In order for mechanical engineering technologists to make informed material selection decisions from the rapidly increasing number of choices, they need a logical and systematic technique by which the selection of material can be made. The technique must be based upon physical properties of materials and a performance index, a ratio of properties raised to an appropriate power, which characterizes the particular design. For this purpose, the university's engineering materials course and laboratory have to be designed with a goal of presenting a logical and systematic technique to choose the optimum material for each design. The focus is still on both micro and macro structure, but the Cambridge University materials selection approach is being used to focus on critical property ratios that are design dependent and to relate the laboratory experience to support the lecture. This project obtains the modern laboratory equipment that will substantially enhance the undergraduate laboratory experience. The unique approach taken for the laboratory is to select representative materials for each of the basic classes of materials, and then concurrently characterize these materials with a series of experiments. By following the same set of materials through the same sequence of experiments, the students grasp and retain the concept of property measurements and the difference between and within material groups. The laboratory experience concludes with the students conducting a case study.
