Can thermodynamics be fun?
I am always very excited about discovering new things and sharing that excitement with students. I teach undergraduate thermodynamics, which is often thought of as a dry topic. My personal goal is to remove that prejudgment from the subject and have students appreciate that you can do exciting, applicable things by starting from well-rounded fundamental principles. I give them assignments—make a spinodally decomposing tomato soup, engineer a raincoat with a fabric that breathes, propose the conditions to heterogeneously grow a Si-Ge film, or to cast the iron of your choice. The class is oriented to describe real-life situations, and the textbook, Introduction to the Thermodynamics of Materials by Purdue Materials Engineering Professor David Gaskell, is the ideal starting point. Thermodynamics prepares students for a technology-oriented world but it can also be used in everyday situations, because thermodynamics is universal. Q: Describe your work in one sentence. A: I consider myself a
