Interdisciplinary Programs in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology from an ECE perspective

1
Interdisciplinary Programs in Nanoscience and
Nanotechnology (from an ECE perspective)

• Group
• April Brown, Duke Univ.
• Reza Ghodssi, Univ. Maryland
• Randy Haupt, Utah State
• Jay Guo, Univ. Michigan
• Syed Murshid, Florida Tech
• Ali Golbazi, Univ. New Haven
• David Janes, Purdue
• Kevin Malloy, Univ. New Mexico
• Stephen Campbell, Univ. Minnesota
• Wolfgang Porod, Univ. Notre Dame

2
What do we mean by interdisciplinary?

• Multidisciplinary? Transdisciplinary?
• Distinction probably not important
• Physical sciences, mathematics, life sciences,
  computer science, engineering, economics,
  manufacturability (most, if not all, disciplines,
  systems)
• ECE is fundamentally interdisciplinary
• But, there exist large cultural (language)
  differences between various disciplines

3

• Question How do we create/enhance
  interdisciplinary programs/education?
• Can have interdisciplinary programs, e.g.
  specified courses of study (minor)
• And/or
• Integrate nano interdisciplinary
  research/educational experiences into ECE
• Best approach depends upon local environment

4
Recommendations

• ECEDHA- provide resources to departments on best
  practices
• Cast such recommendations (driven by
  nanotechnology) into a broader framework- these
  changes are (1) consistent with what we know
  about needed educational changes (for retention
  and continuing interest in engineering) and (2)
  nurturing emerging fields generally

5
Recommendations (impacting faculty)

• Create incentives for faculty to share equipment
  purchases through enhanced start-up, enhanced
  matching, etc. and to co-locate students/research
  projects (ECEDHA)
• Insure that faculty evaluation committees
  understand how interdisciplinary research is
  carried out and how new approaches to evaluation
  may be required (ECEDHA- approach is to create
  specific information for dissemination- caution,
  not be used with a heavy hand)
• Reward the departments that cooperate and create
  cross-department teaching and curriculum
  development (ECEDHA)
• ECEDHA take a leadership role in defining and
  communicating the integration of nanotechnology
  into ECE programs. Chairs and deans can then
  promote the importance and value of
  nanotechnology and its integration into ECE.
  Specifically, ECEDHA is charged with defining a
  committee to carry this out.

6
Recommendations (Graduate Education)

• Many funding programs and initiatives support
  interdisciplinary graduate education and
  research MURI, IGERT, NSE, etc. ECEDHA can
  provide information on program successes to
  departments (database)
• Modify and/or coordinate degree programs and exam
  sequences to enable movement between disciplines
  from undergraduate to graduate programs
  (interdisciplinary science/eng degree)
• Create incentives and resource allocations to
  make center/dept. participation win-win (e.g.
  sharing overhead recovery, etc.)
• Create new experiences for entering graduate
  students (will require dept. support) lab
  rotation sequences for first year graduate
  students, create orientation courses for
  students. Create opportunities for students to
  have significant research experiences outside
  their primary disciplinary area
• Create service courses across dept. boundaries
  (incentives)

7
Recommendations (for undergraduate education)

• Create new freshman courses/techniques to merge
  sciences and engineering in order to improve
  preparation and interest in the field. ECEDHA can
  provide information on current successful
  approaches and courses
• Strengthen preparation in the sciences
• Enhance curriculum flexibility
• Create new sequences/tracks that relate directly
  or indirectly to nanotechnology