This award is to George Mason University to support the activity described below for 24 months. The proposal was submitted in response to the Partnerships for Innovation Program Solicitations (NSF-05566).
Partners. George Mason University (lead institution), the College of William and Mary, Old Dominion University, the University of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, Virginia Tech, Infineon Technologies, Luna Innovations, Materials Modification, Micron Technology, NanoSonic, NanoTitan, Northrop Grumman, Newport News, and Philip-Morris.
The primary objective of the proposal follows: The Virginia Partnership for Nanotechnology Education and Workforce Development will couple academic institutions and corporations in the Commonwealth of Virginia to maximize opportunities for knowledge transformation into engineered solutions that benefit society. To enhance academic discovery and labor force development, this partnership will create a tightly coupled program of 1) distance learning (DL) delivered, graduate engineering courses that can be used in a new nanotechnology certificate program or as a supplement to traditional graduate studies; 2) industry-centric short courses; and 3) annual technology transfer workshops. The program will strengthen the research and education infrastructures of core academic partners, enhance the competitive position of core corporate partners, prepare the region for other current and future corporate residents, and take critical steps towards development of a diverse workforce.
Potential Economic Impact
Nanotechnology, the focus of this partnership, promises to transform industry, having a particularly profound impact upon source materials in manufacturing, electronic instrumentation and sensors, health care, homeland security and national defense, energy, and environmental endeavors. With U.S. federal nanotechnology research funding exceeding $960 million in 2004 and continuing to increase, nanotechnology is poised to become the largest government science initiative since the space race, and global competition is increasing.
The intellectual merit of the proposal follows. This partnership will strengthen academic research by enhancing faculty-faculty and faculty-industry dialogue and by dramatically increasing graduate student access to intellectual breadth and depth in nanotechnology. It will also enhance the intellectual preparation of working engineers, setting the stage for R&D innovations within their companies that spur economic development.
The broader impacts of the activity follow. The core academic and corporate partners and the Commonwealth of Virginia will share in an annual level of financing that will sustain the activity and enable the involvement of as many as three HBCUs The HBCUs are to be financed by corporate contributions to those schools as an investment in future workforce diversity and U.S. competitiveness in nanotechnology. From the outset, the programs developed under this proposal will be available to underrepresented minorities (including women) resident in the graduate programs of the core academic partners. Despite the fact that the lead institution, George Mason University, is among those having the most diverse student populations in the nation, even this level of potential minority participation within the initial program is insufficient. Thus, to make a measurable diversity impact, the involvement of HBCUs is appropriate given the national crisis of limited underrepresented minority participation in graduate science and engineering.
