This NUE in Engineering program entitled, "INTERDISCIPLINARY UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM IN NANOTECHNOLOGY AT NJIT: Linking K-12 through Graduate Education via Nanotechnology", under the direction of Dr. Raquel Perez-Castillejos, aims to achieve the following goals: 1) Develop a new 15-week course that will introduce undergraduate students to basic concepts of nano-technology through a series of lectures and hands-on sessions; 2) Develop a nanotechnology-oriented summer research program for undergraduate students at NJIT, which will offer 5 students per year the chance to further pursue their interest in nanotechnology through career development activities, poster and abstract preparation workshops, and presenting their project results at regional or national conferences. 3) Develop a program that will train graduate researchers in educational strategies for effectively teaching and mentoring in nanotechnology. 4) Develop a multi-platform nanotechnology education app-i.e., an app that will be able to run on tablets, computers, and smartphones that will familiarize high school students with nano-scale dimensions.
The four goals of this program aim at taking nanotechnology from the research labs at NJIT into multiple educational settings: from high schools to undergraduate and graduate schools. Implementation of the goals of this proposal will bring together resources and support from all levels of NJIT as well as from local industry in order to provide students with a holistic access to the field of nanotechnology. This proposal has been designed to have the most impact on underrepresented groups...minorities and women. The nanoApp will be distributed among local high schools, especially focusing on Newark, New Jersey, which has large African-American and Hispanic communities. Because NJIT has an undergraduate student population of 33% underrepresented minorities and 25% women it is anticipated that this program will have a remarkable impact on introducing these groups to nanotechnology.
