The primary goal of this Nanotechnology Undergraduate Education (NUE) in Engineering program at the University of South Alabama (USA), entitled "NUE: An Interdisciplinary Modular Approach To Nanodevices And Nanotechnology Objectives Through Engineering via Cyberlearning (AIM AT NANOTEC)", under the direction of Dr. Srinivas Palanki, is to develop and implement a set of 12 modules that can be integrated into several sophomore, junior and senior level core and elective courses in three different engineering departments (Chemical and Biomolecular, Mechanical, and Electrical and Computer Engineering). Each module will involve problem solving skills at the levels of knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation.
The proposed work will have a significant impact on the education mission of the College of Engineering. Implementation of the program tasks will result in modernizing the engineering content of the core courses in the three engineering departments. In addition, the formation of multidisciplinary design teams in the senior year that effectively utilize core concepts from the different departments will result in the training of engineers who are well prepared to tackle difficult engineering challenges in the workplace. Furthermore, dissemination of the material developed in this project to high school students through the university outreach program will positively impact enrollment in engineering.
The major goals of this project were (1) to develop a series of podcasts that demonstrate the application of engineering principles to nanotechnology applications and (2) to utilize these podcasts in core classes in chemical, mechanical and electrical engineering abd test their efficacy in student learning. All the objectives stated above were accomplished. Twelve podcasts were developed with the assistance of faculty members, graduate students and high school students. Podcast topcs included nanotechnology introduction, nanofabrication, nanocharacterization, nanoelectronics, nanocomposites, carbon nanotube-based sensors and electronics, nanoreaction engineering, solar cell fabrication. These podcasts were used in all levels from high school outreach through freshman engineering to junior and senior levels. The home assignments associated with each podcast were graded and it was observed that over 80% of the students were in the A range while the rest were in the B range. This indicated a high level of comprehension and application of the podcasts. In terms of student attitudes about learning from podcasts, students choosing "stongly agree" or "agree" to the question "I think that podcasts are an effective means of learning" ranged from 50% in the freshman classes to 90% in the senior classes. A discussion with a focus group of students about this matter indicated that seniors were more comfortable stating that they could learn on their own while freshman were reluctant to admit this. The key outcome of this project activity was the development of a set of podcasts that could be used effectively in multiple engineering departments. Furthermore, some of these podcasts were successfully used in our high school outreach BEACHES (bioengineering and chemical engineering summer) program. One of our local high school partners (Davidson High School) is now using the solar cell fabrication module and the lactose to glucose conversion module in its AP Chemistry classes. This project provided an opportunity to several faculty members involved in this project the opportunity to develop multi-disciplinary podcasts on nanotechnology. Training on the use of desk-top software to develop podcasts was provided by Dr. Palanki to the other faculty members and they are now using this technology in other courses as well. Furthermore, three graduate students assisted in developing the slides in LateX as well as PowerPoint mode for use in the podcasts. Two high school students assisted in developing podcasts for the solar cell and reaction engineering modules and they used this opportunity to be trained in this area. All the podcasts are available to the general public at the website: www.southalabama.edu/engineering/chemical/faculty/palanki/teaching/nano_modules.html. In addition, the results of our success in using these podcasts have been presented in several conferences and publications. This project clearly showed that the important field of nanotechnology is multidisciplinary and can be covered at many levels, from high school to senior undergraduate level. The lower-level podcasts on solar cells, that were geared to high school students, are particularly useful for explaining relatively advanced science concepts to the general public and are now routinely being used by us during outreach activities.
