Abstract:

From the beginning of the engineering degrees, the students must acquire theoretical knowledge together with an application vision of their subjects. This project is based on the subject “Materials Science and Engineering”, which is taught in the first year of the degree in Materials Engineering. It is the first contact of the students with their professional branch. For it, it is one of the most important subjects in this course; together the basic subjects (Match, Physics, Chemistry…).

The students must acquire deep knowledge about the structure, main properties and manufacturing of all types of materials: metals, ceramics, polymers and composites. In addition, it is necessary to give them an application vision of their field. The student must begin to be familiar in industrial and engineering framework related to Materials Engineering, taking into account the plurality and multidisciplinary nature of the degree in Materials Engineering. The business sectors related are varied, from the automotive, aerospace, civil engineering, construction, etc. For it, in this work, we propose learning based in real practical cases, based on the selection of materials for very different applications in varying industrial sectors.

This innovative methodology allows us that the students acquire important knowledge and simultaneously they develop new skills, such as search of information, synthesis capability, reasoning power, etc, becoming in decision makers. In addition, this activity promotes the active participation of the student in his own learning.

The specific methodology proposed consists of a selection of specific material for a real industrial problem. For example, the students should select the best candidate material to manufacture very different devices, such as parts of aircrafts, boats or cars, electrical devices, tools for kitchen, windows and parts for buildings, etc. The students should innitially discuss the requirements of the applications: mechanical, electrical, magnetic, chemical properties among others. Then they must select, with reasoned explanation, the best material. Finally, they must select the best process to manufacture it.

The students will begin to know how to search information in scientific papers and industrial patents. For it, at the beginning, we organize a workshop with the responsible of the library of our university in order to teach them the main information sources of Materials Engineering field.

This activity is organized in several steps during the semester. For it, eight sessions will be programmed to answer and solve the doubts and problems, which they can have. In each step, the students must provide a report with the most important information. In them, it is very important that the students justify their selection, explaining their reasoning. Also, they must develop synthesis ability to show all the used information in brief reports. Finally, in order to summarize the whole work carried out, they will have to do a poster with a summary of their project. This poster must show strictest scientific principles together with commercial parameters to sell their proposal in the current market.

Keywords:

Materials engineering, real cases, selection of materials.