Materials Science Pedagogy

2021, Jun 01 Georgios Varnavides One min read

Formation of dislocations in an indentation experiment using Lennard-Jones molecular dynamics — Snapshot of an indentation experiment simulation of hexagonally-packed particles interacting via the Lennard-Jones interatomic potential. Lines of higher energy concentration signal the onset of dislocations forming

I spend some of my time thinking about pedagogy and the role visualization and computation can play in education. Currently, I am co-authoring a materials science textbook with long-time friend and mentor W. Craig Carter. The idea is to use some of the content we’ve developed teaching through the years, into a cohesive collection of computational notebooks which would guide undergraduate and first-year graduate students in materials science and engineering programs.

An example such computational essay on the Lennard-Jones interatomic potential using open-source, client-based, interactive simulations can be found here.