The goal of this Nanotechnology Undergraduate Education (NUE) in Engineering program at the University of Washington (UW), entitled "NUE: Integrating Nanodevice Design, Fabrication, and Analysis into the Mechanical Engineering Curriculum", under the direction of Dr. Santosh Devasia, is to prepare mechanical engineers to design nanodevices. Such educational efforts in nanodevices have become important as nanotechnologies move from research laboratories into industries. Towards this goal, the proposed NUE in Engineering program will leverage the existing strengths of the mechanical engineering (ME) curriculum in analysis, fabrication, and design of (larger-scale) devices by integrating novel developments and unique challenges in nanodevices into the eight courses in the ME curriculum at UW.
The proposed program will directly impact nanotechnology-related education of all of the roughly 120 undergraduate students admitted into UW ME every year. Additionally, all UW students (in the Colleges of Engineering, and Arts and Sciences) will be allowed to take the ME courses (impacted by the proposed NUE program) as part of a new Nanoscience and Molecular Engineering minor. Thus, the proposed NUE program will advance interdisciplinary undergraduate educational efforts in nanotechnology.
The goal of this nanotechnology undergraduate education (NUE) program is to prepare mechanical engineers to design nanodevices. Such educational efforts in nanodevices have become important as nanotechnologies move from research laboratories into industries. Towards this goal, the NUE program leveraged the existing strengths of the mechanical engineering (ME) curriculum in analysis, fabrication, and design of (larger-scale) devices by integrating novel developments and unique challenges in nanodevices into the ME curriculum. The learning outcomes are that students who participate in the proposed program should be able to: analyze nanodevices using appropriate theoretical and experimental approaches; explain basic elements of fabrication processes for nanodevices; and solve open-ended, nanodevice-design problems. Activities: The work integrated research issues on nano-devices into seven courses in the undergraduate curriculum at the University of Washington. ME 354 Mechanics of Materials Lab; ME356 Machine Design Analysis; ME471 Automatic Controls; ME498 Nanodevice Design and Manufacturing; ME 333 Introduction to Fluid Mechanics; ME498 Mechanics of Thin Films Experimental Nanomechanics; ME498 Bio-Framework for Engineers It partially supported the work of 7 graduate students. Results: Survey results from students who tool the courses appear to indicate an increased interest in Nanotechnologies. For example, the experimental module developed in ME 354 was offered with an optional bonus report (for extra credit); most of the students in the class turned in the report. Therefore, the plan is to make the module and report a required part of the course in the coming years. Similarly, surveys at the end of the courses (ME 356 and ME498) appear to indicate that the students were more interested in nanotechnologies due to the new course content developed as part of the NUE project. Overall, students appear to be interested in nano-related material and think it is important. Dissemination of Results: The results of the effort were published in two articles S. Devasia, J. Borgford-Parnell, J.-H. Chung, J. Li, A. Q Shen, N. J. Sniadecki, and J. Wang. Integrating nanodevice design, fabrication, and analysis into the mechanical engineering curriculum. Proceedings of the ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Paper number AC 2011-224, Vancouver, BC, Canada, June 26-29, 2011. S. Devasia and J. Borgford-Parnell. Integrating nanopositioner design issues into an existing automatic controls course through homework. International Journal of Engineering Education, Special Issue on Current Trends in Nanotechnology Education, Vol. 28 (5), pp. 995-1005, 2012. Impact on Education: Several of the courses for which the NUE project modules were developed (ME 333, 354 and ME 356) are core, required courses in the UW ME curriculum --- thus, it impacts all (100%) of the roughly 120 undergraduate students admitted into UW ME every year. Additionally, the NUE project helped to develop a Nanoscience and Molecular Engineering (NME) Option program in the UW ME Dept. The ME NME option program is being co-developed with similar option programs in other departments at the U. of Washington. These include the Departments of Chemical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Bioengineering, Materials Science & Engineering, Chemistry and Physics. The objective of introducing joint-core-courses (with multiple departments) is to generate a platform that is truly interdisciplinary and connects students from different disciplines. Students in the departments will register the core courses including NME 220 (4 credits), NME 221 (1 credit), NME 321 (1 credit), NME 421 (1 credit) to enhance the understanding of each department’s contribution to NME fields. Thus, the proposed NUE program will advance interdisciplinary undergraduate educational efforts in nanotechnology. Broader Impact: The NUE project integrates nanodevices into the undergraduate curriculum and thereby builds the human resource infrastructure needed to maintain US competitiveness in emerging nanotechnology industries. Nanodevices are critical to competitiveness in industries related to renewable energy, next-generation electronics, and biotechnologies. The NUE project integrates issues in the engineering of such nanodevices into the undergraduate curriculum to prepare the engineering workforce for emerging nanotechnology industries.
