As the 20th century turned into the 21st, our improved knowledge of materials science and technology, and the mastery of a wealth of characterization techniques have opened the gates of new novel materials to the field of nanoscience and nanotechnology. This Gateway Education course is designed to expose students to a broad understanding of advanced engineering materials topics and provide an introduction to the roles of materials technology to the evolution of civilizations. Subsequently, the new developments of novel materials in the 21st century are also introduced, and their potential impacts for the near future will also be highlighted. The course introduces various new core materials, their properties and special features as well as potential applications such as structural materials, light/hard materials, energy materials, functional materials, superconducting and magnetic materials, photoelectric materials, polymeric materials, ceramic materials, composite materials, optical materials, environmental and green materials, and nano-/bio- materials, etc. One of the distinctive learning activities in this course is that students will have hand-on experience on some of the forefront facilities for the development of new materials in the 21st Century.
