B. Accreditation Summary

4. Professional Component

The Materials Engineering Curriculum has been carefully designed to strike a balance between Basic Science, Engineering Science, Engineering Design and General Education.

In this section a curriculum flow sheet and curriculum table show the standard curriculum, and a
summary of professional component, objectives and outcomes gives the relationship of the courses to the objectives and outcomes. Finally a discussion of evolution of program and comparison to previous program is presented with a table of translation of courses from previous to current program

FIGURE B4.1, TABLE B4.1 AND TABLE B4.2


Preparation for Engineering Practice
Engineering Design
The Materials Science and Engineering Department is committed to providing the student with realistic design experiences based on their current knowledge and skills. These design experiences are distributed through a number of courses as indicated in the course syllabi, but are concentrated in four experiences. The first three experiences 213, 313, and 414 (called Vertically Integrated Design) are taken each of the fall semesters with all students (sophomores, juniors and seniors) in the same classroom as shown in italics in Table B4.1. In this novel approach to learning and practicing design, teams of students representing each level (sophomores, juniors and seniors) are given design problems to solve. Each member of the teams takes on a role commensurate with his/her background, experience and skills. Most often the sophomore is the "junior" engineer, the junior is the "senior" engineer and the senior is the "project leader or manager". In these courses the process of design is discussed as well as practiced. The department has recently been awarded a large National Science Foundation Combined Research and Curriculum Development grant in which this design concept will be expanded to involve design work related to Non-destructive Evaluation. The senior student also participates in a capstone senior design course in the spring semester. In this course, our industry partners present design problems for teams of 2-4 students to work on most often in conjunction with a practicing engineer from the company and a faculty member from the department. The design team meets with industry representatives, and when possible visits the company and meets with engineers there to better define the problem and strategize. The course requires periodic reports (often oral) and a final oral and written (and sometimes electronic -- web pages) document presented to the faculty and industry representatives.

Relationship of Professional Component to Objectives and Outcomes
Table B4.3 shows a summary of the professional component distribution, and objectives and outcomes contributed to by each course in the program. The syllabi for these courses appear in Appendix IB.

TABLE B4.3


Changes in the Curriculum of the Materials Science and Engineering Department
As summarized in B1, B2, and B3 of this document, by recommendation of many of our constituencies, the MSE department changed the curriculum from two separate degrees in Metallurgical and Ceramic engineering, to a single degree in Materials Engineering with options for specializing in ceramic, electronic, metallic, and polymeric materials. It is useful to consider these changes with respect to the courses offered. The following is a comparison of the previous and current program in the Materials Science and Engineering Department at ISU

Figure B4.2 shows a graphical summary of the credit distribution for the previous and current programs for two cases: one in which the student has selected ceramic and metallic materials (previous majors), and the other in which a student has selected polymer and electronic materials. Note that a student could select any combination of two specializations, and the result would be intermediate to the two figures shown.

FIGURE B4.2


Materials Core

(both Metallurgical Engineering students and Ceramic Engineering students took courses on the left — Materials Engineers take the courses on the right)



Previous Program		Current Program
Intro to Materials (3 cr.) Ceramics Lab (2 cr.) orMetals Lab (2 cr.)	Equivalent to	Intro to Materials (5 cr.) (Comparative Properties Lab)
Materials Characterization+Lab (3 cr)	Same as	Structural Characterization Lab (3 cr.)
Thermodynamics (3 cr.)	Same as	Thermodynamics (3 cr)
Kinetics (4 cr.)	Same as	Kinetics (3 cr.)
Mechanical Properties (3 cr.)	Same as	Mechanical Properties (3 cr.)
Statistics (2cr.)	Replaced by:	Computational Methods (3 cr.)
Senior Design (6 cr.)	Replaced by:	Vertically Integrated Design and Capstone Design (7 cr.)
Technical Electives (6 cr. of 9 cr)	Same as	Technical Electives (6 cr.)
32 credits	vs	33 credits


Total Credits with comparable content (only the course numbers have changed) 33 cr.
Of the 123.5 credits in the revised program, 96.5 are common to the previous program.

Comparing Specializations to previous majors
Ceramics Specialization



Previous Program		Current Program
Materials Processing + Cer. Lab (4cr.)	Equivalent to:	Processing I Forming (3 cr.)
Thermal proc. & Micro. Dev. (4 cr.)	Equivalent to:	Processing II — Firing (3 cr.)
Glass + Lab (4 cr.)	Equivalent to	Glass + Lab (3 cr.)
Refractories and Struct. Cer.(3 cr.)	Replaced by	Ceramics Industry (3 cr.)
15 credits	vs	12 credits


Metals Specialization



Previous Program		Current Program
Materials Processing+ Met. Lab (4 cr.)	Equivalent to:	Metals Processing (3 cr.)
Physical Metallurgy (4 cr.) Physical Metallurgy Lab (3 cr.)	Together — replaced by	Structure/Property Relations (3 cr.)
		Ferrous Metallurgy (3 cr.)
Mechanical Metallurgy (4 cr.)	Replaced by	Corrosion and Failure Analysis (3 cr.)
15 credits	vs	12 credits


For a program with either specialization — 12 credits are common to the previous program. (96.5 + 12 = 108.5 credits). The remaining 123.5-108.5 15 credit differences are accounted for by the second required specialization (12 credits), and a savings of 7 credits from the deletion of Circuits (students with interest in electronics can take the electronics specialization) and Technical Writing (communication proficiency is validated through the department). The balance is accounted for by a difference in technical elective credits (3 cr.) and the addition of a free elective (3 cr.)

For the Special case of a student selecting Electronic materials and Polymers as specializations:
Polymers and Electronics Specialization



Previous Program		Current Program
Electronic Prop. Of Materials (4 cr.)	Equivalent to:	Intro. To Electronic Materials (3 cr.)
No equivalent		Semicond. Mat. and Devices (3 cr.)
No equivalent		Dielectric Materials (3 cr.)
No equivalent		Intro. to Micro. Fabrication (4 cr.)
Intro to Polymers and Composites (3)	Similar to	Introduction to Polymeric Mat. (3)
No equivalent		Physical & Mech. Prop. Of Poly. (3)
No equivalent		Intro. to Poly. Processing (3)
No equivalent		Indust. Polymers. And Proc. (3)
7 credits	vs	25 credits



Course Translation for Changing Programs
During the transition from two separate degrees in Ceramic Engineering and Metallurgical Engineering to a single degree in Materials Engineering with specializations in 4 areas, it is essential that students in the department are able to graduate with their desired degree. (Note that University rules state that a student can graduate under ANY catalog that is in effect during his/her registration at the University). Therefore, any MSE student beginning his/her freshmen year before Fall 1999 MUST be offered the choice of a Ceramic Engineering, Metallurgical Engineering, or Materials Engineering degree. Currently almost all student (with the exception of 1) who entered Fall 1998 or later have elected to pursue a materials engineering degree. To accommodate each student, the following course translation scheme has been developed.

In some cases, trailer courses (specifically in senior design) remained in the new catalog to accommodate seniors for which an appropriate translation (or appropriate # of credits) to the new program is not available.

Course Translation - from 97-99 to 99-01 Catalog (from Ceramic Engineering and Metallurgical Engineering Degrees to the Materials Engineering Degree)

TABLE B4.4