Hi Amin,

I think, Materials Engineering, should be more adequate because this needs include the fundamentals. I think should be more important the topics covered in the course, from fundamentals up to applications. Also are very important the tools used for teaching.

I am a currently a student, so I have never taught a course. But I hope my student perspective will be helpful. My university took a heavily "Materials Science" approach, in that both the fundamental courses and advanced courses delved heavily into theory and calculations. Most of the "Materials Engineering" aspect was merely talking about applications, but not in great detail. Although the "Materials Science" aspect of it was taught very well, I wish my courses would have had design projects or case studies on these applications even before getting to the advanced courses. I think it would have helped better demonstrate that Materials Engineering has real world applicability.

Hands-on experimental learning only began in my 3rd/4th year with laboratory classes, but by then many of the students had already lost interest in the field and merely stayed with it because it was too late to pursue a different field of study. While students more determined to get hands-on experience did so through research with professors, I don't think this should have been the only way to learn by doing.

Dear Amin.....Materials Science and its Applications may be another title you can think of.....which will satisfy both in much more better way.

Hello. I teach a course named Science and Technology of Functional Materials at the MSc level. The idea of the course is give in a first block, the fundamentals of chemistry, including chemistry in solution, atomic models, nomenclature, use of numbers, elements of solid state chemistry, crystallography, semiconducutros, to level the students that come from diverse engineering, but telling them where those principles come from (even doing a history recall) and where they can be used everywhere with emphasis in the applications they can found in their research subjects; a second block talks about materials, how they are prepared, which applications have a same material in different fields of science, engineering and daily life, individual and commented expositions of some recent papers are made as well as simple laboratory practice to illustrate a point of chemistry or physics doing the preparation or characterization of a material. The third block intends a general panorama or characterization techniques, remembering the chemistry of materials block to remember the fundamentals and closing the circle. In some years we even made an outside excursion to made some experiments we figure out in the class. I guess it has worked well...

I teach both materials science and materials engineering related courses as two different approaches. I start from the materials tetrahedron that was presented in 1990 by the NRC

http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309039282

Since then, I present this as

* Nature (chemistry + structure + phases)

* Properties

* Preparation (synthesis + processing)

* Performance

In courses that are slanted more to materials science, I address why the nature of materials defines their properties. I may also talk about how materials are synthesized and how processing changes their nature. In courses that are slanted more to materials engineering, I address how the performance of materials in applications is determined by the properties of the materials. I may also bring in how we can use processing to change properties.

I have found that folks who approach materials from focused disciplines in chemistry, physics, electrical engineering, chemical engineering, or mechanical engineering have great difficulties handling the breadth and depth of topics needed to truly appreciate materials. Physicists and all the engineers but the chemical generally have no sense about the fundamental chemistry of materials. All but the physicists generally have no sense about the solid state physics or quantum mechanics behind the fundamentals of materials. Most of the disciplines have only a smattering of appreciation for the structure or phases of materials, and in most cases that knowledge is only about metals. Finally, all of the science disciplines often promote their own focused studies of specific substances as being materials science even when what they study has absolutely no performance or property demands for any real-world applications.

Excellent analysis of the students' profiles and excellent approach for teaching. Great material from NSC. Regards