Fundamentals of Materials Science
MIT OpenCourseWare's introductory materials science lecture course for sophomore engineering students, covering thermodynamic functions and laws of equilibrium, electronic bonding and its role in energy and structural stability, quantum mechanical models of interacting atoms and electrons, phase transformations, heat capacities, and magnetism. The course also treats symmetry properties of molecules and solids, structure of disordered and amorphous materials, tensors describing physical property constraints, and diffraction methods for determining structure. Applications span engineered alloys, electronic and magnetic materials, ionic and network solids, polymers, and biomaterials. It is a core subject in MIT's Energy Studies Minor and is normally taken alongside two companion courses to form a unified introduction to materials science. Course materials include lecture notes and problem sets typical of MIT OCW offerings, free to access with no certificate attached.