Materials Science & Engineering Taster Session - "From Engines to Atoms"

At any time there are about half a million people travelling in the air. The engines used by modern aeroplanes are phenomenal pieces of engineering, requiring materials that are able to cope in extreme environments for many hundreds of flights. Our role as material scientists is to understand how these materials work and, importantly, to improve the materials so they are optimised for a particular application.

In this talk we will explore what Materials Science is, using the example of the turbine engine, finding out how it works, the materials properties required, the alloy design, and how structure all the way down to the atomic length scale helps us control the materials properties.