Materials science and engineering education is at an inflection point. The knowledge and practices that defined the field a generation ago are no longer sufficient preparation for graduates who will work at the intersection of sustainability, computation, and design. Curricula that emphasize foundational mastery without cultivating design literacy, systems thinking, or data fluency risk producing graduates ill-equipped for the challenges ahead. The integration of design thinking, sustainability, and artificial intelligence (AI) into materials education is not a matter of adding new topics to existing courses, but of fundamentally rethinking how the discipline is taught, assessed, and experienced by students. This Special Issue offers a curated snapshot of how the global materials education community is responding to this challenge. The contributions span classroom instruction, laboratory practice, assessment design, and industry engagement, and collectively provide both conceptual frameworks and practical strategies that educators can adapt across a wide range of institutional contexts.
Dong et al. (2026) studied this question.