The Texas A&M University Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSEN) has nearly tripled its undergraduate enrollment in seven years and achieved ABET accreditation along the way. This success provides an opportunity for creating a specialized active-learning space for students to engage in advanced project-based work — ranging from lab courses and senior capstone projects to preparing for regional and national materials science and engineering competitions.
MSEN department head, Chevron Professor Ibrahim Karaman, announced the department’s plan to open a 2,500 square-foot active learning space specifically for the department’s 281 undergraduates. The new space, called the Crucible, will open in 2026 in the Engineering Innovation Center (EIC), a building adjacent to the Reed McDonald Building that houses the department.
“Materials science and engineering students, as well as those from related disciplines, currently lack sufficient hands-on experience and access to the cutting-edge equipment for materials fabrication, synthesis and processing,” Karaman said. “With the rapid growth of manufacturing industries – ranging from semiconductor manufacturing to battery fabrication – it is essential to enhance hands-on learning opportunities. Providing students with the ability to make, engineer and test materials will better prepare them for the evolving job market.”
Initially, the Crucible — named for the vessel widely used in materials science and engineering — will provide induction melting and heat-treatment furnaces, a state-of-the-art metal 3D printer, metal processing and forging equipment, and several microscopes. The creation of the Crucible was made possible by Susan D. ’89 and Anthony J. Wood ’87 through the WoodNext TAMU Fund, a component fund of the Greater Houston Community Foundation. Their support not only equips the lab with advanced tools and technologies but also drives its expansion into the next phase of construction, ensuring the facility continues to grow and push the boundaries of research and innovation.
We would like our students to have more time for hands-on experience in making and processing materials. We want to get them learning by doing at every step. The Crucible will provide students who are interested in materials an easily accessible makerspace focusing on the making and processing of various materials.
Karaman is thankful that the WoodNext gift allowed the department's vision for the Crucible to become a reality. He wants this gift to inspire other donors to support the project and enhance its capabilities over time through additional equipment and upgrades. On his future wish list are items such as a polymer film molder, a polymer rheometer, a desktop scanning electron microscope (SEM), and a Vickers microhardness tester. Additional funding to support ongoing renovations would further highlight the space.
Currently, MSEN undergraduate students use the state-of-the-art Materials Common Lab and Fischer Design Center at the Zachry Engineering Education Center, both operated by the College of Engineering for use by students in all departments. Many classes are scheduled to use the labs daily, leaving little time for undergraduates to simply explore materials testing outside of class.
“We would like our students to have more time for hands-on experience in making and processing materials,” Karaman said. “We want to get them learning by doing at every step. The Crucible will provide students who are interested in materials an easily accessible makerspace focusing on the making and processing of various materials.”
The space in the EIC that the Crucible will supplant is now used for defense-related materials research, which will be moved off campus.
“We’re really looking at having a space for students to melt material, pour it in a cast, look at how it solidifies, measure its properties, all those kinds of things,” said Dr. Bilal Mansoor, the MSEN associate professor who coordinates the two-semester senior capstone class. “You can think of it as a modern foundry of sorts.” He also said the space will change the way some faculty design their undergraduate courses. “They may think ‘Hey. If I want to make my course more interesting and hands on, I can add a component where students go to this lab and make use of the specialized equipment.”
As MSEN professors begin to incorporate use of the Crucible into lesson plans so that students will develop new skills, the active learning space will also enhance students’ ability to explore their own imaginative ideas in characterizing and testing materials, and in that way, expand the boundaries of their formal education.
Senior Audrey Cook said that in her job search, she’s finding that companies show a keen interest in the hands-on experience she gained through her co-ops, internships and classwork.
The Crucible marks an exciting leap forward for materials science and engineering at Texas A&M. We can’t wait to see the sparks fly and watch our undergraduates forge the future of materials science – right here at Texas A&M.
“I’m trained on multiple SEM machines in pretty much every single functionality that they have here on campus, and that is such an important way of understanding materials and processing,” Cook said. “As I look for jobs, a big draw for employers is my familiarity with characterization in my lab work. I’ve worked on small-scale prototyping for various Army and Navy research contracts. And I’ve also worked at one of the largest shingle manufacturing plants in the nation. Something that I heard in both was the disconnect that a lot of engineers have with their hands-on abilities and the expectations of industry. I think that this new space is an excellent way to address that disconnect. Hands-on experience outside of one or two lab sessions in our coursework is an excellent way to further the application of engineering theory into practice.”
Cook also said having easy access to additional engineering software, including SolidWorks 3D modeling, would be extremely helpful. “If we have some computers with SolidWorks in the EIC, I can swipe my ID, and if one is open, sit down and work. That would be a huge benefit to our students.”
Both Karaman and Mansoor stress that the lab would also be open to undergraduates in other engineering majors, making it possible to offer more campus-wide or multi-campus student competitions at A&M.
Last year, MSEN senior Joshua Cline was captain of one of two A&M teams that competed in the blade smithing competition offered semi-annually by the Minerals, Metals and Materials Society. He said his team had to drive about an hour to Belleville, Texas, where they used the furnace of a professional artisan to make their blade, which was an M1 bayonet like those used by soldiers during WWII.
The team’s blade received an Engineering Excellence Award in the competition for the skill and beauty of the functional mechanism that locked the blade to the framed handle of the bayonet, the only blade in the contest to employ such an artifice.
“Had we been able to work on the blade here on campus, it would have made actually producing and finishing it significantly easier. There were a couple nights where we were leaving Belleville around 11 p.m.”
Few other materials science departments have a comparable space for undergraduates, so the Crucible will also boost the national reputation of the department.
“The Crucible marks an exciting leap forward for materials science and engineering at Texas A&M,” Dr. Mansoor said. “We can’t wait to see the sparks fly and watch our undergraduates forge the future of materials science – right here at Texas A&M.”