Steve and Tim talk with Chris Gordon, the Director of the Wilson Student Team Projects Center at the U. of Michigan. Chris tells us how the Wilson Center got started and evolved into what it is today. There are 24 competition teams at the Wilson Center and it supports many capstone design projects, our Multidisciplinary Design program, and more. Chris explains why community and safety are at the core of the center and how students and faculty help each other succeed. He also talks about why this kind of engaged learning is a powerful tool for our student to experience.

You can learn more about the Wilson Center here:
https://teamprojects.engin.umich.edu

You can make it here. The Wilson Center celebrates 25 years of student-driven building, learning and growing. Includes a YouTube video with some amazing comments by current students and alumni about their experiences in the Wilson Center.

The bumpy road to greatness. A rough 2024 season sparks frustration—but also leadership and learning—for the Michigan Baja team. Also includes a longer video story.

You can find the YouTube video of the podcast here:
https://youtu.be/aHw1YKvYbIc

This episode is sponsored by the North American Materials Education Symposium, a gift from Prof. Ron Gibala, and the University of Michigan Materials Science and Engineering department (https://mse.engin.umich.edu).

Please attend the North American Materials Education Symposium next summer, August 5th - 6th at Georgia Tech. Workshops on August 4th:
https://www.names25.mse.gatech.edu

Tim and Steve talk with Professor Wenhao Sun about the way he is using Chat GPT in his thermodynamics and kinetics classes. Wenhao demonstrates how he teaches students to use Chat GPT as a collaborator to solve much harder problems that are usually given to students. He believes that this lets his students experience the higher levels of Blooms taxonomy and shows how he does this in a live demonstration.

Here is a link to a short video describing Professor Sun's research: https://youtu.be/cO7jEApzKoo?si=IhcLScABV4H29AeA
You can learn more about Professor Sun and his research at this link: https://mse.engin.umich.edu/people/whsun
His research website is here: https://whsunresearch.group/

You can find the YouTube video here:
https://youtu.be/rnw0ZWZc0II

This episode is sponsored by the North American Materials Education Symposium (https://java.engin.umich.edu/NAMES24/) a gift from Prof. Ron Gibala, and the University of Michigan Materials Science and Engineering department (https://mse.engin.umich.edu).

Please attend the North American Materials Education Symposium next summer, August 5th - 6th at Georgia Tech. Workshops on August 4th:
https://www.names25.mse.gatech.edu

Tim and Steve talk with Izzy Jaszczak about Michigan Technological University's metal casting course and the major changes the teaching staff has made to increase the course capacity to 60 students. This was a course that she had taken as an undergraduate. Working with Dr. Paul Sanders, Dr. Dale Dewald, and Peter Jaszczak, she updated the lab curriculum to give students more individual hands-on time with equipment. Izzy also talks about the research half of her role helping students, staff, and faculty collect data using scanning electron microscopes.

Here is a link to a Google Slide deck about the changes (PDF is also attached):

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1yQDSaQuAsHL5VHnIKnoMJgS6BITqOjybiErm8GpoRFg/edit?usp=sharing

MTU Summer Youth Programs:
https://www.mtu.edu/syp/

MTU MSE Department:

https://www.mtu.edu/materials/

You can find the YouTube video here:
https://youtu.be/J4TGFgU7hqk

This episode is sponsored by the North American Materials Education Symposium (https://java.engin.umich.edu/NAMES24/) a gift from Prof. Ron Gibala, and the University of Michigan Materials Science and Engineering department (https://mse.engin.umich.edu).

Please attend the North American Materials Education Symposium next summer, August 5th - 6th at Georgia Tech. Workshops on August 4th:
https://www.names25.mse.gatech.edu