Materials scientists, engineers and product designers: Not so different after all

This paper intends to convey the message that materials know-how is a broad topic under which several professionals work to make society a better place. Teaching materials to diverse student audiences can be difficult; especially when the course (or module, or discipline, depending on the country) is to be taught by materials scientists to architects or product designers for example. In this case, the professor will have a fundamentally different notion of what materials are from the students' perception of what materials should be and how they would be used in their future profession. This leads to problems of lack of motivation in both faculty and with students, excessive fail rates and poor grades, and a generalized feeling of lack of communication and connection with real life: remember that real life means different things to different people! A broader vision of what the materials discipline means to each stakeholder group needs to be acknowledged in order to build a common materials education thread. Engineers, materials scientists, architects and product designers (to name a few) all need some fundamental knowledge of materials and their behavior under different settings to be able to extract the most out of them for a specific application. Also, however different the knowledge they need, it is still about materials, and the continuum of knowledge that is combined by all of these materials user groups is something developed here that can be referred to as `materials systems and design'. The paper presents the different visions of three common materials user groups and notes the differences and similarities amongst them when it comes to materials knowledge and education. It then concludes with a global vision of materials and how it can serve as a common thread between these user groups in higher education.