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Back to Materials Science: 10 Things Every Engineer Should Know

Learner Reviews & Feedback for Materials Science: 10 Things Every Engineer Should Know by University of California, Davis

4.7
stars
4,340 ratings

About the Course

We explore “10 things” that range from the menu of materials available to engineers in their profession to the many mechanical and electrical properties of materials important to their use in various engineering fields. We also discuss the principles behind the manufacturing of those materials. By the end of the course, you will be able to: * Recognize the important aspects of the materials used in modern engineering applications, * Explain the underlying principle of materials science: “structure leads to properties,” * Identify the role of thermally activated processes in many of these important “things” – as illustrated by the Arrhenius relationship. * Relate each of these topics to issues that have arisen (or potentially could arise) in your life and work. If you would like to explore the topic in more depth you may purchase Dr. Shackelford's Textbook: J.F. Shackelford, Introduction to Materials Science for Engineers, Eighth Edition, Pearson Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2015...

Top reviews

ZM

Jul 17, 2017

This course is good for engineers. It illustrated many fundemental and important concept in materials science. The teacher is great who explain nearly everthings in details with words and experiments.

DK

Sep 23, 2020

This course is good for engineers. It illustrated many fundemental and important concept in materials science. The teacher is great who explain nearly everthings in details with words and experiments.

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1 - 25 of 1,054 Reviews for Materials Science: 10 Things Every Engineer Should Know

By Matt S

Jul 3, 2016

OK introduction to material properties, but not rigorous (leaves out definitions, motivation and conclusions/consequences) and skips some things that come up on the quizzes. No worked examples.

By George A H

Jun 5, 2019

Helped me recall an overview image of the course I took in my 1st year in mechanical engineering.

By Avril K

Dec 15, 2016

This course is not terrible, I learned a few things, but it is poorly designed.

Some things are explained as if to people who aren't familiar with the concepts at all, while others are explained as if to people who must already know a lot about the concepts. I often felt lost. The "quizzes" did not help, you could do well on them without actually understanding things (I remember one multiple-choice question where the options were something like (a) "Arrhenius's first law", (b) "Arrhenius's second law", (c) "Arrhenius's third law", and you didn't even have to look at the question or know what the law was to know the answer because only one of Arrhenius's laws had been mentioned in the course at all).

There are two types of videos in this course. In one type, the professor is in a lab or kitchen or classroom or something and is physically demonstrating things. These videos are useful and mostly understandable. The other type of videos are lecture-style things that appear to have literally been sliced out of some other more thorough set of videos - sometimes the professor refers back to "earlier" parts of the lecture that we haven't actually seen before. Concepts and variables are often introduced without even mentioning what they refer to.

By Zhou M

Jul 17, 2017

This course is good for engineers. It illustrated many fundemental and important concept in materials science. The teacher is great who explain nearly everthings in details with words and experiments.

By DR.J.PAUL P

Jun 16, 2020

It was a very good short course. Was very useful and informative. The videos were very creatively made. The shorter duration of each videos was an added plus to get the solid attention of the viewers

By Nero B

Mar 5, 2018

This course was alot more educational then I thought it would be but now I compare what has shaped me in in life to creep deformation. I especially loved the lecture " a play on good and evil".

By Adam B

Jan 4, 2019

Needs a lot more context! Why why why are we learning each topic. I love all the math and the depth, but just say why we are learning each thing first!

How about modeling each of the 10 things after a historical case study? Like the invention of carbonated steel, vulcanized rubber, or high temperature super conductors...? The historical case will put the abstract processes into context.

By Sheladiya M V

May 25, 2020

Greatly explained everything. Good blend of practical and theory for all kind of learners. Not get bored at any instant, in fact wants to complete course in single seating. Really amazing experience.

By Deleted A

Jan 24, 2018

Good course summarizing the basics and fundamentally important topics in Materials Science. I wish I had taken this earlier during my university days to have a better appreciation of Materials. Good professor, easy to understand. I do wish there was a little bit more hands-on/calculations involved so that it would be a little easier and a little more helpful in taking the theory and making it a little more practical.

By mona b

May 25, 2020

Thanks to this amazing course I managed to fill the gaps I had from my first year master in process and materials engineering , it also provided and enriched me with so many interesting and helpful information that will facilitate my learning of the rest of courses in my educational career and of course it will help me to confront the problems that may cut my way in my future job

By Ismail H B

May 30, 2017

The general contents of the course are very satisfying. The connections between units (i.e. things) are very good and consecutive. Each topic has a connection with at least another one. Everything starts with Arrhenius and ends with Arrhenius. I appreciate Prof. James Shackelford for establishing such a connection throughout the course which makes whole subject fully understandable. However there were some numerical problems on some quiz of things (units). These numerical problems are so simple but there were not any example that shows the method how to interpret these problems to solve though. The trainee is supposed to solve these problems from the given equations. But it is sometimes hard to realize how to use the formula practically if one is not directly working on this specific subject. The other thing is about the semiconductor subject in where the n doped extrinsic semiconductors and the donor electrons with the energy level close to the conduction band are explained very good. Whereas there is no information about the p doped extrinsic sc's and acceptor holes with the energy level close to the valance band. Of course this course is about the material science and does not contain the electronics subject which is related with the electron flow under certain electric field. But I wish I saw the p-n junction with associated Fermi diagrams and how it shows the valve characteristics to the electrons under certain conditions of electric field. But anyway I got so many things that I need and I appreciate for these.

By Blair L

Oct 11, 2017

Loved the intuitive, ultra-concise approach. Professor Shackelford balances real-world testing, applications, and history with a minimalist overview of the mathematics. His segments on atomic-level mechanics help the student gain sight-unseen intuition for the phenomena that inform the math. A concise and memorable way to get a cursory understanding of the important concepts. His book is great too.

By Ángel A B

May 30, 2016

Great course to review the topic of materials. I am currently working as a mechanical engineer and it has helped me to refresh the fundamental concepts covered during my degree. The material is presented in a clear way and I think this is a good approach to the subject.

By Deepak K

Sep 24, 2020

This course is good for engineers. It illustrated many fundemental and important concept in materials science. The teacher is great who explain nearly everthings in details with words and experiments.

By MADUGULA G C S

Apr 23, 2020

very useful course but it would be better if the information regarding the lectures is provided in pdf form after each lecture/topic.To conclude it is a great experience to complete this course.

By SREEKANTH M S

Jul 25, 2017

It helped me a lot to have a basic idea about different types of materials, processing and properties. I earned basic knowledge about materials and I can teach these relevant topics to students

By Dongming I

May 26, 2019

Excellent course to get a quick refresh on this subject.

By Christopher S

Feb 27, 2017

A short course, but I did come away with a better understanding of how materials behave at a molecular/atomic level. I already had some experience with semiconductor physics and some of the basic chemistry ideas. The deformation curve helped me cement how/why torque specs are developed and used. The eutectic and eutectoid explanations were also very helpful.

By Ishita B

Mar 9, 2016

Great course for refreshing your Materials Science knowledge and also for people trying to know if this is the right path of study for them....

By Connor N

Jan 12, 2020

PLUS: The course was well-organized, and the organization structure was clear and easy to follow.

PLUS: The learning goals of the course were embedded in the organization, allowing me as a student to see exactly what main points I was intended to take away from the course.

DELTA: The course would have been more difficult to understand if I did not have background in Material Science. This is a good refresher and solidifier of content, but maybe wouldn't be as excellent a way to learn the content the first time.

DELTA: Some of the lessons (Week 5 in particular) left me with questions about some of the content covered that I needed to do external research on to fully understand (eutectic vs eutectoid being a salient example).

OVERALL: This course helped me refresh my Materials Science knowledge while solidifying general learning points about the topic that made the material more accessible and useful to me than it was previously.

By Ethan R

Dec 2, 2016

This is a recap of the most important things taught in Materials lectures on an engineering course. It is quick, concise and highlights what should be kept in mind when working with different materials. The only new material for me was the last thing on semiconductors which I found very interesting.

The only thing that could be significantly improved is the section on alloy phases. It's is an important topic and I think more time could be spent on that subject to provide a more well rounded understanding of the topic. However 9/10 things done well and the other being a bit rushed is still 5 stars in my book.

By Jay S

Jul 11, 2017

An excellent short introduction to materials science for engineers. If you haven't already read Shackleford's textbook, this video lecture series would be an excellent primer.

If you have recently studied undergraduate materials science or engineering then you will not need this course as it doesn't have time to delve too deeply into the theory. However, if you are like me and a few years out of education, it's an excellent albeit brief recap of materials and failure modes. It's possible to binge at 2x speed and complete this series in a day.

By syed m a

Feb 12, 2017

yes this is a awesome course was designed to understand how materials engineering important and play a supportive or growing role in every field of engineering . now i things its to basic to understand materials now your next step will design a course which is discuss about the "materials science and the coming world" that's sound interesting and it is also aware the people why materials in to important.

my best wishes with you hope you done good things for the world through spreading educational awareness.

By Mohammed H

Sep 23, 2017

I honestly think this course was very useful and a good refreshment of my material science knowledge. Hence I gave it 5 stars. However, I was going to give it 4 due to the fact that I really did not understand the last 2 things : eutectoid ; martensite and austenite relationships (thing 9) and the semiconductor part (thing 10).

I still gave it 5 stars because I really do not want to blame the course for me not understanding.

Good course in general and I am glad I was able to complete it.

By CHANDRAMOHAN G

Apr 12, 2020

The course is very interesting and very important for all mechanical Engineers who will be selecting the materials for design. Tensile test, creep test, fatigue test, chary test and Fracture toughness test are used to test the mechanical properties of the material. The engineers working in the industry have to relate the theory with the practice of these tests. This course gives the fundamental knowledge on Engineering materials.