About the Student Video Tutorials in this Resource
This resource is a collection of student presentations on materials science topics. Students created short videos using Wolfram Mathematica software to create visualizations with supporting well-narrated and well-commented code to enhance understanding of various materials science topics. The objective was to make a presentation to teach their peers. These teaching videos were the final project assignment in the MIT course 3.016 Computational Methods for Materials Scientists (OCW archive) and the equivalent course taught by MIT professor W. Craig Carter at L'École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL).
Course 3.016 is primarily a practical survey of mathematics that a materials scientist will find useful. The emphasis is on advanced calculus, linear algebra, ordinary and partial differential equations, interpreting and visualizing results, and the development of mathematical models of physical systems. In parallel to learning mathematics skills, 3.016 teaches students to use Mathematica to help solve problems.
Though there are many mathematical software programs to choose from (Python, Matlab, Maple, NumPy, and Julia are good languages too), 3.016 uses Mathematica because it has powerful graphics, has a tremendous amount of built-in functionality, has excellent documentation and support, is highly versatile, is used in image processing to economics, and, importantly, is fun!
Navigate This Resource
In this resource, you can browse the student projects by year or by topics using the the left navigation or the following links:
Browse Student Projects by Year:
Browse Student Projects by Topic:
- Crystallography and Structure
- Energetics and Thermodynamics
- Experimental Techniques
- Heat and Mass Transfer
- Mechanical Properties
- Optical Properties
- Quantum, Magnetic, and Electronic Properties
Other Languages
- Quantum Time Evolution Using the Split Operator Fourier Transform Algorithm (notebook & videos in English and German)
- Potential Energy Surfaces (notebook & videos in English and Catalan)
- A Basic and Fun Introduction to Crystalline Structures (notebook & videos in English and Spanish)
- Heat Transfer in a Material (notebooks & videos in English and French)