Steve and Tim talk with Professor Ashwin Shahani about his role as undergraduate chair, how he approaches teaching kinetics with ChatGPT and vibe coding, as well as his research in solidification science. Professor Shahani also talks about how he is incorporating his work with Hydro, an Al production company, to help them upcycle post-consumer scrap Al into high-quality products.

Short Bio:
Shahani is an Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan. His group specializes in the application of advanced characterization methods for the study of phase and structural transformations in metallic materials. In support of his research pursuits, Shahani has won the AFOSR YIP award in 2017, ARO YIP in 2018, and NSF CAREER in 2019. Recently, in 2025, he won PECASE, the highest honor bestowed by the federal government to young scientists beginning their academic careers.

Learn more about his teaching and research activities at: https://www.ashwinshahani.com/

The YouTube video can be found here:
https://youtu.be/PGPM47J8qWc

Our YouTube channel can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/@Undercooled.Materials

This episode is sponsored by the TMS Foundation (https://www.tms.org/TMSFoundation/TMSFoundation/Default.aspx), The Electric Vehicle Center (EVC) at the University of Michigan (https://evc.engin.umich.edu/), and the University of Michigan Materials Science and Engineering department (https://mse.engin.umich.edu).

Tim and Steve caught up with Dr. Avi Bregman at the TMS meeting. Avi is at the Applied Physics Lab at Johns Hopkins University. He is the section supervisor for Materials Discovery there. He talked about his journey to Materials Science and his career path after getting his PhD. He talked about the work he is currently doing. Avi also told us about his company that helps smaller universities get research funding, especially those that do not have the administrative staff to handle the details of actually getting the funds to the University.

You can learn more about Avi's company, E4 Power, here:
http://e4power.org/

You can contact Avi here:
Avi.bregman@e4power.org or avi.g.brgeman@gmail.com

Short Bio:

Dr. Avi Bregman currently serves as a senior staff scientist and section supervisor for Materials Discovery at the Applied Physics Lab at Johns Hopkins University (APL/JHU). In this role his recent work and interests span a variety of disciplines including composites (ceramic and polymer), nanoparticle synthesis and characterization, EMI shielding, green H2 generation, high temperature systems, FEM modeling in COMSOL, and additive manufacturing. Prior to APL/JHU, Dr. Bregman spent time at Sandia National Labs studying the resiliency of novel composite systems in extreme radiation environments. Dr. Bregman earned his undergraduate degree in Chemistry from Haverford College and his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from The University of Michigan. Additionally, Dr. Bregman serves as the Director of Pre-Award Services at E4 Power inc.

The YouTube video can be found here:
https://youtu.be/AFzNJAjCr8o

Our YouTube channel can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/@Undercooled.Materials

This episode is sponsored by the TMS Foundation and the University of Michigan Materials Science and Engineering department (https://mse.engin.umich.edu).

Steve and Tim talk about how to use stories of successful sustainability projects in the curriculum of second to fourth year engineering courses. They explain how they will use several of the future podcasts to collect these stories. They also talk about how these stories may end up framing an open source "textbook" for introductory materials science and engineering and complement higher level classes up to the graduate level.

Joel McDonald sent us some background links that explain more about how Dow Chemical Co developed the methods to recycle polyurethanes. These could be used in a polymers course, a chemical engineering course, or a sustainability course. Joel also suggested having students learn about the patent process by having them look up the related patents and talk about how this will protect Dow's IP. This is an often under valued part of the sustainability process.

Links:
https://corporate.dow.com/en-us/news/press-releases/dow-jlr-and-adient-develop-industry-first-breakthrough-circularity-automotive-seating.html

https://www.dow.com/en-us/product-technology/pt-polyurethanes/sustainability/polyurethanes/depolymerization.html

https://corporate.dow.com/en-us/news/press-releases/dow-and-gruppo-fiori-develop-breakthrough-recycling-process.html

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dow-polyurethanes_dow-x-gruppo-fiori-video-1-activity-7373731403550863360-u-Ob

The YouTube video can be found here:
https://youtu.be/hFbXyDyGzag

Our YouTube channel can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/@Undercooled.Materials

This episode is sponsored by the TMS Foundation and the University of Michigan Materials Science and Engineering department (https://mse.engin.umich.edu).