ASM Hosts 7th Materials Experience at WPI
By MPI September 17, 2012
On May 7, 2012, ASM International hosted the 7th annual ASM Materials Experience at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Open to high school sophomores and juniors throughout New England, the camp demonstrated first-hand the interesting problems and challenges that engineers face every day, and what makes engineering an exciting profession.
According to ASM, “the day was launched with an opening address from WPI Professor Diran Apelian, who spoke to the important role that materials scientists and engineers have to play in emerging global societal challenges in energy, recycling, medicine,etc. The students then rotated through 8 ‘learning modules’, each exhibiting interesting materials properties and applications. At the Cryogenics module, the radical change in material properties which occur with a change in temperature was demonstrated, as students shattered squash balls and used a banana as a hammer. At the hydrogels module, a pig lung was severed, then repaired using a unique polymer material developed by Genzyme.
Lunch was an opportunity for the students to chat with professional and student volunteers in a more relaxed setting, discussing what day-to-day life as an engineer or student is, and the ways that an engineering education can be applied to important research projects. The day was closed by Fay Butler of Fay Butler Fab/Metal Shaping, who stressed the importance of the connection between our hands and minds, and the ways in which engineering knowledge can be married with the skills of a craftsman to make unique and well designed functional items.”
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