The Modern Engineering Materials Instructional (MEMI) Lab: An Undergraduate Learning Experience for Characterizing Materials from the Nanoscale to the Macroscale

摘要

A new laboratory curriculum has been developed that provides undergraduate engineering students at the University of Maryland (UMD) with an integrated lab experience that connects the nanoscale structure of materials to the macroscopic physical properties. This laboratory, called the Modern Engineering Materials Instructional Lab (MEMIL), is a new 2241 ft~2 state-of-the-art teaching facility. Two experimental systems were acquired for this lab to facilitate the testing of small-scale specimens: 1) a custom-built biaxial micro-tensile tester that permits testing of milliscale test specimens, and 2) an integrated nanoindentation/SPM testing system that permits simultaneous mechanical/microstructural characterization over areas smaller than 60 microns. The laboratory is shared across Departments in the College of Engineering to provide a common undergraduate laboratory for the testing and characterization of materials. The sharing of joint undergraduate laboratory facilities across Departments and fields represents a new interdisciplinary view of the undergraduate curriculum that emphasizes micro- and nano-technology, and connection of nanometer and micron scale characterization to macroscopic properties.