Nanoengineering

Nanoengineering is the practice of engineering on the nanoscale. It derives its name from the nanometre, a unit of measurement equalling one billionth of a meter.

Nanoengineering is largely a synonym for nanotechnology, but emphasizes the engineering rather than the pure science aspects of the field.

Degree programs

The first nanoengineering program was started at the University of Toronto within the Engineering Science program as one of the options of study in the final years. In 2003, the Lund Institute of Technology started a program in Nanoengineering. In 2004, the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering at SUNY Polytechnic Institute was established on the campus of the University at Albany. In 2005, the University of Waterloo established a unique program which offers a full degree in Nanotechnology Engineering. [1] Louisiana Tech University started the first program in the U.S. in 2005. In 2006 the University of Duisburg-Essen started a Bachelor and a Master program NanoEngineering. [2] Unlike early NanoEngineering programs, the first Nanoengineering Department in the world, offering both undergraduate and graduate degrees, was established by the University of California, San Diego in 2007. In 2009, the University of Toronto began offering all Options of study in Engineering Science as degrees, bringing the second nanoengineering degree to Canada. Rice University established in 2016 a Department of Materials Science and NanoEngineering (MSNE). DTU Nanotech - the Department of Micro- and Nanotechnology - is a department at the Technical University of Denmark established in 1990.

In 2013, Wayne State University began offering a Nanoengineering Undergraduate Certificate Program, which is funded by a Nanoengineering Undergraduate Education (NUE) grant from the National Science Foundation. The primary goal is to offer specialized undergraduate training in nanotechnology. Other goals are: 1) to teach emerging technologies at the undergraduate level, 2) to train a new adaptive workforce, and 3) to retrain working engineers and professionals.[3]

Techniques

  • Scanning tunneling microscope (STM) - Can be used to both image, and to manipulate structures as small as a single atom.
  • Molecular self-assembly - Arbitrary sequences of DNA can now be synthesized cheaply in bulk, and used to create custom proteins or regular patterns of amino acids. Similarly, DNA strands can bind to other DNA strands, allowing simple structures to be created.

References

  1. ↑ "Welcome to Nanotechnology Engineering at UW". Department of Nanotechnology Engineering. Retrieved 2008-10-07.
  2. ↑ "NanoEngineering at University of Duisburg-Essen".
  3. ↑ "Wayne State University Nanoengineering Certificate Program".

See also

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