Creating Modules for Contemporary Materials Challenges

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NON-TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION: In an effort to improve materials engineering innovation by both increasing the social literacy of engineers and helping non-engineering students understand how they play an important role in engineering innovation, a course entitled the Impact of Materials on Society (IMOS) is being offered at many universities around the U.S. including the University of Florida, Princeton University, University of Tennessee, Boise State University, University of Virginia, Houston Community College, etc. The course is composed of 12 weekly modules that introduce students to different types of materials each week (iron, bronze, ceramics, silicon, etc.) and also introduces them to 12 different social principles (sustainability, creative destruction, entanglement, operational chain, etc.). A series of videos are used to help introduce the students to future materials being developed. The students engage in flipped classroom, speculative design exercises in small groups in which they apply the social principles they learn to future materials innovations they create. All of the course materials to teach the class are free to the public on the Materials Research Society (MRS) website including the open source textbook. This project unites materials engineers, humanities researchers, social scientists, and science educators to increase the science and social literacy of engineering and non-engineering majors. Over 1000 engineers are using their increased understanding of the social challenges to improve engineering innovation. The course won the 2018 North American Award for Outstanding Innovation in Materials Education and has been featured in Time Magazine. There is a need to continually update this class and expand the offerings. For example, this effort is adding modules on the challenges of dealing with plastic waste, clean water, and solar energy.TECHNICAL DETAILS: The first new module focuses on the thermoplastic plastics that are currently recycled, the social challenges with recycling, and new polymer materials being developed that can enhance the recyclability of plastics. The second module focuses on the polymer membrane materials currently used for water purification and desalination, the social challenges with providing clean water, and new materials being developed to make desalination more available. The third module focuses on silicon for solar cells, the social impact of solar powered electrical microgrids in post hurricane Puerto Rico and future innovations in solar cell materials. This project helps to support the national workshops and the subsequent follow-up work necessary to complete the development of these modules. Upon completion the modules are being added to the IMOS/MRS website for free dissemination.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.