New steel subjects (~ last 10 yrs)

Jeremy, It may be that the prime object of this exercise you have been set is for you to learn how to research a topic with all the resources available to you, and if so it should teach you a lesson which will stand you in good stead throughout your career. By all means learn about recent steel developments and that may well be interesting to you and/or helpful during your subsequent work (as well as solve your immediate problem of getting a pass) but treat it also as a learning exercise in searching for information. The web is a modern and very useful tool in this process but tends to be failrly superficial in the most part unless you go to sites such as Igenta for literature searches and many universities also publish research papers too. The problem you have is learn "how" to search and to discriminate between publicity (not all of which is bad), and unreliable sources and useful reliable information. But do not ignore the skills that librarians bring to the problem and they are also likely to be able to bring in information from databanks to which you would not normally have access. Even reading recent literature usually available in university libraries is likely to lead you quickly to "recent" topics since those are the ones that are currently being written about in technical journals.
Good luck.
Bob

You might like to look into developments in automotive steels both in corrosion resistance and in attempts to reduce weight

Do you read any design magazines as part of your training?
Are you interested in reading any design magazines?
Some of them have regular sections on materials and "What's New In Materials" type articles.
Rather than the web, perhaps if you went to the school library and looked for design type magazines, including mechanical engineering type magazines, you would find some items of interest.
You won't find a list on the web of :
"Top 25 new engineering steels oand processes in the last 10 to 15 years".
Another poster has indicated that POSSIBLY, the purpose of the assignment was to have you learn how to find these things in antigue ways.... like libraries and personell at the college or university.
Good luck.
Hope that you are able to discover enough information to pass.
Jim

Jeremy:
Try these two
I. Amorphous steel (in bulk) See:
II. Low-Temperature Surface Carburizing of Stainless Steels ?? Swagelok Company of Solon, Ohio will lead a team of partners including Spirax Sarco Inc, Case Western Reserve University, Energy Industries of Ohio, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory to develop and evaluate a new processing method, low temperature colossal supersaturation (LTCSS), for improving the surface hardness and degradation resistance of austenitic stainless steels. Substantial energy savings are expected through extended service life and improved efficiency of pumps, pump casings and other stainless steel components used in aqueous environments. DOE will contribute $1,485,000 of the total project cost of $2,544,400 for the three-year project.
Swagelok: see Bodycote "Kolsterising": see (don't forget that the alternate European spelling is "carburising".
Have fun checking Engineering Index (Compendex database) and patents for how this is done.
Pittsburgh Pete

Do you know what a scientific journal is? Should be found in your library.
Michael Dahms