(588g) Nanomaterials Education for City College of New York Science and Engineering Undergraduates

Approximately 2 million engineers and scientists will be needed worldwide in the field of nanotechnology within the next decade.[1] The growing number of nanomaterials and – technology related articles in both the public sector and in the scientific literature exemplifies the expanding interest in the field and the need for a mature perspective amongst young scientist, engineers and the general public. Exposure of students at all levels in Science and Engineering as well as non-Science and non-Engineering majors is needed to prepare the US for interdisciplinary nature of nanotechnology.

A team of 13 professors from Chemistry, Physics, Biomedical, Chemical, Electrical, and Mechanical Engineering have created a coherent modular nanomaterials course and laboratory that reflect the interdisciplinary nature of nanomaterials science. The nanomaterials course has been taught twice and the laboratory once. The nanomaterials course and laboratory are offered through the chemical engineering department and have been able to draw students from different disciplines. The nanomaterials course content has been implemented in such a way that the modules can be used as lecture material in courses from each of the participating disciplines. Additionally, we have assembled a speaker forum of industrial partners to provide the outside experience part of the course. The laboratory consists of 5 experimental modules which are housed in the laboratories of the participating departments.

We will present an overview of the nanomaterials course and laboratory structure. We will describe the course development strategy the group has applied as well as present evaluation data for both the course and the laboratory. [1] Roco, M. C. "Converging Science and Technology at the Nanoscale: Opportunities for Education and Training" Nature Biotech. 2003, 21, 1247-1249.