Tim talks with Kaitlin Tyler this week at the ASEE meeting in Montreal. Kaitlin works for ANSYS as an Education Content Developer. We discuss career trajectories in MSE and the importance of networking and attending conferences. We also tell some stories about the North American Materials Education Symposium (NAMES) and why everyone should attend it. It's not too late to register for NAMES 2025! You can learn more about Kaitlin here: https://www.ansys.com/authors/kaitlin-tyler Some of Kaitlin's ...
Jul 19, 2025•30 min•Season 2Ep. 22
Steve and Tim talk with Bill Callister, the author of the best selling introduction to materials science and engineering text book. Bill tells us how he got into materials and how he ended up writing a book that is now in its 10 edition! You can find the YouTube video here: https://youtu.be/UiUWBENdRT8 This episode is sponsored by the North American Materials Education Symposium, a gift from Prof. Ron Gibala, and the University of Michigan Materials Science and Engineering department ( https://m...
Jun 01, 2025•1 hr 26 min•Season 2Ep. 21
Steve and Tim talked with Professor Diran Apelian from UC Irvine. Diran talks about his journey to Materials Science and Engineering through his days at Drexel, MIT, Bethlehem Steel, back to Drexel, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, to Irvine. He explains his foray into project based learning and now his new course on Professional Skills that he is teaching at Irvine. You can find more about Diran here: https://engineering.uci.edu/users/diran-apelian https://www.nae.edu/19579/165897/20676/166043/...
May 25, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Season 2Ep. 20
Steve and Tim talk with Prof. Robert Talbert from Grand Valley State University. Robert is a math professor and has been very influential in inverted or flipped teaching and alternative grading in the past 20 years. Recently, he and a colleague, William Clarke, also a math professor at Grand Valley State University, wrote a book called "Grading for Growth". Most of the podcast is focussed on the ideas, implementation, and impact of the book. Robert also let us know that he is in the process of p...
May 11, 2025•1 hr 19 min•Season 2Ep. 19
Tim and Steve talk with 4 of the Materials Science and Engineering undergraduate students who got to fly to Las Vegas to attend the TMS annual meeting in April 2025. They talked about their experiences and the impact that it had on their education and outlook for the future. You can find the YouTube video here: https://youtu.be/BxAqQOSZfuE This episode is sponsored by the North American Materials Education Symposium, a gift from Prof. Ron Gibala, and the University of Michigan Materials Science ...
May 04, 2025•42 min•Season 2Ep. 18
Steve ran into Christina Haden at the 2025 ABET symposium in San Diego two weeks ago. Christina has developed a multi step method of assessing student outcomes using performance indicators that span a period of time across an entire curriculum to gain knowledge of learning growth. She is experimenting with longer times and using her methods to perform longitudinal studies of learning gains. She also talked about of her more exciting projects that is focussed on a new first year in engineering ex...
Apr 20, 2025•41 min•Season 2Ep. 17
Steve and Tim ran into Taylor Sparks at the TMS meeting and decided to do a podcast. Taylor is a professor in the Materials Science and Engineering Department at U. Utah. He is also the host of the long running materials science podcast called "Materialism: A Materials Science Podcast". You can find the podcast on Apple Podcasts at the link below or you can just search for it on any podcast platform: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/materialism-a-materials-science-podcast/id1448663986 You c...
Apr 13, 2025•14 min•Season 2Ep. 16
Tim and Steve were at the TMS meeting in Las Vegas and ran into Professor Jerry Floro from the Materials Science and Engineering Department at the University of Virginia. We talk about his efforts to bring active learning into his classes, his work in helping start an undergraduate program at UVa, and lots of other fun things. You can learn more about Jerry and the MS&E department at UVa at the links below: About Jerry: https://engineering.virginia.edu/faculty/jerrold-floro About the MS&...
Apr 06, 2025•43 min•Season 2Ep. 15
Steve and Tim were walking through the TMS Annual Meeting Exhibit hall in Las Vegas and stopped to talk to Dr. Adam Hope at the Thermo-Calc booth. Adam is a member of the TMS education committee. He told us how he became a Materials Scientist and what a materials student might want to do if they wanted to get a job at Thermo-Calc. You can learn more about Thermo-Calc here: https://thermocalc.com You can find the YouTube video of the podcast here: https://youtu.be/yi6PymT_vK4 This episode is spon...
Mar 30, 2025•7 min•Season 2Ep. 14
Steve and Tim talk with Chris Gordon, the Director of the Wilson Student Team Projects Center at the U. of Michigan. Chris tells us how the Wilson Center got started and evolved into what it is today. There are 24 competition teams at the Wilson Center and it supports many capstone design projects, our Multidisciplinary Design program, and more. Chris explains why community and safety are at the core of the center and how students and faculty help each other succeed. He also talks about why this...
Mar 16, 2025•59 min•Season 2Ep. 13
Tim and Steve talk with Professor Wenhao Sun about the way he is using Chat GPT in his thermodynamics and kinetics classes. Wenhao demonstrates how he teaches students to use Chat GPT as a collaborator to solve much harder problems that are usually given to students. He believes that this lets his students experience the higher levels of Blooms taxonomy and shows how he does this in a live demonstration. Here is a link to a short video describing Professor Sun's research: https://youtu.be/cO7jEA...
Mar 09, 2025•1 hr 18 min•Season 2Ep. 12
Tim and Steve talk with Izzy Jaszczak about Michigan Technological University's metal casting course and the major changes the teaching staff has made to increase the course capacity to 60 students. This was a course that she had taken as an undergraduate. Working with Dr. Paul Sanders, Dr. Dale Dewald, and Peter Jaszczak, she updated the lab curriculum to give students more individual hands-on time with equipment. Izzy also talks about the research half of her role helping students, staff, and ...
Feb 23, 2025•54 min•Season 2Ep. 11
Tim and Steve talk with Dr. Enze Chen, a Lecturer in Materials Science and Engineering at Stanford University. We talk about Enze's unique approach to teaching, his computational modules and materials informatics. We touch on topics such as teaching Gen Z students, generative AI, and visualization in materials education. Dr. Chen even talks about his sketching course for MS&E students. You can learn more about Enze and peruse some extra resources at his website: https://enze-chen.github.io/ ...
Feb 09, 2025•59 min•Season 2Ep. 10
In this episode, Steve and Tim reflect on their recent teaching experiences, focusing on Tim's new math course and Steve's grading for growth experiment. They discuss the positive feedback from students, the structure of the math course, and the challenges of integrating AI tools in education. Additionally, they explore innovative grading methods that emphasize student engagement and learning retention, highlighting the importance of feedback and reassessment without penalty. In this conversatio...
Jan 24, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Season 2Ep. 9
Steve and Tim talk with Dr. Ellen Solomon, one of the program managers of the Multidisciplinary Design Program (MDP) at the University of Michigan. Ellen graduated with an MS&E degree from Michigan and worked in industry before coming back to Michigan to run the research program side of MDP. She talked to us about this very unique program that incorporates not only research projects, but projects from industry as well. About Ellen: https://mdp.engin.umich.edu/staff/ellen-solomon/ UM MDP: htt...
Nov 17, 2024•51 min•Season 2Ep. 8
Steve and Tim talk with Professor Tresa Pollock from UC Santa Barbara, the 2024 Van Vlack Lecturer in the MS&E department at U. Michigan. Tresa has had a very long and distinguished career in Materials Science and Engineering and has mentored many many graduate students. We had a discussion about graduate student mentoring amongst other things. You can find her website here: https://materials.ucsb.edu/people/faculty/tresa-pollock You can find the YouTube video here: https://youtu.be/MfANbEKm...
Nov 10, 2024•43 min•Season 2Ep. 7
Steve and Tim talk with Dr. Tershia Pinder-Grover, the director of the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching in Engineering (CRLT-Engin) in the College of Engineering at the University of Michigan. This year marks the 20th anniversary of CRLT-Engin, a focused teaching center where the consultants all have degrees in engineering as well as engineering education. CRLT of University of Michigan is the first University teaching center in the nation. CRLT Engin: https://crlte.engin.umich.edu/ ...
Sep 22, 2024•51 min•Season 2Ep. 6
Steve talks to Tim about his new math course. He explains how it is going, what is challenging, and what is better than expected. He also discusses his grading, student input, and other aspects of this new course. You can find the YouTube video here: https://youtu.be/3AUgS8cGLhE This episode is sponsored by the North American Materials Education Symposium ( https://java.engin.umich.edu/NAMES24/ ) and the University of Michigan Materials Science and Engineering department ( https://mse.engin.umic...
Sep 08, 2024•24 min•Season 2Ep. 5
Tim talks with Micah Gendich, the University of Michigan MSE student association president. UM has an organization called the Michigan Materials Society (MMS) that is run by undergraduate students with a little help from the graduate students. They organize weekly luncheons, social events, and also professional development events. They also engage with outreach and recruiting activities for our department. You can find the YouTube video here: https://youtu.be/X-SCX86XVjE This episode is sponsore...
Sep 03, 2024•36 min•Season 2Ep. 4
Tim and Steve talk about how they are getting ready for classes - which start next week! Tim is creating a completely new class that has never been taught before - Math for MS&E students at the second year undergraduate level. Steve is making some major changes in his team based intro to materials course by adding in components of Grading for Growth methods. some links: Get the book Grading for Growth: https://www.amazon.com/Grading-Growth-Alternative-Practices-Engagement/dp/1642673811 You c...
Aug 20, 2024•1 hr•Season 2Ep. 3
Cindy talks with Tim and Steve about Engineering for One Planet and how she worked with the Lemelson Foundation to launch it. You can find the information talked about in the podcast here: https://engineeringforoneplanet.org/resources/ https://engineeringforoneplanet.org You can find the YouTube video here: https://youtu.be/CzjC52iytcQ This episode is sponsored by the University of Michigan Materials Science and Engineering department ( https://mse.engin.umich.edu )....
Aug 11, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Season 2Ep. 2
Summary In this conversation, Steve, Tim and Marcus discuss the challenges of attracting students to material science and engineering (MSE) programs. They explore the concept of jobs to be done, which includes the functional, emotional, and social aspects of a product or service. Marcus suggests that MSE programs should focus on the emotional and social jobs that potential students want to fulfill, such as their interests in fashion, sneakers, and tangible experiences. They also discuss the impo...
Aug 07, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Season 2Ep. 1
Steve and Tim talk about the new season for the 2024-2025 academic year. They plan to continue having great guests and add some curricular topics. Please help us with our show! Head over to this link and give us some feedback, suggest guests, suggest topics, suggest yourself! Feedback form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScmi5go4JEjI2msncKTtXznqVv2RQm9a_vsdCr5Bu9wTCHsbQ/viewform?usp=pp_url We thank the University of Michigan Materials Science and Engineering department ( https://mse.en...
Aug 05, 2024•7 min
Gerard Mourou was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2018 along with his former student Donna Strickland. The Nobel Prize was for developing chirped pulse amplification of femtosecond laser intensity. This led to many important applications including the all laser Lasik eye surgery, a new method to reduce space junk by using coherently combined femtosecond pulses in space, astrophysics research, particle generation and acceleration, and many new advances in radiation therapy and other medical...
Jun 16, 2024•44 min•Season 1Ep. 26
Steve and Tim talk with Dr. Ray Decker today. Ray earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees at the U. of Michigan. He spent most of his career at International Nickel Corporation and has since started several companies as an entrepreneur. Thixomat and Nanomag are his two most recent companies. He has been very active in ASM and especially the ASM Foundation. Ray is especially interested in Materials Education and has worked tirelessly for the ASM Foundation in recent years on the teachers ca...
May 12, 2024•54 min•Season 1Ep. 25
You can find the YouTube version of the Podcast here: https://youtu.be/7uRI_rE7Nn4 We also have a condensed video version that can be found here: https://youtu.be/b--Ddpq6w8Y You can find out more about the North American Materials Education Symposium this coming summer in Ann Arbor here: https://java.engin.umich.edu/NAMES24/ This episode is sponsored by the University of Michigan Materials Science and Engineering department ( https://mse.engin.umich.edu )....
May 05, 2024•17 min•Season 1Ep. 24
Tim and Steve talk with Aeriel about her experience being a student and transitioning to an assistant professor at the Ohio State University You can find the YouTube video here: https://youtu.be/sYEPBGyi610 You can read about the Aeriel Views project here: https://aerielviews.blog/ You can read more about her work with SWE Liberia here: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11837-020-04312-3.pdf You can find out more about the North American Materials Education Symposium this coming sum...
Apr 28, 2024•55 min•Season 1Ep. 23
Tim and Steve talk with Chip Keough, the former CEO of Applied Process, Inc and the past chair of the ASM Foundation. Chip is a UM Alum and currently and adjunct faculty member of the UM MSE department. Chip explains the difference between ASM and ASM Foundation and why the materials community benefits from both. He has been very involved with the ASM Foundation teachers camps and talks about it in the podcast. ASM: https://www.asminternational.org ASM Foundation: https://www.asmfoundation.org Y...
Apr 21, 2024•52 min•Season 1Ep. 22
Steve and Tim talk about projects they have students do instead of exams. You can find the YouTube video here: https://youtu.be/XTRHz2kirbs You can find out more about the North American Materials Education Symposium this coming summer in Ann Arbor here: https://java.engin.umich.edu/NAMES24/ This episode is sponsored by the University of Michigan Materials Science and Engineering department ( https://mse.engin.umich.edu )....
Apr 14, 2024•46 min•Season 1Ep. 21
Peg and Tim talk about the ASM Foundation teacher camps. You can find out more about the teacher camps at this link: https://www.asmfoundation.org/teachers/materials-camps If you are interested in attending a camp in 2024 use this link: https://www.asmfoundation.org/teachers/camp-schedule/ You can find the YouTube video here: https://youtu.be/zkG58quir8U You can find out more about the North American Materials Education Symposium this coming summer in Ann Arbor here: https://java.engin.umich.edu...
Apr 07, 2024•56 min•Season 1Ep. 20
