Steve and Tim talk to Professor Mark Asta from Berkeley. Mark is the Dean of Engineering at UC Berkeley. He is also a Materials Science and Engineering Professor. Mark was named as the Van Vlack Professor in 2026 and we caught up with him after one of his talks when he visited us in October 2026. We talked about materials education, engineering education, and how AI and agenic agents will be more and more important to our students.

You can learn more about Mark Asta, the dean here:
https://engineering.berkeley.edu/about/leadership-team/meet-the-dean/

and Mark Asta the researcher and faculty member here:
https://vcresearch.berkeley.edu/faculty/mark-asta

You can learn about the Larry Van Vlack Lectureship here:
https://mse.engin.umich.edu/updates/van-vlack-lecture/

You can find the YouTube version of the podcast here:
https://youtu.be/7Shi45VIWgA

Our YouTube channel can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/@Undercooled.Materials

If you want to add a voice comment on this or any other of our podcasts, suggest a guest, or volunteer to be a guest, please visit our website:
https://java.engin.umich.edu/undercooled/

This episode is sponsored by the TMS Foundation (https://www.tms.org/TMSFoundation/TMSFoundation/Default.aspx), The Electric Vehicle Center (EVC) at the University of Michigan (https://evc.engin.umich.edu/), and the University of Michigan Materials Science and Engineering department (https://mse.engin.umich.edu).