The Design Of Material World, An Internet Based Educational Environment

1. ABSTRACT Engineers need a solid understanding of the relationships between material processing, properties and structures to make informed material selection decisions for design applications. Hands-on laboratories help students develop this understanding. However, time constraints, equipment costs and safety concerns severely limit the amount of true experimentation that is performed. A bold initiative is underway at the University of South Carolina to develop Material World, an expandable internet-based virtual environment where students make, break and look at metals, polymers, composites and ceramics. Material World will be based on realistic interactive animations, but includes video clips, sound, photographs and text. In it, students will be able to set processing and testing equipment operating conditions in almost any way they want.