Tribology: Friction, Wear, Lubrication, and Design
Friction and wear costs many industries more than you think.
About one fifth of the energy used in industrial systems is lost to friction. The wear, failure, and downtime that follow cost organizations across aerospace, automotive, medical devices, and manufacturing billions every year. Most engineers know friction and wear are a problem. Far fewer have the depth to systematically solve them.
That is what MIT's Tribology: Friction, Wear, Lubrication, and Design course was built to address.
Over three and a half days on campus in Cambridge, Dr. Nannaji Saka and Dr. Said Jahanmir, alongside a team of leading tribologists from industry and academia, take you from the fundamentals of surface interaction and friction through wear mechanisms, lubrication, coatings, and design. You will visit an MIT laboratory for live tribological testing demonstrations and work through real problems from aerospace, automotive, biomedical, and electric vehicle applications.
What you will cover the course:
- Friction fundamentals including surface topography, laws of sliding friction, and theories of adhesion and deformation
- Wear mechanisms across metals, ceramics, polymers, and coatings with practical strategies for mitigation
- Lubrication from boundary and thin film to fluid film and elastohydrodynamic systems
- Tribological testing with live laboratory demonstrations including pin-on-disk tribometry, scratch testing, and nanoindentation
- Nanotribology and biotribology including medical device applications and nanoscale surface behavior
- Electric vehicle tribology covering the new demands on components and lubricants as the industry shifts away from internal combustion engines
- Tribology by design a methodology for engineering contact interfaces from first principles
The course runs June 8-11, 2026, on campus at MIT in Cambridge.
Join our virtual open house to:
- Meet Dr. Said Jahanmir and Nicholas X. Randall
- Walk through the three and a half day curriculum and lab demonstration format
- Understand how the course applies to the friction and wear challenges in your specific industry
- Determine if this is the right next step for you
- Ask questions live during our Q&A
Reserve your open house spot today