SUMMARY: An overview is given of the teaching of plastics at various levels of technological education in the Netherlands, focusing on mechanical engineering. Special attention is paid to the design process and the realisation of a proper materials choice or even materials design or even invention in it. Engineering curricula for higher and university levels contain courses on methodic designing, processing and materials science (next to the basics like mathematics and mechanics). These should give the students an appropriate basis for their future task. The question of how to deal with a design situation, where an appropriate materials grade is apparently not available can be studied in the research task, which forms the final stage of the engineering course. A number of actual and possible examples of these research tasks are presented. This also includes a preview of the role a product manager/designer can play in defining or inventing the right material for his product. In March 1986 a SEFI seminar ‘Lets invent a new material’ was held in Limerick, Ireland, especially devoted to the role of Materials Engineering in engineering curricula. This set the stage for contributions and discussions. This paper describes some Dutch data and views. It expresses the view that only in a few cases the call falls back on a teachable skill, but more often on acquired experience. A first experience can best be acquired during education as a part of a total design task. The plastics background of the author determines the field for his examples of suck tasks; each design indeed needs an appropriate material to become a useful product. © 1987, Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
