2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

In the twenty-first century, meeting technological demands requires educational excellence that is ready for the critical challenges society faces. In the ever-advancing engineering industry, how would our Materials Engineering education system adequately prepare our students with the essential knowledge and skills necessary to adapt and excel in their career? What are the learning outcomes that are required to support such excellence?

To design these learning outcomes in our curriculum, gathering and analysing relevant stakeholders’ input is crucial. This paper presents our endeavour in partnering the stakeholders (students, educators/faculty, alumni and employers) to understand the gaps and needs of Materials Engineering education. Consultations with the stakeholders were designed to rally around three main focus areas namely (i) to evaluate the existing curriculum and validate good elements that should be retained, (ii) to identify missing gaps and areas that need improvement, and (iii) to address emerging trends and match future needs of Materials Engineering graduates with that of Materials Engineering industry. This study forms the basis for curriculum revamp of Materials Engineering undergraduate programme in our institution – from good to great.

While thorough analysis that looks into equipping our graduates with fundamental skills, agility and adaptability, collaboration skills, and innovation and enterprise mindset has reflected relatively positive feedback, several domains that require more development were highlighted too. They include the demand for more programming proficiency and data analytics, hands-on/practical experience, knowledge on Solidworks/CAD and ability to apply technical knowledge in real life applications. Such demands are now addressed in the new curriculum by introducing new courses and/or revising existing courses. A new laboratory course was introduced with greater emphasis on student-directed experimental design and practical work. A new course is offered to introduce students to various engineering digital tools like Solidworks and CAD. An existing engineering design course was thoroughly revamped to allow students work on real engineering problems brought up by industry partners. The industry partners also serve as direct mentors to our students and work closely with them for an entire semester to test, validate and refine the solutions proposed by our students.

Finally, key technological trends in the Materials Science industry in the next 5 – 10 years’ time were consolidated into materials simulation, machine learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI), material sustainability, biomaterials for aging population, semiconductor with new materials, nanomaterial and flexible/wearable electronics. While most of the future trends have been addressed in the present curriculum, two new specialisation areas were introduced. First, Materials and AI specialisation was introduced to cater to students who wish to deepen their knowledge on how AI and machine learning contribute to materials simulation and new materials discovery. Second, Materials and Sustainability was introduced to prepare students to better meet the needs of various industries towards a circular economy and sustainable Earth.

We strongly believe that the newly revamped curriculum will prepare Materials Engineering students with essential knowledge and skills necessary to adapt in the ever-advancing engineering industry and excel in their career.