Thoughts on How to Teach Failure Analysis

In recent years we have been thinking about how to properly train students to perform failure analyses of mechanically loaded components and have learned that there is no widely accepted pedagogy. However, we have concluded that the traditional composition-structure-property relations, that we all know and love, are the perfect places to start.

In this talk we will concentrate on our efforts to develop and apply a pedagogy, not only for students of Materials Science, but also for others with less materials background, and will discuss the joys and sorrows of this endeavor. Given that numerous members of the ASM community have considerable experience in this area, we hope you will find the discussion interesting and maybe even amusing.