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MAT_SCI 101: Modern Materials


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Prerequisites

None

Description

This course is specifically designed for non-science and non-engineering students and has been approved by most NU colleges, including the College of Arts and Sciences, to fulfill the natural science distribution requirement.

Materials are all around us and literally shape the world in which we live. "Ages" in human history have been identified according to the principal materials used for tools--e.g., stone, bronze, and iron. Since the industrial revolution and especially during this century there has been a veritable "materials revolution," ushering in hydraulic cements, high performance alloys, polymers (plastics), composites, semiconductors, superconductors, etc. Future historians may refer to our age as the age of silicon, after the material which forms the basis of the devices which power our advanced electronic communication/information systems.

In MM&S (Mat Sci 101), students will learn:

  1. How materials "work." (scientific principles)
  2. How they are made. (engineering, manufacturing aspects)
  3. How they affect human society. (including economic and ecological issues)

There will be extensive in-class "demos" and hands-on exhibits to encourage student participation and learning. Students will also participate in individual projects or group tutorials as part of the SERTS program (Science / Engineering Research and Teaching Synthesis), an NU cross-schools initiative.

The instructor, Tom Mason in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, has won numerous teaching awards, including the prestigious NU Alumni Association's Excellence in Teaching Award, the James N. and Margie M. Krebs Professorship, and the Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence.

If you have any questions about the course, please contact Professor Mason at t-mason@northwestern.edu.