2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Computational tools play an ever-expanding role in the careers of practicing engineers. As such, in addition to physical labs, our program requires all undergraduate students to take a two-semester sequence in computational materials science called “modeling and simulation” (or ModSim) focusing on practical programming skills and use of commercial CALPHAD and FEA software. These courses are taught in the spring semesters of the sophomore and junior years and formatted as hands-on computational laboratory courses. Originally, the physical lab and ModSim courses were delivered as separate sequences each loosely tied to what the students were learning in their lecture courses. However, while the application of physical labs to engineering practice is clear, students often did not connect what they were learning in ModSim to their future careers, as the computational labs were often written to reinforce basic MSE concepts or fit the capabilities of the computational software. In response to this, we have written two modules in the lab and ModSim sequences that directly make connections back and forth between the sequences. In the first, students are tasked with designing an aluminum alloy to meet certain strength, conductivity, and ductility requirements both physically in the lab and computationally using CALPHAD software, and in the other, students simulate a Jominy end quench hardenability test using CALPHAD and FEA tools, then physically perform the test on steel samples as part of a lab to identify an unknown alloy. Summaries of these modules and how student perceptions of the course and their learning changed as a result of these modules are presented.