The objective is to provide undergraduate engineering students with both basic principles and practical aspects of material testing and to explore avenues for improved cooperation between the university and industry. The university will teach the basic principles of the subject, while an industrial laboratory will provide the practical aspects of materials testing. The course consists of one semester credit laboratory course, which has about 13 3-hour periods. Seven of 13 periods are supervised by the faculty and staff of the university. In the other four periods, the students go to the industrial laboratories to see the actual commercial testings, state-of-the-art equipment, and the demonstration of special testing techniques. The remaining periods of the course are used for special lectures given either by engineers from laboratories on the testing projects that could not be scheduled for student observation, or by faculty members who are involved in experimental research projects. All activities that are performed by industrial laboratories are to be videotaped; these tapes will be made available for other students who will take the course in the future.
