This NUE proposal was received in response to NSE, NSF 02-148. The heart of the project is to develop an interdisciplinary undergraduate course in nanotechnology and nanostructured materials aimed at sophomore engineering and science majors. The course is being built from the primary literature, as well as recent books and articles aimed at a more general audience, supplemented with the mathematical and quantitative details appropriate for undergraduate science and engineering majors. The interdisciplinary nature of the material is reflected by the faculty involvement; a physicist with research interests in laser optics and extensive experience in the development of undergraduate course materials, a chemical engineer with many years of industrial research experience, and an inorganic materials chemist with research interests in nanocomposites, all of whom have worked together to develop the course outline and syllabus. The end result of the project should be a fully integrated lecture and laboratory course in nanotechnology, complete with a web-based text and laboratory exercises, designed as stand-alone modules that can be exported to other courses within the science and engineering disciplines, or as an entire course to provide a model for adoption or adaptation in any undergraduate setting.project is jointly supported by the Division of Physics in the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate and the Engineering Education and Centers Division in the Directorate for Engineering.
