For a 2009 engineering student, this was eye-opening. A project comparing an aluminum beverage can versus a glass bottle suddenly came with real environmental data.

The heart of CES EduPack 2009 was its interactive charting engine. Students could plot materials on log-log axes, apply selection limits as "box selectors," and instantly see which materials satisfied design constraints. For example:

Ashby’s solution was the "selection chart"—a visual method for plotting material properties against one another. CES Edupack was the digital embodiment of this methodology. It provided a comprehensive database of materials and processes, allowing students to visualize the "universe" of materials and filter them based on design constraints.