Pittsburgh - June 25, 2008

Granta demonstrates new teaching resources at ASEE

Granta visited the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) meeting in Pittsburgh this week - and the latest CES EduPack teaching resources were given a warm welcome by delegates. Granta offered a short course, presented by Professor Mike Ashby, as well as speaking in the conference program and participating in the exhibition, where our 'guess the material' contest caused great interest!

Granta course

On Sunday 22nd, Granta hosted professors, program directors, and lecturers from 16 leading universities at a one-day short course. The course covered the use of CES EduPack to enrich the teaching of materials and processes across a broad range of subject areas. It was well-received by attendees, many of whom are expanding the use of EduPack in their department's teaching. This was the last in the current series of courses, which included events at MIT, UC Berkely, and Cambridge University. Look out for information on future courses!

Latest information on Granta courses >>>

Participation in the scientific program

Granta's Dr Charlie Bream spoke on the topic of "Teaching Engineering Materials to First and Second Year Students" in the scientific program of the ASEE meeting. CES EduPack includes a range of resources suitable for engaging students at this level - these include an introductory version (level one of three) of the extensive EduPack materials and process database, highly visual analysis and selection tools that support project work, and supporting texts and exercises suitable for first and second year students. Dr Bream spoke about the experiences that have gone into developing such resources, and their practical use. A paper on this topic is available as part of Granta's materials and process education information pack.

Download the information pack >>>

Exhibition and contest

Finally, a big thank you to the many people who visited the Granta booth in the ASEE exhibition. We were demonstrating exciting enhancements to CES EduPack 2008, including

• A new Bio Engineering Edition
  
  
• Improved links to standard materials texts such as Callister, Askeland, and Budinksi
  
  
• A new 'Eco Audit Tool'

More on CES EduPack 2008 >>>

We also ran a 'guess the materials' contest in which entrants had to identify 5 materials samples. The prize winners each receive a signed copy of the new book "Materials: Engineering, Science, Processing, and Design" by Ashby, Shercliff, and Cebon. The winners were:

• Day 1 - Prof. Paul Biney - Prairie View A & M
  
  
• Day 2 - Asst. Prof. Adam Fontecchio - Drexel University
  
  
• Day 3 - Jim Heise - Iowa State University

For those who took part and are intrigued to learn the correct answers, they are:

A - PTFE (Teflon)	B - Sandwich panel: Glass Fibre/Aramid skin with a Nomex honeycomb core
C - Galvanized steel	D - Ceramic foam (Zirconia)
E - Jet (lignite)