generations, the idea of rocket flight has captured the human imagination and carried it toward the stars. Rockets also present an excellent materials design problem, requiring engineers to balance conflicting constraints like weight, strength, durability and cost. This presentation will describe the design, construction and testing of model rockets as a week-long project during a materials engineering outreach program for high school students. For this activity, students are challenged to build a rocket from high-tech composite materials (glass, carbon or aramid fiber in an epoxy matrix) that they create themselves in the lab. Besides material, students must also decide on parameters like rocket length and the number and shape of the fins, within a number of very real design constraints. The students use CAD software to design and 3D print nose cones for their rockets, which are eventually assembled using additional parts from a commercially available kit. To assist the students with the design process, an Excel tool was created based on the equations for predicting rocket height, allowing students to quickly and easily compare the effect of changes in size, shape and material on the predicted height and simulated cost of their rocket. The presentation will walk through the steps of the project as the students experience it, beginning with an introduction to the basics of rocket flight and some highlights of materials used in real rockets (such as the 3D printed SuperDraco engines created by SpaceX). The presentation will describe how the project has been carried out with both high school students and undergraduates in an introductory engineering course, and provide suggestions for how it could be adapted to a variety of settings. The Excel calculation tool will be made available to attendees.


Inspiration through lab teaching – building and running up a multipurpose drone composite lab

Raphael Geiger, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark

The presentation will tell about building of the composite lab of the danish drone center at the University of southern Denmark and how we in-cooperate lab teaching there. https://www.sdu.dk/en/om_sdu/institutter_centre/sduuascenter How to design a multi-purpose drone lab for students, researchers and company co-developments? What are the advantages and challenges for student teaching when sharing production space with start-up companies? In which ways can material teaching be inspired from it and how to combine hands on lab teaching with advanced material theory. What do our students think about it and how their feedback helps us to constantly improve the lectures? You will learn what are the challenges and lessons learned from teaching students from different teaching programs and how we like to inspire student groups designing and building their own composite drones with various composite manufacturing technologies, including composite additive manufacturing.


Applied research and education in 3D metal printing (SLM) for SMEs - a story of failure and success

Ernst Goedvolk, Saxion University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands

Background 3D metal printing (3DMP) by Selective Laser Melting (SLM) is a production technique that nowadays is used on a small scale by larger high tech industries. Also for SMEs 3DMP can be interesting, but most of them lack the investment power, knowledge and skills. All 3DMP novices have the same questions: where to start, which products, and how to (re)design for 3DMP? Therefore Saxion invested in a ConceptLaser MLab Cusing (SLM-SS316L) and started a research and education project in cooperation with ±10 SMEs. Methodology Students and researchers worked on real SME issues. The methodology used is learning by doing, discussing the results, compare it with literature, and analyzing failures and good results in detail. After selecting suitable products for 3DMP, students worked on the (re)design of new products/parts, in several optimization loops. Finished parts were tested by students (tensile strength, roughness, density, hardness, tolerances). The results were reflected on by researchers from Saxion and SMEs. Results Initial 3DMP results showed failures in shape, tolerance, density and strength, due to too little knowledge on design and process issues. Months of analysis and testing improved results and experience, from which design- and production guidelines were extracted. These include (prevention of) common failures. Other results are in the field of software, (post-)processing, safety, residual stress, heat treatment, mechanical properties. Conclusions From an educational perspective the results showed that students are well able to design for this new technique. Close cooperation with the SMEs confronted them with the success and failure of their own design work, which motivated them to improve their work. From a technical perspective the guidelines showed to be useful for experienced mechanical engineers when starting with 3DMP. From an SME business perspective the project showed that the cooperation with students can lead to rapid increase in 3DMP (design) knowledge.


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