Two new courses have been added to the portfolio of massive open online courses ( MOOC) offered by Georgia Tech and are focusing on materials.

Dr. Surya Kalidindi, ME, will teach "Materials Data Sciences and Informatics." This course aims to provide a succinct overview of the emerging discipline of Materials Informatics at the intersection of materials science, computational science, and information science. Attention is drawn to specific opportunities afforded by this new field in accelerating materials development and deployment efforts.

"Introduction to High-Throughput Materials Development" will be presented by Dr. Richard Neu, ME, and Dr. Carson Meredith, ChBE. This course is an introduction to high-throughput experimental methods that accelerate the discovery and development of new materials.

The Georgia Tech Institute for Materials (IMat) developed this course in order to introduce a broad audience to the essential elements of the Materials Genome Initiative. Other courses will be offered by Georgia Tech through Coursera to concentrate on integrating (i) high-throughput experimentation with (ii) modeling and simulation and (iii) materials data sciences and informatics.

Georgia Tech earlier signed an agreement with edX, a nonprofit online learning destination, to offer MOOCs for learners around the world.

Offering courses under the brand GTx, Georgia Tech joins a consortium of edX partners that has instructed more than 6 million learners since its inception. Additional Georgia Tech courses will be announced later in 2016. GTx will also explore credit programs on edX and innovative ways of making traditional GT programs available to more learners.

“The student and classroom of the 21st century continue to evolve,” said Georgia Tech Provost Rafael L. Bras. “Higher education must prepare the learner not just for their first job after graduation, but also for their third or fourth. Our partnership with edX will allow Georgia Tech to reach traditional learners, as well as early and mid career professionals, in new and novel ways, creating lifelong learning opportunities befitting a successful and fulfilling career.” 

More than 1 million students have enrolled in Georgia Tech online courses.