Our long-term educational goal is to engage, inspire and train the next-generation of engineers and scientists to address the key challenges in the areas of materials and energy technologies. In pursuit of this goal, the main objective of our recent teaching and outreach efforts is to educate and motivate students to understand and innovate the design/processing of novel materials to solve real world problems related to energy and sustainability.
Community Outreach / Public Services
October 2019: Participated in the “Family STEAM Night” event organized by WSU’s Center for Civic Engagement. The STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) event is designed as educational outreach to the communities throughout the Palouse area by providing hands-on activities for kids and their families to engage in different STEAM related topics.
March 2019: Participated in the “Kids’ Science and Engineering Day” organized by the Society of Women Engineers at WSU (https://swe.wsu.edu/ksed/).
3D printing rocks!
March 2019: Presented a seminar on “Electric Cars – Engineering Professor” on Career Day at Sunnyside Elementary School, Pullman, WA. 
August 2018: Participated in the “Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) Fall Research Banquet” at WSU. The LSAMP is a grant awarded to five institutions in the Pacific Northwest region to increase the recruitment, retention, and graduation rate of underrepresented minority students in the disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. (from https://vcea.wsu.edu/lsamp/)
Prof. Song currently serves as one of 25 LSAMP Faculty Research Mentors at WSU.
April 2018: Presented a seminar on “Clean Energy Technologies” and demonstrated “Fuel Cell Vehicles (aka Cars Running on Water!)” at the Palouse International Sunday School, Pullman, WA.
March 2018: Presented a seminar on “Engineering Jobs (Title: How to save Earth!)” on Career Day, Sunnyside Elementary School, Pullman, WA.
Synergistic Activities
The National Science Foundation (NSF) developed the Innovation-Corps (I-Corps) program in 2011 to help move academic research to the marketplace. In 2016, NSF provided WSU with a three-year grant that also designates WSU as one of 51 universities, part of the NSF National Innovation Network. (from https://vcea.wsu.edu/icorps/)
Based on our group’s patent-pending technology, we formed a team “SOC Energy Materials” and participated the NSF I-Corps in which we developed the business model and refined the customer needs. The SOC represents “Sustainability over Carbon.”
“WSU I-Corps gave me the tools to find and meet professionals in industry that work in my field of lithium batteries. They were so impressed by the fact that I was looking for business applications for my research that several contacted me asking me to apply for a job!”
– Craig Owen, Entrepreneurial Lead for SOC Energy Materials
“The I-Corps program was a great way to give my grad students skills that are not possible to teach in a research lab; they now understand much better the process of moving technology out of the lab and into industry, which makes them better researchers and will likely help them get better jobs. The I-Corps interviews also gave us a lot of insight into the needs of industry which will help us write better grant proposals, and several companies we talked to are now coming to us to find out how to collaborate on real-world products!”
– Min-Kyu Song, PI for SOC Energy Materials
Our students certainly have a great plan to move the project forward. Thanks, NSF I-Corps!
Class Teaching
1. MSE 503: Electrochemical Energy Systems (2016 Fall, 2018 Fall): Newly developed graduate course
2. MSE 201: Introduction to Materials Science (2019 Fall)
3. MSE 302: Electronic Materials (2015 Fall, 2016 Spring, 2017 Fall, 2018 Fall, 2019 Fall)
4. MSE 321: Materials Characterization (2015 Spring, 2017 Spring, 2018 Spring, 2019 Spring)
5. MATSE 593: Seminar in Materials Science (2015 Fall, 2016 Spring)
Guest Lecture
6. MATSE 571: Microscopic Analysis of Solid Surfaces (2016 Spring, 2018 Spring)
- Topic: Electron Microscopy (SEM & TEM) and Chemical Analysis (EDS), 2 weeks (4 lectures)
7. MSE 503: Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (2015 Spring)
- Topic: Nanostructured Materials for Batteries, 1 lecture
8. MSE 110: Introduction to Materials Science (2015 Fall, 2017 Fall)
- Topic: Materials for Energy, 1 lecture
9. MSE 403: Ceramic Materials (2016 Spring, 2017 Spring)
- Topic: Ceramic Materials for Lithium-ion Batteries, 1 lecture
10. MSE 523: Ceramic Processing (2016 Spring)
- Topic: Ceramic Processing for Energy Conversion and Storage, 1 lecture
11. MSE 508: Polymer Nanocomposites and Functionalities (2017 Fall)
- Topic: Nanocomposites for Advanced Batteries and Sustainability, 1 lecture
12. MATSE 503: Glass Science and Technology (2018 Spring)
- Topic: Li-ion Conducting Solid Electrolytes for Batteries with Enhanced Safety, 1 lecture