Thompson Research Group |
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TEACHING Teaching Philosophy and Goals: Professor Thompson’s teaching philosophy focuses on the student learning to ask why and how when approached with either a scientific or engineering problem. This inquisitive process requires the student to relay upon a fundamental understanding of scientific principles and a logical thought process in problem solving. When a student knows the why and how he/she is less likely to forget the principle being taught. Once this qualitative understanding has been developed in the lecture, a more rigorous quantitative explanation is merged into the concepts through a mathematical description, which is common in scientific and engineering disciplines. This allows the student to understand the mathematical description while not losing site of what the mathematical derivations are explaining. To develop this method of thinking, Professor Thompson’s duties as an instructor are to guide the class discussion, select relevant and interesting topics to illustrate the principles being taught and chose homework sets that reinforce the class topics. This requires Professor Thompson to maintain an up-to-date knowledge of the subject being taught and an enthusiasm for the topic. When appropriate, Professor Thompson actively develop hands-on experiences that blend into the lectures to reinforce the fundamental principles being taught. Current and former courses taught: MTE 101: Introduction to Materials This introductory course provides entering engineering students a survey
of materials properties, how they are processed and fabricated and their
impact on society. The course aims at providing a basic foundation from
which students will be prepared, and appreciate, the role of materials
in their future engineering curriculum. MTE 252: Mass & Energy Balance This course is directed to the metallurgical and materials engineering student who will need to have a fundamental understanding of calculating mass and energy balance equations. This course will provide the basic tool set for the analysis of metallurgical and materials processes. The student will be able to set up equations describing the material process under study and, given the requirements, design the process itself. Concepts of stoichiometry, mass and energy balance will be introduced and applied to metallurgical process analysis. Programming methods will be applied to the formulation and solution of metallurgical problems, with a particularly attention to algorithm formulation and logical structuring. MTE 380: Synthesis, Processing and Manufacturing of Materials The major objectives of this course are to provide a fundamental understanding of the main processes which materials, primarily metals, are formed and manufactured. Different types of manufacturing processes can have a substantial influence on the final properties of a material, such as strength, ductility, and microstructure. This course will address the interrelationship of materials properties to manufacturing. The course provides the student a base of knowledge on several manufacturing processes including bulk deformation (forging, rolling, extrusion, etc.), casting and solidification, joining, machining, powder metallurgy, rapid prototyping and microelectronic fabrication. Course instruction will be through lectures, laboratories (when appropriate) and assignments to assess student progress. MTE 579: Advanced Physical Metallurgy This graduate-level course provides a fundamental introduction to principles of materials science as applied to physical metallurgy. Specifically, this course will address, in a quantitative manner crystal defects (point, line and 2D), diffusion, phase transformations (liquid-solid and solid-state), microstructure evolution (under thermal-mechanical processing) and application in ferrous and nonferrous metallurgy. Course instruction will be through lectures and assignments to assess student progress.
Topics include basic principles of operation of the transmission electron microscope, principles of electron diffraction, image interpretation and various analytical electron-microscopy techniques as they apply to crystalline materials. Course instruction will be through lectures and laboratories. MTE 596/696: Seminar Coordinated departmental seminars |
