Materials Project Laboratory
MIT's hands-on materials engineering lab course covers investment casting of metals, injection molding of polymers, and sintering of ceramics. Rather than just running processing equipment, the course emulates professional engineering practice through project-based teamwork, design and analysis exercises, literature and patent searching, web page creation, and oral presentation of results. It is the lab component that follows the lecture-based portion of MIT's Department of Materials Science and Engineering curriculum (course 3.042/3.082), giving students direct experience with the processing techniques discussed in theory. Materials are provided through MIT OpenCourseWare under a Creative Commons license and include assignments and project structure, though there is no certificate. Students have reportedly cited it as a favorite subject in the department for its practical, applied nature.