This class is a required course for undergraduate students who major in MSE. In this course, students need to first understand the definition of stress and strain, and should be able to identify different material properties, such as elasticity, viscoelasticity and plasticity. They also need to learn how to conduct the compression and tensile test by Instron, illustrate stress-strain curves, and calculate related properties like Young's modulus, yield strength, toughness, Poisson ratio and so on.

Besides, through the introduction of defects and showing some representative figures in journal articles, students can realize the deformation mechanism when materials are subjected to force, and how these defects influence strength and hardness. At a later stage, the course focuses on material strengthening and fracture. Students should be able to predict what processing temperature and time would result in different microstructures and mechanical properties in same materials. Fracture has two types － ductile and plastic fracture. Students need to realize how toughening mechanisms cause different types of fracture and change the route of crack propagation under stress. Adopting suitable fracture tests is also an essential lesson, since every type of test has its corresponding situation and material. After completion of the course, they will fully understand how to measure different mechanical properties and deal with raw data, which can be applied to various fields in material science. In the future, students can optimize the mechanical properties to get better specific strength through the structural design, which can reduce the formation of waste and achieve the target of sustainability.