Hybrid education is a complex combination of simultaneous face-to-face and online teaching. This model of teaching comes with a wide range of benefits, primarily being able to offer the same content to a wider audience. Hybrid education became an effective form of teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. In these post pandemic years, the benefit of hybrid education can still be utilized, allowing for improved flexibility in teaching schedules, engaging students in interactive learning, bringing online students closer to the teacher and face-to-face students, and offering education to students who could not otherwise participate. However, with all the benefits of hybrid education, there are some significant challenges which restrict the implementation or hinder the full potential of hybrid education. Some key challenges are student engagement from the online students with the teacher as well as with other students, technological requirements, physical classroom set-up, education of the teachers, and time investment in re-structuring courses. In this article, we review the challenges of hybrid education, strategies to address these challenges focusing on implementation and effectiveness, as well as evaluating student feedback from students at Jönköping University that have been a part of hybrid education. 

This paper examines the potential of thermodynamic modelling as a simple and inexpensive means for assessing phase stability in a series of non-equiatomic high entropy alloys and compares with CALPHAD calculations to demonstrate an appropriate level of simplifying assumptions. The modelling was motivated by alloys from the Al–Ti–Co–Ni–Fe–Cr system, which were produced by iteratively following the natural compositional segregation of the two-phase BCC + B2 microstructure present in a Al2TiCoNiFeCr alloy after casting and heat treatment. This produced a range of multicomponent B2-type alloys with different volume fractions of a BCC secondary phase. The solubility limits and traditional empirical thermodynamic driving forces for phase stability were investigated to explain the formation of the two phases. Limitations of prior semi-empirical models are highlighted, with advancements demonstrated by accounting for contributions from the effect of ordering on configurational entropy, the difference in enthalpy from intermetallic compounds, and thermal influences on both entropy and enthalpy. The new models are compared against the current leading thermodynamic modelling approach, CALPHAD, with excellent correlation. This work outlines a methodology to predict and design phase constitution in future high-performance BCC + B2 alloys and, more generally, it demonstrates the value of models with temperature-dependent thermodynamic quantities for exploring new, complex compositional regions.

Using the Thermo-Calc implementation of the CALPHAD approach, high-throughput screening of the Co–Cr–Fe–Mn–Ni system was implemented to find ‘islands’ of single phase FCC structure within the compositional space in order to reduce the cost of this well-studied alloy system. The screening identified a region centred around Co10Cr12Fe43Mn18Ni17, reducing the material cost compared to the equiatomic alloy by ∼40%. The alloy was experimentally investigated at room and elevated temperatures, including in-situ tensile testing. The alloy was found to possess slightly lower strength compared to the equiatomic alloy at room temperature, however, exhibited excellent thermal strength up to 873K. Deformation twinning was observed after tensile testing at room temperature, primarily attributed to the reduced stacking fault energy (SFE), which was proven by a thermodynamic model for calculating the SFE. The softening behaviour at room temperature can be explained through solid solution hardening (SSH), whereby a modified approach to Labusch's model was used to calculate the SSH in reported alloys in this study within the Co–Cr–Fe–Mn–Ni system. The modified models for SFE and SSH are proposed to be implemented into high-throughput screening algorithms for accelerated alloy design towards specific mechanical properties.

Introduction of high entropy alloys or multi-principal element alloys around 15 years ago motivated revising conventional alloy design strategies and proposed new ways for alloy development. Despite significant research since then, the potential for new material discoveries using the MPEA concept has hardly been scratched. Given the number of available elements and the vastness of possible composition combinations, an unlimited number of alloys are waiting to be investigated! Discovering novel high-performance materials can be like finding a needle in a haystack, which demands an enormous amount of time and computational capacity. To overcome the challenge, a systematic approach is essential to meet the growing demand for developing novel high-performance or multifunctional materials. This article aims to briefly review the challenges, recent progress and gaps, and future outlook in accelerated alloy development, with a specific focus on computational high-throughput (HT) screening methods integrated with the Calculation of Phase Diagrams (CALPHAD) technique. Copyright © 2022 Ghassemali and Conway.

Although intermetallics with a B2-type crystal structure are typically brittle, a class of B2 intermetallics that demonstrates unusually high ductility has been reported. A set of recently developed B2-like quaternary precious metal-rare earth alloys also includes compositions with significant ductility. To predict ductility in these systems, we have adapted a computational energy-based metric based on slip systems and relative stability of planar defects, developed to predict ductility in B2 binary systems, for use with quaternary B2-like alloys. The computational metric successfully predicts the experimentally-determined ductility or brittleness of 15 B2-like quaternary precious metal-rare earth and refractory alloys.

The pandemic has forced teaching as well as as the Software Development industry, to be performed remotely. The educational institutions are therefore facing the situation of training and steering the students in, not only complex work, but also in remote-based work and it processes. Specific challenges here relate to project work with larger groups of developers, with testing, and integration of technical components for complete solutions, but the psychosocial factors come into play as well. This paper considers the situation that has arisen as a consequence of the pandemic and regards how project-based courses should be adapted to ‘The New Normal’. In focus is a course in Software Engineering, where a large-scaled project shall be developed remotely. Representatives from IT-companies act at the course remote, and at specific occurrences. The course is observed by the teachers to see its outcome, as well as different aspects on attitudes towards future remote work. Interviews and surveys regarding attitudes of students, as well as involved company representatives are presented, where the focus is on process, productivity, work environment, interest in remote work, as well as social aspects. The main findings, based on the surveys, motivates hybrid solutions for university courses, to meet the corresponding companies’ way of future working style.

The disordered Mg–Sc body-centered cubic (bcc) phase is both lightweight and strong; however, the system is impractical for general industrial use due to the high cost of scandium. We propose a computationally efficient metric that assesses ternary rare earth element additions that may stabilize the bcc phase at lower Sc concentrations. We find that the bcc phase is stabilized by the ternary addition of Y or Er, but not by La, Ce, or Nd, and we validate these predictions by experimental production and characterization of Mg–Sc–(Y,Er,Nd) alloys. The results suggest a computationally efficient method to anticipate integration of ternary elements into binary systems using cluster expansions of constituent binaries.