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Description: |
Focus Course - Materials Engineering
This Focus course at the University of Oxford aims to give an insight into Materials Science, or Materials Engineering as it is also known. The course will give insights into what it is like to study at Oxford University by residing in one of Oxford University’s Colleges attending lectures covering a range of Materials topics, taking laboratory sessions aimed not only at giving a general idea about Materials Science, but there also conducting experiments similar to those performed by undergraduates. A project aimed at simulating the commercial aspects of scientific research will also be carried out.
Materials Science is a vast interdisciplinary subject – which frequently brings together researchers from different physical and engineering sciences, but can also involve the Life and Medical Sciences, too. Essentially, it is the Materials Scientist who makes good use of the science developed by physicists, chemists and engineers by making it possible to improve and even develop new materials for novel purposes and help to maintain the role of the UK as a leading Industrial Nation.
Some of the areas which may be covered in the course include:
- Aeronautical – Designing materials to make jet engine turbine blades.
- Biomedical – Can we make a bone analogue material to coat metal implants – and one day produce replacement organs for transplant?
- Ceramics – Superconducting materials.
- Electron Microscopy – Scanning EM and Transmission EM.
- Entrepreneurship – How scientists become businessmen to market their own discoveries.
- Nano Technology – Engineering at the atomic level.
- Polymers – Applications of conductive polymers to produce cheap polymer photovoltaic cells.
By meeting staff and postgraduate students, you will gain even greater insights into the world of Materials Research but most of all, you will enjoy finding out what makes Materials Science so important and interesting – and lets not forget that the whole course is fun, too. |
