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Integrating interdisciplinary education in materials science and engineering

Nature Reviews Materials volume 8, pages 491–493 (2023)Cite this article

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Today’s world is filled with ‘grand challenges’ that cannot be solved with knowledge from a single academic field, and interdisciplinary learning opportunities at the undergraduate level are important to overcome barriers between fields. This article takes some of the lessons learned from the co-development and co-teaching of an interdisciplinary course on climate change at the University of Waterloo in Canada to offer suggestions on how to incorporate interdisciplinary education in the materials science and engineering undergraduate curriculum, while providing practical advice on how to create opportunities for students to become interdisciplinary thinkers.

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Fig. 1: Undergraduate students strongly value the introduction of interdisciplinary and socially relevant topics in the engineering curriculum.

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  1. Faculty of Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

    Muhammad Shehryar Khan & Mary A. Wells

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  1. Muhammad Shehryar Khan
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  2. Mary A. Wells
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Correspondence to Muhammad Shehryar Khan.

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Khan, M.S., Wells, M.A. Integrating interdisciplinary education in materials science and engineering. Nat Rev Mater 8, 491–493 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-023-00576-8

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