(23b) NUE - Teaching Undergraduates Nanomanufacturing Engineering (TUNE)

The goal of this project is to produce nanosystems engineering graduates with the critical thinking and manufacturing skills necessary to meet the nation's workforce needs in nanotechnology. As indicated by recent reports (National Nanotechnology Advisory Panel review of the National Nanotechnology Initiative) and industrial surveys of nanotechnology workforce needs, one of the barriers to future commercialization of nanotechnology is workers with abilities to scale-up nanomanufacturing from the research lab to pilot/small scale production levels. While there are a number of nanotechnology laboratory and lecture classes nationwide, the majority of the experiences demonstrate ?recipes' to produce nanostructures but do very little to prepare students with the critical thinking skills required to assess and improve nanomanufacturing processes.

This project will address these issues through the following activities. First, creating a new junior level nanomanufacturing laboratory course that focuses beyond fundamental nanofabrication techniques to consider the production engineering aspects of nanomanufacturing (i.e., quality, uniformity, production costs of the product) through effective characterization of the manufacturing process. Second, integrating a focus on nanomanufacturing into capstone senior projects that will build upon the students knowledge and skills obtained in their junior year to tackle "open-ended" process design problems. Third, connecting industry to Louisiana Tech's Nanosystems Engineering degree program to provide assessment and input on specific knowledge and skills inventories that are required for workforce needs. Fourth, a faculty workshop to provide project assessment and training of Nanosystems Engineering faculty to ensure the proper balance of nanoscience versus nanoengineering in capstone projects. Over 20% of the faculty identified to participate in the workshops are either minority or women. The increased visibility of these faculty will allow them to become role models to a larger portion of our student population.