2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Motivating students from other engineering disciplines to grasp the important concepts in materials science can be difficult, especially in a large classroom. This study examines the effect of implementing a semester-long poster project used to aid students’ understanding of basic concepts covered in lecture, including the students' understanding of the relationships among material structure on a microscopic scale, processing, and properties. The project was designed to engage undergraduate students through industry-specific, materials-focused research with applications related to various engineering disciplines. Analysis of the student reflections revealed that students enjoyed the freedom to select a material of their choosing and students were able to relate the material’s microstructure, processing steps, and properties to the application. Results overall showed that students were more engaged in the classwork and they were able to connect concepts from lecture to real world applications. This report describes the design and implementation of the poster project as well as results of the student submissions and reflections.