History

First Metallurgical engineering education in Turkey has been started in Istanbul Technical University (ITU) in 1961 in the department founded under the Faculty of Mining. Since the beginning of the foundation, the department has played a pioneering role in Turkish metallurgical engineering education and industry. Between 1976 and 1982 the department functioned a separate faculty. However, following the restructuring and reconstruction activities of Turkish Higher Education Council (YÖK), in 1982, the department has become a part of newly established Faculty of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering. Considering scientific and technological developments and changing needs in the world, in 1992, Metallurgical Engineering department has changed its name as Metallurgical and Materials Engineering (see Table 1). It is an honor for us to announce that the Metallurgical and Materials Engineering Department celebrated its 50th anniversary of foundation in 2011 October.

Table 1. Chronology of the department name and affiliations.

Since last review (2011-2016), the number of graduates from department has reached 525. Hence, a majority of the engineers working in the field are graduates from this department. Our students are still among the most sought graduates in domestic industry. One of the most important progress in last five years, 15 students have founded R&D and production based-companies which provide solutions and advanced materials to meet the demand of national and global industries. Every year, about 10-20% of our graduates go abroad to pursue higher education. Most of the department’s graduates work in the leading industries and educational institutions of Turkey.

In 5 years, minor changes have been done in the academic staff and the program, namely 3 professors retired, 2 assistant professors assigned as an associate professor, and 2 new assistant professor appointed. In addition, two-option education; metallurgy and materials, has been modified to one-option called as Metallurgical and Materials Engineering with reorganizing the course syllabi details of which will be explained in detail later. 2011-2012 academic year, additional fulltime English education has been started with 30% English education option. Since last ABET visit, five more laboratories have been opened and three laboratories have been completely renewed, the details of which are given in appendix C.

The ITU Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, acknowledges its departmental culture, based on more than 50 years of experience, has manifested its very desire to capture the future and develop continuously in its vision.

ITU; Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, for the prosperity and well-being of our country, emphasizes

• humanistic and societal values,
• the concept of continuous development,
• the global qualities of science, and
• a modern education culture and values

as its base, with the education provided for its students in the undergraduate curriculum, as well as its M.Sc. and Ph.D. students in the area of metallurgical and materials engineering.

The Department has always been one of the leading institutions in its field in Turkey and aims to keep its position through continuous progress and improvement with its scientific and applied researches, and act as a science and technology center for both:

• producing knowledge which will help to shape today’s and the future’s technology on a national and international level, and
• spreading this knowledge throughout society through national and international publications.

The Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering is the country’s oldest and most developed institution housing the country’s most prominent scientists and engineers. All the academic staff members either received their Ph.D. degrees from ITU or from reputable universities in the USA, Germany, the UK and Canada. All the academic staff has international work experience. Academic members who received their Ph.D.s from ITU have carried out scientific research activities in universities and research institutions in USA, Germany, Japan, and the UK. Most of the academic staff is active members of national and international scientific and engineering institutions and associations. The academic members in the department have established strong social and scientific relations with colleagues from national and international institutions.

The main strength of the department’s education comes from its academic staff that has the required knowledge, experience and skill for a contemporary teaching in metallurgical and materials engineering field. Through the national and international scientific and applied research projects conducted in the department, new laboratories have been built (please see Appendix C). These laboratories not only serve the research activities but also contribute to the improvement of the quality education provided by the department. The academic members in the department consider education and teaching as the most important part of their duties and make a considerable effort to improve the way they teach.

Scientific and applied research carried out in the department, as well as new topics and courses introduced: resulted in the enrichment of the opportunities offered to the students in terms of research and education. Considering the number of publications, the department ranks according to QS ranking 2015/16 is in the range of 151-200.

All courses in the department are taught by the academic members of staff. 32 young researchers, research assistants, who are at the same time Masters / Ph.D. students in the department help the academic members in the practice sessions and running of the laboratories. In addition, volunteer seniors and graduate students also help academic members in their research on a part-time basis and thus gain the opportunity to make the first step towards continuous professional development.

The members of the Department are aware of the importance of social activities on the students’ social being. These activities also provide opportunities to enrich the department’s environment, and team spirit as well. Currently, 35 students are the part of ITU and Faculty sport teams, namely ITU hornet, basketball, soccer, tennis, swimming and water polo.

Starting from 1996, the departmental programs have been re-evaluated to meet the ABET EC 2000 criteria. Therefore, during the years of 2000-2002, our department has defined its mission and vision, program educational objectives and outcomes and has put them in effect and evaluated the success of these activities.

In addition to the restructuring of the course loads for the programs, the university has also decided to emphasize the importance of knowing another language preferably English to understand global developments and to communicate in the modern arena. For the enrolled students who do not have the sufficient command of English, an infrastructure providing one year of intensive language education has been set up: new classrooms have been built and language teachers, local and native, have been hired.

Our department is maintaining its continuous development endeavor in light of the ABET criteria since 2004. In order to show our commitment to continuous improvement, the department has decided to apply for full accreditation this year.