Students use the engineering design process to solve a real-world problem shoe engineering! Working in small teams, students design, build and test a pair of wearable platform or high-heeled shoes, taking into consideration the stress and strain forces that it will encounter from the shoe wearer. They conclude the activity with a "walk-off" to test their shoe designs and discuss the design process.

This course focuses on the fundamentals of structure, energetics, and bonding that underpin materials science. It is the introductory lecture class for sophomore students in Materials Science and Engineering, taken with 3.014 and 3.016 to create a unified introduction to the subject. Topics include: an introduction to thermodynamic functions and laws governing equilibrium properties, relating macroscopic behavior to atomistic and molecular models of materials; the role of electronic bonding in determining the energy, structure, and stability of materials; quantum mechanical descriptions of interacting electrons and atoms; materials phenomena, such as heat capacities, phase transformations, and multiphase equilibria to chemical reactions and magnetism; symmetry properties of molecules and solids; structure of complex, disordered, and amorphous materials; tensors and constraints on physical properties imposed by symmetry; and determination of structure through diffraction. Real-world applications include engineered alloys, electronic and magnetic materials, ionic and network solids, polymers, and biomaterials.

Introduction to Solid State Chemistry is a first-year single-semester college course on the principles of chemistry. This unique and popular course satisfies MIT's general chemistry degree requirement, with an emphasis on solid-state materials and their application to engineering systems.

This course is a required sophomore subject in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, designed to be taken in conjunction with the core lecture subject 3.012 Fundamentals of Materials Science and Engineering. The laboratory subject combines experiments illustrating the principles of quantum mechanics, thermodynamics and structure with intensive oral and written technical communication practice. Specific topics include: experimental exploration of the connections between energetics, bonding and structure of materials, and application of these principles in instruments for materials characterization; demonstration of the wave-like nature of electrons; hands-on experience with techniques to quantify energy (DSC), bonding (XPS, AES, FTIR, UV/vis and force spectroscopy), and degree of order (x-ray scattering) in condensed matter; and investigation of structural transitions and structure-property relationships through practical materials examples.

The goal of 3.044 is to teach cost-effective and sustainable production of solid material with a desired geometry, structure or distribution of structures, and production volume. Toward this end, it is organized around different types of phase transformations which determine the structure in various processes for making materials, in roughly increasing order of entropy change during those transformations: solid heat treatment, liquid-solid processing, fluid behavior, deformation processing, and vapor-solid processing. The course ends with several lectures that place the subject in the context of society at large.

Basic molecular structural principles of biological materials. Molecular structures of various materials of biological origin, including collagen, silk, bone, protein adhesives, GFP, self-assembling peptides. Molecular design of new biological materials for nanotechnology, biocomputing and regenerative medicine. Graduate students are expected to complete additional coursework. This course, intended for both graduate and upper level undergraduate students, will focus on understanding of the basic molecular structural principles of biological materials. It will address the molecular structures of various materials of biological origin, such as several types of collagen, silk, spider silk, wool, hair, bones, shells, protein adhesives, GFP, and self-assembling peptides. It will also address molecular design of new biological materials applying the molecular structural principles. The long-term goal of this course is to teach molecular design of new biological materials for a broad range of applications. A brief history of biological materials and its future perspective as well as its impact to the society will also be discussed. Several experts will be invited to give guest lectures.

This course focuses on the latest scientific developments and discoveries in the field of nanomechanics, the study of forces and motion on extremely tiny (10-9 m) areas of synthetic and biological materials and structures. At this level, mechanical properties are intimately related to chemistry, physics, and quantum mechanics. Most lectures will consist of a theoretical component that will then be compared to recent experimental data (case studies) in the literature. The course begins with a series of introductory lectures that describes the normal and lateral forces acting at the atomic scale. The following discussions include experimental techniques in high resolution force spectroscopy, atomistic aspects of adhesion, nanoindentation, molecular details of fracture, chemical force microscopy, elasticity of single macromolecular chains, intermolecular interactions in polymers, dynamic force spectroscopy, biomolecular bond strength measurements, and molecular motors.