Material selection in Electric Vehicle Engineering Programs.

No one could have missed the transition towards electrification in society, with the surge in electric cars and other vehicles on the streets around us. This is partly driven by the realization that fossil fuels need to be phased out and partly by other environmental concerns. It is also boosted by technological developments of battery performance, enabling more energy to be stored electrochemically using new and better materials. Furthermore, there are new appealing modes of transport, such as electric skateboards, hoverboards and monowheels. Such topics are popular with students of mechanical and electrical engineering, as well as in product development and design projects. In this paper, we describe how sustainability and design have been systematically introduced, using a materials approach, into an undergraduate program of electrical engineering (EE) with electric vehicle specialization as well as in a one-year graduate program on electrical vehicle engineering. This was done using three materials-focused computer labs, dealing progressively with (i) material properties and selection, (ii) eco design and lifecycle thinking and (iii) battery design, each embedded within a different EE class. A well-known materials education software, Granta EduPack, covering all these areas was used as the learning platform. The purpose of the study was to gauge the interest and perceived usefulness of materials knowledge by around 40 EE students using this approach. It was conducted by integrating 5 survey questions into the end of student assignments before and after the second lab instalment mentioned above (eco design and lifecycle thinking). Both groups think MS&E is quite interesting (3.6-4.0 out of 5). They also think materials and material knowledge are important to their education (4.1-4.4 out of 5). As additional information that could be extracted from the surveys, we learned that the computer lab itself resulted in a significant increase in the self-assessed knowledge and skills linked to the content. We conclude that elements from materials science and engineering can be a successful and well-appreciated approach to introducing sustainability and design into non-mechanical engineering programs, such as electrical vehicle engineering. With this paper, we are hoping to share details and experiences of this materials-led approach and get feed-back from the wider materials community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]