An European Project on Web-based Education in Nanoelectronics

International Journal of Online Engineering (iJOE), 2012

The paper presents an European project focusing on closer cooperation in the university sector and transparency of qualifications and recognition methods. It is aimed at common MSc degree level courses development for the new skills for new jobs in the multidisciplinary nanoelectronics and a new job organisation.

Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2012

Nanotechnology has developed by leaps and bounds due to potential high impacts of its application in the world today. Nanotechnology has many potential benefits including energy savings, alternative energy supplies, efficient use of raw materials, environmental protection, agriculture applications and medical breakthroughs. All of these applications are related to engineering. Thus, it is important that nanotechnology be taught during undergraduate for engineering students to prepare then in career related to nanotechnology. In this paper, a comparative study of the nanotechnology course contents from several universities in the world is made. Courses on nanotechnology in undergraduate level for engineering are typically taught either as a common course or junior/senior level elective course. The common course of nanotechnology in engineering requires the entire engineering student to take this course for the understanding of the fundamental and introduction to nanotechnology, where the prerequisite courses are pre-university Physics, Chemistry or Biology. For the 3 rd /4 th year level elective courses, students typically choose the elective course of nanotechnology with the requirement of some prerequisite subjects. Comparison between Malaysian universities and other universities in USA, UK, Singapore and Australia shows that engineering curriculum within Malaysian universities are lagging behind in terms of offering nanotechnology exposure through courses at the undergraduate level.

Nanotechnology has been identified as an important new growth area for industry, government, and the education community, embraced by both the public and private sectors. Yet, an abiding impediment to its progress is the dearth of trained practitioners. Engineering teams composed of engineers, technologists, and technicians, typically support experimentation, fabrication, and testing in the nanotechnology arena. There are recognized shortages of these skill levels, and the problem threatens to become more acute as time goes on.

utm.my

Nanotechnology has been identified as an important new growth area for industry, government, and the education community, embraced by both the public and private sectors. Yet, an abiding impediment to its progress is the dearth of trained practitioners. Engineering teams composed of engineers, technologists, and technicians, typically support experimentation, fabrication, and testing in the nanotechnology arena. There are recognized shortages of these skill levels, and the problem threatens to become more acute as time goes on.

2002

 There is currently little nanotechnology provision of a broad nature in undergraduate engineering degrees. This lack of provision should be addressed so as to assure future human resource availability as the sector grows. We have developed a broad introductory nanotechnology course suitable for senior undergraduate cohorts consisting of two or more engineering disciplines. We give here details of how we handle and even exploit the heterogeneous nature of the cohort to enhance learning. We also detail the course aims, learning outcomes, content and assessment.

Journal of Nano Education, 2015

Identify and leverage insertion points that can be linked across grade levels for NSE concepts in existing standards and curricula.  Create a central, searchable NSEE portal repository for teachers (possible models and/or partners included nanoHUB and the National Science Teachers Association). CC/TC  Create a best practices manual which builds on the efforts of the Nanotechnology Applications and Career Knowledge (NACK) Network, Nano-Link, and others to help with nationwide translation, replication, and tailoring of programs to specific local and regional needs. This manual should reflect the multitude and diversity of approaches. Undergraduate  Create and promote interdisciplinary cooperation and professional development opportunities among educators.  Promote the interdisciplinary nature and societal impacts of NSE in order to increase diversity in the student population. Graduate  Address the pipeline for students entering graduate education with special attention to building and maintaining trusted relationships with institutions which traditionally serve underrepresented groups in order to encourage underrepresented populations in STEM and NSE. Continuing  Identify the resources already available, for example from the ATE Centers or courses on nanoHUB, and make it easy for anyone to assemble these into learning packages tailored to specific curricula need. Informal  Refocus NSE outreach efforts around specific applications that address societal Grand Challenges in order to increase relevance and interest for the public.  Expand the reach of the Nanoscale Informal Science Education (NISE) Network beyond museums and research centers to youth-serving, community based national organizations that reach a broad demographic including underserved and underrepresented audiences. Consideration of all the recommendations leads to a number of key findings that cut across the stages (the following list is not prioritized):  Identify, develop, and evolve the NSEE workforce skillset requirements (and the education stages necessary to acquire those skills).  Review the existing NSEE efforts to identify and disseminate best practices. (As a start, the existing web accessible K-12 teaching aides have been collated in Appendix D.)  Identify, evolve, and/or develop NSEE materials with well-defined links to appropriate standards and curricula. Additionally, promote that material scale-up and widespread use of those materials.  Establish a central, searchable, e-portal that identifies and provides links to vetted NSEE materials, is readily accessible, designed for intuitive use, and sustainable.  Develop a national network of regional education hubs that effectively utilize the diverse stakeholder communities, leverage national forums, and address the challenges identified in the other recommendations.  Establish clearly defined, nanotechnology-enabled approaches toward the solution of societal Grand Challenges in order to engage students, underrepresented populations, and general public interest. The Commonwealth of Virginia and the state of Colorado recently incorporated nanotechnology into their new K-12 Science Standards of Learning. As they work to implement those standards, there is an immediate opportunity for the NSEE community to assist. The National Nanotechnology Coordination Office (NNCO) has an interest and charter in promulgating NSEE at a national scale. Workshop funds were used to procure selected teaching aides that were displayed at the workshop exhibition. The NNCO will use those materials in its national level NSEE efforts.

The preparation of skilled technicians in the field of nanotechnology is a concern. Several institutions receive grants for training and education related activities, but institutionalization and sustainability are considered main issues. This paper presents how we integrated nanotechnology as part of an associate degree in Electronics Technology Program based on previous experiences acquired during our collaboration in ATE-NSF projects with Pennsylvania State University. The characteristics of the Electronics Technology Program, the curriculum of the nanotech courses and main outcomes of their inclusion are described. The methodology of the laboratory portion is project oriented, aiming at developing student teamwork, technical, leadership, and communication skills. Examining the main outcomes, in addition to the results of student surveys, we can consider that this curriculum improvement has been very successful, and can be a model for other institutions.

2007

Nanotechnology education offered by many universities in the USA involves interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary education with courses in nanotechnology, engineering, chemistry, physics, mathematics and biology. The challenge of nanotechnology education is to provide advanced technologies to the students in a wide verity of fields. In the present communication, we will be dealing with the fabrication and characterizations of nanomaterials (e.g., nanoparticles, nanofibers, nanofilms, nanocomposites and micro -nanoscale devices) and devices for undergraduate and graduate students in order to improve the hands-on laboratory experiences. It is assumed that this nanotechnology would be one of the targeted areas for science and engineering in the near future, so the action should be taken on nanotechnology education as early as possible.

Based upon a set of "big ideas" identified by recent workshops and a study report, a broad curricular framework has been developed for degree programs in nanoscale science and engineering (NSE). The framework is built around four essential areas or nodes in NSE that include-Processing (how nano-entities are fabricated), Nanostructure (how the structure of nano-entities can be imaged and characterized), Properties (the resulting size-dependent and surface-related properties of nanostructured materials/devices), and Applications (how nanomaterials and nanodevices can be designed and engineered for the benefit of society), which can be abbreviated as "P-N-P-A." This paper argues that the P-N-P-A rubric provides a tool for program and course construction and evaluation in higher education. An analysis of emerging NSE degree programs in the U.S. suggests that improvements need to be made in the programmatic balance among the P-N-P-A nodes, with particular attention being paid to essential features such as the interdisciplinarity of NSE and its societal impact (ethics, safety, and so on). A significant challenge for achieving programmatic balance is providing students access to advanced instrumentation, which is an essential element for student mastery of the "nanostructure" node. Recommendations and challenges for achieving programmatic balance are discussed.

2011

Microelectronics high education in France is organized through a network composed of twelve centers, six of them having clean-rooms and technological facilities. During the year 2010, some activities moved from microelectronics to nanotechnologies in an effort to adapt our training facilities to the new nanoworld.