The Engineering Metallurgy Group is continually involved in failure analysis, materials selection, and short term problem-solving projects with industrial partners. We often work with corporate members of the industrial research centers on campus, including the Energy Research Center, the Center for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, and the ATLSS Center, to develop solutions for materials problems related to specific industries. These industries include power generation, transportation, defense and manufacturing among others.

The nature of these programs can be quite broad and can include short-term failure analysis and prevention, long-term test programs on material characterization and performance, on-site consultation, expert witness of legal cases, and more. In all cases, the major objective is to combine materials engineering fundamentals and specialized research equipment to quickly develop solutions to industry that generally can not be provided in a long term research project.

Recently, Lehigh University became the first academic institution granted access to the Space Shuttle Columbia debris. This debris was analyzed by undergraduate Materials Science and Engineering students as part of a failure analysis class taught by Dr. A.R. Marder. Each student was assigned their own piece of debris and were responsible for analyzing the failure and characterizing the materials' response to hypersonic reentry conditions. The project culminated in a two day symposium, during which the students presented their findings to several scientists and astronauts from NASA. The project received considerable media attention from across the globe :

• Lehigh University
• Space Daily
• MSNBC
• PhysOrg.com
• SpaceRef.com

Additionally, the students' findings were published in a special issue of the Journal of Failure Analysis and Prevention dedicated solely to the Columbia tragedy. The special issue can be found here.