Professor David Srolovitz has made many important contributions to materials science and engineering during his career. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and will be receiving the Hume-Rothery award at TMS next year. He was visiting Michigan to present the Larry Van Vlack lecture and we were honored by his presence. Dave and Steve were grad students together at U. PA many years ago. Liz Holm, the UM Materials Science and Engineering chair was Dave's second PhD student when Dave was a professor at UM. Unfortunately, Dave's schedule was tight and the only time we were able to sit down with him was during Tim's class. So Liz graciously sat if for Tim and was this week's guest host. It was great to talk to Dave and Liz about his career, teaching, research, AI, and other topics. We even found out where Dave gets his best ideas! Dave is currently the Dean of Engineering at Hong Kong University.

You can find the YouTube version here:

Our YouTube channel can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/@Undercooled.Materials

This episode is sponsored by the University of Michigan Materials Science and Engineering department (https://mse.engin.umich.edu).

Steve and Tim talked with Professor John Allison about Integrated Computational Manufacturing Engineering (ICME) and his PRISMS center. John talked about how creating the Virtual Aluminum Casting program at Ford led to the ability to predict properties of the as cast aluminum engine blocks to the point where they were perfect the first time. This vastly improved the time to develop new products for Ford and helped significantly to the development of lighter weight vehicles. John also talked about his current role in helping improve the recycling of aluminum waste for large scale castings using ICME. John also talks about his new PRISMS center, Magnesium alloys, the importance of team dynamics in accomplishing his work, and how he got into materials science and engineering.

You can learn more about the PRISMS center here:
https://prisms-center.org/#/home

You can find the YouTube version here:
https://youtu.be/pF0YSMdrNBA

Our YouTube channel can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/@Undercooled.Materials

This episode is sponsored by the University of Michigan Materials Science and Engineering department (https://mse.engin.umich.edu).

Tim and Steve talked with Lily Turaski from Georgia Tech at the NAMES conference in August, 2025. Today's episode focuses on engineering education research. We discussed the importance of education research and how it applies to actually teaching, what are the barriers to adoption of research-based teaching strategies, and important problems in education research. We also discussed some preliminary results from Lily's ongoing research in materials education.

You can find the YouTube version here:
https://youtu.be/MzkBTuO2sJ0
Check out the video version to see the visual presentation of research results!

This episode is sponsored by the University of Michigan Materials Science and Engineering department (https://mse.engin.umich.edu).

Steve and Tim caught up with Professor Alison Polasik at the 2025 NAMES meeting in Atlanta. We talked about what it is like to teach at a small school, Campbell University, compared to her previous position at Ohio State. We also talked about her research and what she is currently interested in. She has recently been teaching classes that are integrated with small laboratory experiences right in the same room

You can find the YouTube version here:
https://youtu.be/iDSLFpaSLdE?si=_--jufs-qmIC5KA7

This episode is sponsored by the University of Michigan Materials Science and Engineering department (https://mse.engin.umich.edu).

Steve and Tim talk about reinventing our Materials curriculum based on what we have learned in the past year. AI has had a profound effect on the job market in areas like computer science. Is the Materials job market going to have a similar downturn? What can we do about it?

You can find the YouTube version here:
https://youtu.be/NPqvRkQOK_k

This episode is sponsored by the University of Michigan Materials Science and Engineering department (https://mse.engin.umich.edu).

Tim and Steve talk with 4 participants in the Summer 2025 ASM Teacher's Camp in Ann Arbor. You can learn more about the camps at
https://www.asmfoundation.org/teachers/materials-camps/year-one/
Over 12000 teachers have participated in ASM camps to date - it's a leading program in bringing materials science to the K-12 space.

You can find the YouTube video here:
https://youtu.be/-9dLj7b_OkM

This episode is sponsored by the University of Michigan Materials Science and Engineering department (https://mse.engin.umich.edu).

Steve and Tim talked with Prof. Ron Kander at the NAMES meeting in Atlanta last month. Ron talked about his experiences creating new engineering programs, first at James Madison University and later at Philadelphia University which has now become Thomas Jefferson University. He took the Olin model one step further by developing a design first approach that included Engineering, Design, and Business. You can learn more about the Kanbar College of Design, Engineering & Commerce (Named for Maurice Kanbar - not Ron Kander) here:

https://www.jefferson.edu/academics/colleges-schools-institutes/kanbar-college-of-design-engineering-commerce.html

Ron has recently retired but his information is still up on the Thomas Jefferson University website:

https://www.jefferson.edu/academics/colleges-schools-institutes/kanbar-college-of-design-engineering-commerce/about/message-from-dean.html

You can also learn about Ron and his research at this page:

https://ronkander.academia.edu/

The YouTube video of the podcast can be found here:

https://youtu.be/9CbPfjtsM6s

This episode is sponsored by the University of Michigan Materials Science and Engineering department (https://mse.engin.umich.edu).

Steve and Tim talk with Dr. Christian Casper about how he teaches technical communication to students at the University of Michigan, in particular how we've integrated more advanced teaching in visual and written communication in materials lab classes.. You can learn more about the Program in Technical Communication at https://techcom.engin.umich.edu/

You can find the YouTube version here:
https://youtu.be/4ja7CxNDvQY

This episode is sponsored by the University of Michigan Materials Science and Engineering department (https://mse.engin.umich.edu).