Q: What do you call an acid with an attitude?
A: A-mean-oh acid
MSE160: Molecules and Materials is a course that covers two major subjects: molecular science and material science. This course will offer a nice change of pace from the advanced math in your other courses and will feature more of the chemistry you may remember from high school.
The molecular science portion will review topics like the quantum mechanical model of the atom, atomic bonding, electron energy levels, and everyone’s favourite, Schrödinger’s equations. The material science part of the course will cover topics such as stress-strain curves, geometric structures of solids, and extension of molecular science topics in material properties. You’ll discuss differences between the perfect crystalline materials that come up in physics versus real materials that can be full of defects. Defects are not necessarily a bad thing: a lot of materials engineering involves taking advantage of defects to make a material better for a given application. The materials portion will overlap with CIV102, the Structures and Materials course from semester one, when you review properties like yield strength and toughness. So keep your CIV102 notes handy: you might see a topic you’ve learned before!
Professors
MSE160 will have two professors: Scott Ramsay and Liyang Dai-Hattrick.
Professor Scott Ramsay
Professor Harry Ruda [Source]
Professor Scott Ramsay is a Teaching stream professor who is co-teaching MSE160 this year. He is a registered professional engineer in Ontario and earned his PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from U of T in 2007. He has taught many courses that revolve around the study of materials science, including thermodynamics, materials selection, manufacturing, biomaterials, and more. Professor Ramsay has authored a digital MSE160 course textbook which features awesome demos, fun stories and videos to help explain chemistry topics. He also made a polyurethane Pikachu in lecture!
Professor Liyang Dai-Hattrick
Professor Liyang Dai-Hattrick
Liyang Dai-Hattrick is an Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Toronto. With a strong emphasis on teaching and curriculum development, she specializes in instructing undergraduate courses in MSE, including Mechanics of Materials and Thermodynamics.
Prior to joining the University of Toronto, Liyang served as an instructor at the University of Maryland, where she played a pivotal role in shaping the curriculum for the Introduction to Materials Science and Engineering course. She also taught courses in mechanical and civil engineering departments at the University of South Carolina and served as an associate professor at Cecil College in Maryland, where she designed and delivered an engineering curriculum encompassing various disciplines of Engineering.
Professor Interviews
Highlights
- You get to look at material samples!
- Fracture (not the bone type, the material type): looking at where and why things break.
- Seeing some cool live demos and understanding how they work.
- Selecting the best materials for your needs.
- Learning about crystal structures. You’ll soon realize that you see these arrangements in your daily life, including in the supermarket fruit aisle!
Some useful crystal structures [Source]
Week in the Life of an MSE160 Student
Lectures
There are typically three MSE160 lectures per week. These cover course concepts, as well as practical applications. Problems solved in class will help you study, as will the course slides. These are usually made available before the lecture. The professors will also integrate demonstrations to show course concepts and strengthen your understanding of the material.
Tutorials
MSE160 tutorials are hosted once a week. Most of the tutorial is spent discussing the problem set solutions and learning the steps required to earn full marks. The TAs go over that week’s lecture material and answer student questions. Most of the tutorial is spent solving problems from past exams. For our year, these were the only practice problems provided to students outside of the problem sets. If this is also the case for your class, make sure you pay good attention to how these tutorial problems are solved. They will help you prepare for the midterm and final exam.
Practicals
There are no practicals for MSE160.
Assignments
MSE160 has bi-weekly problem sets. These feature challenging questions based on the assigned readings. These marked assignments also serve as valuable study aids in advance of midterms and final assessments.
Exams
MSE160 usually has two large assessments. The exams are very much based on your ability to apply the correct course concept and solve application-based problems. You will be given a formula sheet containing all the formulae and constants you will need during the assessment.
To see past exams for MSE160, see the SKULE Exam Repository.
How to Succeed
Quick Tips & Equations
- There are three material classes: metals, ceramics, and polymers.
- Stress strain curves (back again from CIV102!)
- Crystal structures – know these well.
- Defects are not always bad! As a budding materials engineer, you will use them to your advantage.
- Use material indices!
- Band gap theory: The bigger the gap the harder it is for atoms to move from the valence band to the conduction band.
A figure showing the band gaps for general metals, semiconductors, and insulators. [Source]
More Details
Know your diagrams and graphs
Diagrams appear throughout the course, filling every chapter of the textbook. From material structures to property graphs, the diagrams make it easier to understand course concepts. You may also have to recall them during assessments.
Keep the big picture in mind
Many course concepts will be discussed without being derived from first principles. This means you’re expected to know how to use the concept rather than how to derive or fully theorize about the concept. Focus only on as much detail as you’re given in lecture; studying beyond the course’s scope might not help you on assessments.
Be comfortable with the problem sets
Since the course is so varied, the problem sets are your best tool for checking your understanding. They cover the types of questions that will appear on assessments, so make sure you can answer everything. Since every course concept will be assessed at some point, it’s best to ask for clarification if you get stuck.
Pay attention to the applications covered in lecture
In lecture, you’ll discuss many interesting applications of materials science. These may seem like fun detours – but pay attention. The assessments typically have a “design” question, where you’re expected to apply some concept in a practical engineering problem. Without an awareness of actual applications, you’ll struggle to find a reasonable answer.
Stay up to speed on course content
Even though the material in MSE160 is covered in a more general way and may seem easy, studying regularly and keeping up with course content is essential for success. This course moves quickly and there are a lot of topics. You will be tested on all of them, so don’t skip anything and try not to fall behind. You will also be expected to do some readings outside of class with the course textbook each week – make sure to stay on top of them!
How to prepare for Multiple Choice Question (MCQ) assessments
Work through past midterms/exams to see what types of MCQs come up. Practice long-answer questions from past exams, too. This will ensure that you are able to apply course concepts and solve harder MCQs on upcoming assessments.
Additionally, go back to the problem sets and try solving the questions that challenged you the first time around. You can check your answers with the solutions posted by the professors, but don’t read the solutions before attempting the problems.
The textbooks for this course are beneficial for solidifying your theoretical knowledge, so make sure you go through them when studying!
What Will You Take Out of It?
- You will learn how material selection works. This is a skill you can apply to future design projects in Praxis II and beyond first year. This is also content that could be very relevant to design team projects.
- The materials portion of the course will give you a good understanding of material flaws and how they lead to useful engineering applications. For example, impurities in metals make them stiffer, which lets us make very sharp surgical tools.
- You will gain an appreciation for the practical applications of fundamental science.
For example, you will understand why the handles of plastic bags elongate but do not break, even when supporting heavy loads. You’ll also see how knowledge of electron energy levels and light emission can lead to better TV screens.
- MSE160 will show you how diverse science fields can integrate. The course will connect atom physics, chemistry, materials engineering, medicine and more! You’ll realize that even niche fields have lots to offer in engineering.