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Materials
Education News
Other news and information:
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2. New resources for introductory courses on materials and processes
Over the past few years, we have noted a trend towards use of our CES EduPack across the curriculum. We've responded by creating new software features and teaching resources to support and extend this wider usage. The result is that CES EduPack, which five years ago was largely used as a specialist teaching tool for 3rd and 4th year materials selection courses, is now also ideal for introductory courses on materials and processes. Recent developments of particular value in introductory courses include:
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3. Reports from materials educators Here are some examples of universities that are either using CES EduPack in introductory materials courses, or are in the process of expanding their existing use to include these courses: Chris Pistorius, Head of the Department of Materials Science and Metallugical Engineering at the University of Pretoria explains, "We have just purchased a five-year campus licence for CES EduPack as part of a strategy to improve undergraduate teaching. CES EduPack will be used to offer tutorials in the first-year module in Materials Science. Most of the students in engineering take this module - a total group size of some 900 students. The module is usually their first in-depth exposure to engineering. The prescribed text will be the new Materials book by Ashby, Shercliff and Cebon, making the most of the availability of CES EduPack. CES EduPack has been in use by third-year Interior Architecture students at Pretoria for two years; this familiarity is being used to plan the roll-out of CES EduPack to the much larger group." John Metcalf from Sheffield Hallam University says "A colleague and I are responsible for teaching a Materials and Process Selection module to a large group of second year Engineering Design undergraduate students. This module would be impossible to deliver effectively without CES. Within a few sessions the students begin to get the hang of the CES suite of software and start to produce outstanding work. It's a joy to watch them!" Dr Steve Garner is Course Team Chair of the Design and Designing course at the Open University. As a distance learning university that is open to all, the Open University has a particular need for effective tools suited to introductory courses. "We enrol about 400 students each year and these possess a great variety of abilities, including some who are new to using computer-based learning resources (in some cases, even new to using computers). The students have found CES to be a robust and helpful part of our teaching. The tutors seem to be very impressed with the quality of information available and the fact that each page is very visual and approachable - vital to teaching at this novice undergraduate level." |
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Information pack: CES EduPack for first and second year teaching
Our information pack on materials and process education has been updated with a new short paper from Professor Mike Ashby covering first and second year teaching. The pack also includes a twenty-page paper discussing the general teaching of engineering materials and sample CES EduPack teaching resources. A link to the information pack will be provided to all web seminar registrants (item 1, above) or you can download it separately: |
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Case study audio-visual recording: Materials selection for an aircraft wing
A new recorded audio-visual presentation is available on the Granta website providing a case study in the use of CES EduPack. The case study shows how a student exercise or part of a lecture could use the EduPack to investigate a real-life engineering application - the selection of a material for an aircraft wing. The example shows how students could learn about materials, materials families, their properties and the underlying materials science, the factors and process involved in materials selection, and the need to trade-off properties and consider commercial factors in real engineering applications. Granta intends to build a library of such resources in order to share useful experiences and demonstrate how CES EduPack can support teaching. Visit the library of recordings and view the full case study |
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6. Short course - Nürnberg, Germany, September 9 One short course remains in our 2007 program covering the teaching of materials and manufacturing.
The short course will be held within the EuroMat program, although conference registration is not required for course attendance. There are a few places remaining on the course - so register now! More information on short course content is provided in the next item and at the following link: |
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We now have a preliminary schedule for our one-day short courses during 2008, taught by Professor Mike Ashby. We will be finalizing dates and locations soon. Pre-register using the link below to be kept informed. You can even provide us with your date and location preferences!
Designed for professors, lecturers, and teachers, these popular courses provide an overview of a design-led approach for teaching materials and manufacturing to engineering and design students. They introduce the CES EduPack software and teaching resources, which are central to this approach, but which may be applied to support and enhance any materials or manufacturing course. Through lectures interspersed with hands-on tutorial sessions using the software, the course will train you in the use of the CES EduPack. |
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8. Visit us at MS&T in Detroit - guess the material and win a watch! Granta will be at the Materials Science & Technology 2007 conference in Detroit this month. With so many recent developments at Granta, there is a lot to catch up on! So, if you're attending MS&T, why not stop by our booth (booth 315) and find out what's new. Your visit could be timely in more than one way. You will get the chance to win a watch by entering our "guess the material" contest. All you have to do is apply your materials expertise (or educated guesswork) to the set of materials samples we will have at the booth. Every entrant will get one of our "GRANTA MI, the game" materials property card games. |
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9. Celebrating 21 years of materials selection A "coming of age" party in July marked twenty-one years of materials selection software at Cambridge University and Granta Design. In 1986, Professor Mike Ashby and Dr David Cebon first collaborated on developing software tools to systematically select materials for engineering applications. Their work, at the Cambridge University Engineering Department, led to the founding of Granta Design and the development of new technologies and products that are now used by 600 universities and by world-leading engineering organizations such as NASA, Rolls-Royce, Honeywell, GE, and Emerson Electric. A display, supported by hands-on demonstrations, charted the development of Granta's materials information technology from the "back of an envelope" in 1986 to today's advanced commercial tools! |
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10. Granta hosts MANUDIRECT nanotechnology project Granta and the University of Cambridge hosted the third project meeting of MANUDIRECT, a new collaborative project focused on innovative manufacturing processes, at Queen's College, Cambridge during June. MANUDURECT is a European Nanotechnologies Project funded by the European Union's Sixth Framework Program. The project aims to provide a new platform for manufacturing with resolution better than 200 micro-metres, based on high productivity, high resolution, direct, one step, laser sintering using metals and ceramic materials. Such technology would have a broad range of microengineering and biomedical applications. The MANUDIRECT Consortium includes academic and industrial partners from Italy, Germany, UK, Spain, Romania, Poland, Cyprus, and Belgium with commercial participants including Granta, Siemens, EADS Deutschland, and MTU. |
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