The 14th Annual North American Materials Education Symposium (NAMES) will make its southeastern debut at the Georgia Institute of Technology in August 2025. 

This two-day event is dedicated entirely to enhancing how materials science and engineering (MSE) is taught—a rare focus in a field often centered on materials research. While historically held in either the north east or west coast, hosting it at Georgia Tech will make it easier for faculty and graduate students in the southeast region to attend. This symposium provides an intimate setting to MSE educators to share their teaching initiatives, what’s working in their classrooms, common challenges and fresh ideas on attracting students to MSE while also allowing graduate students interested in pursuing academic careers to learn about innovative teaching practices and meet people who care about education.

Spearheading this event are Lecturer Himani Sharma and Associate Professor Mary Lynn Realff who serve as chairs of the NAMES Scientific Committee. Their overarching goal of bringing the symposium to Georgia Tech is to create a space where the teaching community in MSE can come together and equip faculty and grad students with diverse teaching strategies and the chance to share their own experiences. NAMES will also offer a unique opportunity to connect with peers, build networks, and spark collaborations that can inspire better teaching across the field.
NAMES gives attendees the unique opportunity to engage in dialogue to better the classroom experience for students and educators in ways that will have a purposeful impact. “Our goal is to have meaningful discussions about classroom techniques, how students have perceived these interventions, the challenges we’ve faced, and what we’ve learned from them,” said Sharma. At NAMES 2024, Sharma learned about free 3D modeling software that allows students to visualize crystal lattices via virtual reality headsets.

This year NAMES will feature the following sessions for participants to learn and transfer those skills to the classroom setting: Innovation in Materials Science Education, AI and Machine Learning for MSE Education and Education, and High Impact Practices in MSE Education. There is also a special poster call for K-12 outreach, transfer student programs and recruitment, and engaging with the larger community. The main corporate sponsor of the symposium is Ansys, who will offer a pre-symposium workshop and engage with other NAMES participants.
In 2022, while presenting at the materials division (MATS) of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), Realff and Sharma met with the chair of the MATS division and discussed how they could bring the symposium to the southeast. “I like seeing all of the different pieces and how they come together, but the best part is when the people unite. I like to find the win-win, and to me, I want the win-win to be the way we put the conference together and organize the space to allow attendees to make connections, share knowledge, and learn something new,” Realff said.

Sharma and Realff reached out to MSE Chair Natalie Stingelin, who enthusiastically agreed to support NAMES 2025, which will further cement Georgia Tech in the materials engineering space following MSE’s ranking of 3rd in the US News and World Report College Rankings among materials engineering programs. “I like showcasing MSE, Georgia Tech, and the Materials Innovation and Learning Laboratory (MILL). I think we do a lot of stuff right in the education space, and this is our chance to be able to highlight that and show other people that,” said Realff.

Realff and Sharma spend a lot of time on educational research. Their passion for enhancing MSE education and how to implement data-driven pedagogies is evident when looking at the upcoming session themes for NAMES2025. When both Sharma and Realff were asked how it felt to take on an event with great potential impact on professors and their students, they each understood the gravity of this undertaking. They also understand that prospective students and their grade school teachers have so much to learn in a space that centers research about education.

For more information, please visit the NAMES website.