In recognition of the global, national, and local importance of nanotechnology, a diverse team of educators and researchers are developing a multidisciplinary nanotechnology educational program with support from a National Science Foundation (NSF) Nanotechnology Undergraduate Education (NUE) in Engineering award. A previous NSF NUE grant resulted in the development of lecture courses and course modules, but lacked hands-on experiments and computer simulation exercises. The goal of this program is to address this deficiency by incorporating new laboratory and simulation modules into existing classes, and by developing a new nano/micro laboratory course. One novel aspect of this program is that it is coordinated across two colleges and includes faculty in aerospace, chemical, electrical, and mechanical engineering as well as geological sciences. This program includes outreach activities for students in grades 5 – 12 through an existing NanoClub. Outreach also includes tours of the Institute for Imaging and Analytical Technologies (an on-campus facility) that emphasize nanotechnology during demonstrations of confocal, atomic force, and electron microscopes.
This paper will present current results from this program, which started in January 2014. The paper will include a discussion of progress with a focus on new developments since January 2015. These will include course modules developed, and outreach activities through the NanoClub. Information such as student enrollment will be included, as well as information on the diversity of the students impacted by this NUE program at MSU.
Priscilla Hill is currently a Professor in the Dave C. Swalm School of Chemical Engineering at Mississippi State University. She has research interests in crystallization, particle technology, population balance modeling, and process synthesis.
Brenda L. Kirkland received undergraduate degrees in German (BA) and in Geology (BS) from the University of Texas at Austin. She spent the academic year 1982-83 at Ludwig-Maximillans University in Munich, Germany with a stipend from the Federation of German-American Clubs and a Fulbright travel grant. She earned an MS in geology at Texas A&M University and Ph.D. in geology with a minor in botany from Louisiana State University. She began as an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at Austin in 1992 and moved to Mississippi State University in 2000. She was granted the Mississippi State University Faculty Diversity award in 2015 and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists Distinguished Educator Award in 2016.
Dr. Yaroslav Koshka received his B.S. and M.S. in Electronics from Kiev Polytechnic University in Kiev, Ukraine. He received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in 1998 from the University of South Florida, Tampa, FL. From 1993 till 1995, Dr. Koshka worked as an engineer mathematician at the Institute for Problems of Material Science, Kiev, Ukraine. From 1998 to 2000, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Mississippi State University (MSU). In 2000 he accepted a position as an assistant research professor at the same university. He joined the faculty at MSU in 2002. He is currently a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at MSU and the director of the Emerging Materials Research Laboratory. His research interests include semiconductor materials and device characterization, defect engineering, synthesis of wide-bandgap semiconductor materials, physics of semiconductor devices, nano-electronics and machine learning for materials sciences.
Dr. Rani Warsi Sullivan is a Professor of Aerospace Engineering at Mississippi State University. Dr. Sullivan has teaching and research interests in the area of solid mechanics, aircraft materials and structures, and engineering education. Current resea
Tonya Stone is an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at MSU. Her research interests include multiscale materials modeling, mechanical behavior and characterization of materials, and modeling of nanomechanics/nanomaterials.
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