The goal of this NUE in Engineering program entitled, "NUE: Transforming Nanoscale Science and Engineering Undergraduate Education", at Columbia University, under the direction of Dr. Chee Wei Wong, is to create an institutionalized cross-disciplinary nanotechnology undergraduate program, reaching across multiple departments to serve a targeted ~90 (25% of cohort) undergraduates. Seven laboratory modules on nanoscale science and engineering will be developed, based on scientific advances by the project team such as in graphene, nanomechanics, nanostructured solar photovoltaics, and nanoelectronics. These hands-on modules will be taught in conjunction with a theoretical numerical simulations class on the foundations of nanotechnology.
The classes will reach out across Columbia University and Barnard College (an undergraduate women's college), and the laboratory modules can further serve as stand-alone experiments in other nanoscale related curricula. In addition, research experiences for undergraduates will be provided under this program, as well as summer internships at GE Global Research and the Center for Functional Nanomaterials at Brookhaven National Laboratory. All course materials will be made freely available online for broad dissemination. Lectures in the theoretical foundations class will be recorded and made available for asynchronous download.
Intellectual Merit: over the two-years of this undergraduate nanoscience educational program we developed and implemented nanocrystals and graphene hands-on teaching modules to a large batch of undergraduate students at Columbia. These teaching modules involve nanocrystal synthesis and safety, nanocrystal photoluminescence and absorption measurements, graphene visualization and monolayer identification, and graphene Raman imaging and spectroscopy. The undergraduate students were able to synthesize the nanocrystals and perform on their own optical measurements on the light emission and absorption of the nanostructures. In the graphene modules, they visualized and identified graphene on different substrates, as well as multilayer graphene samples. They performed Raman scattering on the samples, to comprehend the phonon vibrational contributions in light scattering of nanostructures. The modules are embedded into our curriculum, and complement the nanotechnology theory class. The modules have teaching questions and tests, along with step-by-step modules (for the nanocrystal synthesis). Reports from the hands-on modules are requested and graded to assess the undergraduates learning. These modules are enthusiastically received by the undergraduates. Four undergraduates are given the opportunity to experience first-hand summer research over two years, with these students experience strong interest in furthering their nanoscience scientific and engineering developments. Broader Impact: the nanoscience hands-on teaching modules provide a valuable learning experience of the otherwise-conventional curriculum to the cohort of undergraduates. This excited more interest in doing graduate level programs and research for the undergraduates, while preparing them for future encounters in industry jobs.
