Undercooled: A Materials Education Podcast

Steve and Tim talked with Jacob Kelter, the Executive Director of the NetLogo Center at Northwestern University, about how he is using atomistic simulations of fundamental materials processes and concepts to build an interactive digital textbook for an introductory materials science and engineering course. His book is ready for adoption and he would love to help any faculty member out there use it. We talked about NetLogo (a software for creating computational models/simulations), specific chapters on diffusion, microstructural development, and mechanical properties.  He also talked to us about pedagogical approaches to using the simulations in the classroom as well as how he includes problems in his book. Jacob also talked about future enhancements to his book. 

You can find out more about Jacob, his new textbook, and NetLogo at the following links:

The textbook (Morfli): https://www.morfli.com/(featured course at the bottom of the home page)

NetLogo: https://netlogo.org

Jacob: https://www.jacobkelter.com

Short Bio:

Dr. Jacob Kelter is the Director of the NetLogo Center at Northwestern University. NetLogo is a programming language and environment for agent-based modeling, a computational technique for modeling complex systems made of many interacting parts. It is widely used in both research and education. Kelter co-designed a new introductory materials science and engineering course at Northwestern University based around interactive computational models built with NetLogo. He has also designed and developed a digital platform called "Morfli" aimed at continuously improving educational materials and bridging the gap between educational research and practice. Before his doctoral studies, Kelter co-founded and served as chief scientist for Rise Science, a startup dedicated to helping people improve their sleep and daily energy rhythms. 

You can find the YouTube version of the podcast here:
https://youtu.be/7y7VBfzg_SI

Our YouTube channel can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/@Undercooled.Materials

This episode is sponsored by the TMS Foundation (https://www.tms.org/TMSFoundation/TMSFoundation/Default.aspx), The Electric Vehicle Center (EVC) at the University of Michigan (https://evc.engin.umich.edu/), and the University of Michigan Materials Science and Engineering department (https://mse.engin.umich.edu).