Future Outlook for materials Technology Education

Materials technology can function in two ways to enhance technology education in the future. One is to use hands-on materials-related activities to assist students in experiencing the excitement of science applied to technology. The second is to enhance the knowledge among engineers and technicians of the relationship between materials structure and properties and the critical importance of processing in determining final properties of a part. Materials technology is at the heart of many manufacturing operations, but faulty materials selection, lack of understanding of material properties, and manufacturing errors can lead to system failures; these, in turn, lead to huge economic costs for materials and system replacement. Enhancing the depth and breadth of materials education within current engineering and technology programs can correct these difficulties. This will require a concerted effort on the part of educators to ensure faculty recognition of this need, and the provision of appropriate curricula for this effort. A beginning on the development of curricula that can be inserted into existing programs is available, but faculty attitudes need to be changed. This will be a large but important effort that will yield both technological and economic efficiencies.