Instrumentation and Laboratory Improvement (ILI)

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This is a project which is making a radical shift in the methods by which basic laboratories in Materials Science and Engineering are taught to all engineering students. The primary targets are second year students from: Aerospace, Civil, Industrial, and Mechanical Engineering, numbering about 500 per year. In addition, about 50 students per year with majors and/or minors in Materials Science and Engineering are being affected. All these students have in common a strong need to understand the mechanical properties of solids. The idea is to impart the practical meaning of complex and abstract data used for the engineering design of every day products. In the past, most experiments were confined primarily to observation and data gathering. This problem is overcome using multiple stations, each with a small student team and employing a computer interfaced to sophisticated experimental apparatus. Experiments are relating practical applications (e.g. the strength of fasteners or welds in realistic environments) to the limits of data obtained from standard tests and specimens (e.g. from tensile or impact machines). Microstructural data using multiple imaging and collection systems is being correlated to mechanical properties in every instance.