Everything is made of materials. From buildings to batteries, clothing to cars, we depend on materials for many things in our everyday life. Materials science and engineering is all about studying the fundamentals of materials and how they behave in different conditions. This information is then used to develop new materials and improve all the materials being used today.
As a camper, you will get to see how varied materials science and engineering really is! We will be exploring topics such as:
- 3D Printing
- Shape Memory Alloys
- Biomaterials
- Non-Newtonian Fluids
- Materials Casting
- Crystallography
- Polymers—Vacuum Forming
- Nucleation and Growth
- The Materials Science of Chocolate
- And many more!
GLAM has two coordinators: Kaitlin Tyler and Professor Jessica Krogstad. Kaitlin is currently working on her PhD at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in Materials Science and Engineering under Professor Paul Braun. She is working on manipulating eutectic material microstructures for optical applications. She completed her BS in Materials Science and Engineering at Michigan State University in 2012. Professor Krogstad received her PhD in Materials at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2012. Her research focuses on material performance in extreme environments (like gas turbine engines and nuclear reactors). Professor Krogstad joined the Materials Science and Engineering Department at UIUC in the Fall of 2014 as an Assistant Professor, but she’s no stranger, having received her BS from the department in 2007. Fun fact: she worked as 
a GAMES Counselor when she was an undergraduate at UIUC!
In addition, the laboratories will be coordinated by Nicole Johnson. Nicole is currently working towards a PhD in Materials Science and Engineering at UIUC under Professor Angus Rockett. She is working on analyzing defect properties under illumination in solar materials.
Check out what I-STEM has to say about us!