ESP Biography

Polymers are fascinating materials that can be found everywhere in our daily lives. From the plastics we buy at the store to the skin on our bones, polymers come in all shapes and sizes. Due to their interesting and special properties, polymers have many applications, from flexible materials to electronic devices to complex fluids. In this short course, taught by the Stanford Polymer Collective, we'll learn about polymers through fun hands-on activities that highlight some of their most interesting and exciting properties.

It's a bad day if your phone screen cracks, but it's something else entirely if your airplane falls out of the sky. Learn about the science and engineering behind materials failures in history through demonstrations and hands-on experiments. Emphasis on HANDS-ON demonstrations, not a boring lecture! We'll experience first-hand how liquid metals can catastrophically destroy structural materials in applications like space exploration and aerospace. We'll explore how many materials can change dramatically with changes in structure, temperature, and other conditions. You'll walk away from this class with greater knowledge of the atomic structure of materials and a deeper appreciation for the diverse properties of the materials that surround our everyday life.