This project is implementing a laboratory in support of an emerging multidisciplinary undergraduate minor in explosives engineering. Only a handful of institutions of higher learning in the U.S. offer academic instruction in energetic materials and explosives at a time when the need for engineers with explosives expertise is expanding. Traditional explosives engineering has been focused on applications in the mining industry. The explosives engineering program being developed through this project combines fundamentals in the basic sciences such as chemistry and physics, with topics from mechanical, chemical, and civil engineering. Modular laboratory experiences are being developed employing field and laboratory instrumentation such that other institutions can assemble these instructional modules into a course that meets their particular needs. Course modules will also be tested in a distance learning environment.
