Teaching concepts rather than categories

Still likes to teach at the good old black board: materials Nicola Spaldin. (Photo: Friedrun Reinhold) - In her prior role as Director of Studies, Professor Nicola Spaldin oversaw the comprehensive revision of the curriculum for the bachelor's degree course in the Department of Materials. In this interview, the ETH professor describes the most important changes and the benefits she hopes they will bring. What was the motivation for revising the degree programme? We wanted to modernise the curriculum in order to present materials science in a contemporary format. Whether in scientific research or in practical applications, it's unusual to work on a single class of materials, such as metal, ceramics or polymers any more and many of our professorships are no longer named after the traditional materials classes. For example, they are called the Professorship for Hybrid Materials or Soft & Living Materials. Another important reason was to create a balance between science and technology.