This Nanotechnology Undergraduate Education (NUE) in Engineering program entitled, "NUE: Nanomanufacturing for Energy and Biomedical Engineering", at Drexel University under the direction of Dr. Ying Sun,seeks to develop an interdisciplinary education and research training program in nanomanufacturing to prepare the next generation of engineers to meet the challenges of efficiently integrating nanoscale building blocks into functional micro devices and meso/macroscale systems.
The interdisciplinary education plan will better prepare the next generation of engineers to meet the growing demand of economically fabricating nanostructure, multi-functional devices and engineering systems with properties beyond what is currently available. Direct impacts at Drexel include a new undergraduate technical elective course targeting 30-40 students per year, lab teaching modules for the required course sequence on Experimental Measurements impacting about 600 students per year, and intensive research opportunities for 10 students from the College of Engineering, School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems, and College of Arts and Sciences. Broader impacts outside of Drexel include publishing lab materials and course modules developed in this course, creating a central library for nanomanufacturing technologies and applications, introducing course modules into the curriculum at local community and four year colleges. The community outreach programs extends to inner-city K-12 teachers and students through the Philly Materials Science & Engineering Day, Philly Science Festival, and Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania in Science events.
This educational initiative seeks to develop an interdisciplinary education and research trainingprogram in Nanomanufacturing to prepare the next generation of engineers to meet the challenges of efficiently integrating nanoscale building blocks into functional micro devices and meso/macroscale systems. With the rapid development of nanoscience and nanotechnology in the last decade, the challenge now is to translate many of the early nanoscience discoveries to industrial applications via high-throughput, cost-effective nanomanufacturing. The emerging technologies in nanomanufacturing have the potential for significant contributions to the growth of the nation's economy over the next several decades. However, current undergraduate programs of most engineering schools do not offer nanomanufacturing in their curricula. This integrated education and research training program fills the knowledge gap with the following specific aims: i) Develop an upper-level technical elective course on Nanomanufacturing that combines lectures with alternating lab sessions and topical seminars with emphases on energy and biomedicalapplications; ii) Develop a suite of hands-on laboratory teaching modules for lower-level required ExperimentalMeasurements and Advanced Manufacturing courses; and iii) Integrate research opportunities in nanomanufacturing into the undergraduate curriculum viaintensive research cooperative education programs and senior design projects. The major project outcomes are: 1. A team-taught course Nanomanufacturing for Energy has been developed for upper level undergraduate students. The course was first offered in Spring 2013. The course consists of one 2-hour lecture accompanied by a 2-hour hands-on lab each week. Ten lectures and four lab modules have been developed. The course materials cover both bottom-up (self assembly, additive printing) and top-down (electrospinning, nanolithography) nanomanufacturing methods. Novel applications in energy harvesting and storage based on these nanomanufacturing techniques have been discussed and demonstrated. The course materials have been introduced to colleagues at Temple University, Villanova University, and Rowan University. 2. Four research co-op students (one from Mechancial Engineering, one from Chemical Engineering, one from Materials Science, and one from Chemistry) have been mentored during their rigorous six-month co-op experiences. 3. Two capstone senior design projects have been successfully completed. One project was to design and fabrication of an electrostatic autofacusing nanoprinter. The other project was to design and fabricate a dip coating device and a thin film soar cell tester to be used in the Nanomanufacturing for Energy lab. A total of ten seniors in mechanical engineering have been trained in the year-long projects. They gained basic knowledge and first-hand experience in design principles, machining, device testing, renewable energy. 4. A seminar series on Nanomanufacturing was organized open to all engineering students and faculty. Five distinguished seminars have been delivered to introduce Drexel community the importance and advantages of nanomanufacturing. 5. Outreach activities include open house, minority participation programs, hosting of international visiting students, REU and STAR students, and recruiting minority students.
