The (Micro)Structure of a Course: Lessons from Teaching Materials Design

The optimization of material microstructures is a central aspect of modern materials design and development, as microstructural features strongly determine the resulting properties and performance of a material. Addressing this task requires a broad set of competencies: The field is inherently interdisciplinary, combining methods from microstructure generation, statistics, imaging and segmentation, and the simulation of problem dependent physical fields and (effective) material properties. Bringing all these topics together in a single course therefore represents a significant teaching and learning challenge, especially if the student body consists of a diverse background of different majors.

To address this, the course concept is presented and discussed, consisting of hands-on learning on preselected relevant examples as well as a individual course project, where the new knowledge is applied to a novel research or development question. Furthermore, we will discuss lessons learned and outline new avenues to further develop the course.