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Small Wonders: Exploring the Vast Potential of Nanoscience
A National Science Foundation Symposium
Exhibitors
Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern,
PA
For the Mid-Atlantic Region, the Nanotechnology Institute
represents a comprehensive model for nanotech-based
regional development in the pharmaceutical, life sciences
and materials industries. Its organizing partners,
Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania,
Drexel University and the University of Pennsylvania,
will highlight the Institute's unique components and
its progress-to-date.
California Molecular Electronics Corporation
(CALMEC)
CALMEC formed in 1997 for the purpose of commercializing
nanotechnologies, provides research and development
services and technology licensing in the field of
molecular electronics. The Company owns patent and
trade secret rights to numerous enabling nanotechnologies
including the ChiropticeneTM switch, the
first practical molecular switch with applications
in computation, data storage, telecommunications,
and imaging. The CALMEC exhibit will showcase the
future economic and scientific impacts of its ChiropticeneTM
switching technology. This single-molecule switch,
the development of which was funded in part through
a National Science Foundation SBIR Phase I grant,
has many diverse commercial applications including
those of a nano-scaled molecular memory device and
a fiber optic switching matrix.
The City College of New York; IGERT: Nanostructural
Materials and Devices
This IGERT project couples research activities at
three colleges of The City University of New York
(CUNY) with those of collaborators at Columbia University
and the University of Rochester in several unique
focus areas of nanotechnology. The participating colleges
from CUNY are the City College, Hunter College and
The College of Staten Island. An important goal for
this project is to enhance the research activities
and pedagogy for participant graduate students, the
majority from underrepresented groups, with the anticipated
outcome of attracting more students into the nanotechnology
field and retaining them to completion of their Ph.D.
degrees. The overall mission is to educate and train
students in an interdisciplinary environment whereby
a graduate student may participate in all the facets
of a research project: synthesis, materials fabrication,
characterization, etc. Students are not just sources
of samples or instrument technicians. A slogan that
we believe captures the style of our collaborative
involvement of students is "We send students, not
just samples!"
Cornell University: National Nanofabrication
Users Network (NNUN)
The National Nanofabrication Users Network (NNUN)
is a group of five advanced fabrication facilities
working together to provide access for users to sophisticated
nanofabrication technologies. Its laboratories are
located at Cornell University, Stanford University,
Howard University, Penn State University and the University
of California-Santa Barbara. Funded by the National
Science Foundation (NSF), NNUN is in its ninth year
of operation and with over 1,700 users each year.
The exhibit describes NNUN facilities, equipment and
technology as well as show some of the online training
and project support facilities available.
Digital Instruments, Veeco Metrology Group:
"NanoMan"
Digital Instruments, Veeco Metrology Group will be
demonstrating the "NanoMan," Nanomanipulation and
Nanolithography System which provides the capability
to move and manipulate nano-scale objects, such as
carbon nanotubes and nanoparticles, and to introduce
patterns on surfaces with nanometer dimensions.
National Nanotechnology Initiative (NSF)
The National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) (http://nano.gov)
is a visionary program that emphasizes long-term,
fundamental research aimed at discovering novel phenomena
and processes, advancing R&D Grand Challenges,
supporting new interdisciplinary centers and networks
of excellence including shared user facilities, funding
research and education infrastructure, and addressing
the societal implications of advances in nanoscience
and nanotechnology. The FY 2003 President's budget
request of about $710 million for federal investment
in nanoscale science, engineering and technology is
a 17% increase over FY 2002. The FY 2002 nanoscale
R&D budget appropriated by Congress is approximately
$604 million. Three new R&D areas of focus are
planned in all federal departments and agencies: manufacturing
processes at the nanoscale, use of nanotechnology
for chemical-biological-radioactive-explosive detection
and protection, and development of instrumentation
and metrology at the nanoscale.
Northwestern University: Making Useful Nano-Objects
with Designed Molecules
This exhibit describes the three major projects being
developed in the Stupp laboratory using self-assembly
to create useful nano-objects. The first project utilizes
a small triblock polymer to self-assemble into a mushroom
shaped nano-object. These "mushrooms" have unique
properties, which are a consequence of their designed
shape and chemistry and may have utility in the coating
of various materials to prevent adhesion of unwanted
molecules such as ice on airplane wings or blood clotting
in blood vessels. The second project uses a different
triblock polymer, which self-assembles into ribbon
like nano-objects. These ribbons could be used for
applications as diverse as additives to common polymers
to enhance their material properties to templates
for the formation of nano-wires and semi-conductors.
The third project uses the self-assembly of a peptide
based molecule to make a bioactive nanofiber. These
fibers can be tailored to display specific chemistry
that may be useful in bone repair, drug delivery and
nerve regeneration.
University of Texas at Austin; NSF GOALI
Project: Manufacture and Application of Nanoparticles
The exhibit briefly describes and illustrates nanoparticle
technology, the GOALI activities with partner company
DuPont, and the students and personnel involved in
this project.
University of Wisconsin-Madison/MRSEC: "Hands-On"
Nanoscience for Everyone
Gigabyte computer disk drives, "smart" materials that
remember their shape, and light-emitting diodes (LEDs)
used in lighting and display applications are important
technologies that make daily contributions to our
lives. Nanotechnology has played a key role in the
development of all of these devices, which are based
on atomically engineered materials. The demonstrations
in this exhibit provide a glimpse into the "nanoworld",
the science and engineering of materials at the scale
of the atom, by explaining how nanotechnologists can
image atoms, assemble atoms, and customize the properties
of materials from the "bottom up".
NSF NANOSCALE SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING CENTERS (NSECS):
Columbia University Center for Electron
Transport in Molecular Nanostructures
The exhibit describes nanotechnology programs at Columbia
University with an emphasis on the new Columbia Nanotechnology
Center, including goals and directions of the Nanocenter
and the general approach that the Columbia Nanocenter
is taking.
Cornell University: Center for Nanoscale
Systems in Information Technologies
This Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center, based
at Cornell University, also includes participants
at Colgate University, the University of New Mexico,
Brigham Young University and Pomona College and strong
collaborations with industrial partners, including
Corning, Inc., IBM, Motorola, NonVolatile Electronics.
The exhibit describes the four major research thrusts
of this new Center, which have the objective of substantially
advancing the development of nanoscale electronic,
photonic, and magnetic devices and systems that collectively,
have the prospects of revolutionizing future high-performance
electronics, information storage, communications,
and sensor technologies. The exhibit also describes
how this Center seeks to attract and educate substantial
numbers of a diverse population of students, at all
levels, in both introductory and advanced topics in
nanoscale science and engineering, while also reaching
out to assist and support K-12 institutions in their
science education programs.
Harvard University: Science of Nanoscale
Systems & Their Device Applications
This Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center is a
collaboration among Harvard University, the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, the University of California
at Santa Barbara and the Museum of Science in Boston
with participation by Delft University of Technology
(Netherlands), the University of Tokyo (Japan), and
Brookhaven National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National
Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratory. The exhibit
describes how this new Center combines "top down"
and "bottom up" approaches to construct novel electronic
and magnetic devices with nanoscale sizes and understand
their behavior, including quantum phenomena. Through
a close integration of research, education, and public
outreach, the Center encourages and promotes the training
of a diverse group of people to be leaders in this
new interdisciplinary field.
Northwestern University: NSEC for Integrated
Nanopatterning and Detection Technologies
What if...You could detect thousands of diseases
with something as small as the tip of a hypodermic
needle?
What if...The buildings you lived and worked
in were equipped with sensors that could detect minute
quantities of all biological and chemical hazards
and provide appropriate safety measures?
What if...There was a reliable, inexpensive,
and portable way to ensure that the world's drinking
water and food supplies were free from contamination?
This exhibit describes how this new Center and its
pioneering advances in nanoscale science and technology
in the area of chemical and biological sensors could
make these dreams a reality. The synergistic team
behind this effort includes Northwestern University,
the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the
University of Chicago, Harold Washington College,
the Museum of Science and Industry of Chicago, Argonne
National Laboratory, and many industrial partners.
Through the integration of state-of-the art research
and innovative educational outreach programs the Center
seeks to foster a lifelong interest in science and
technology by teaching people of all ages about the
nano-world, and to advance the progress of science,
engineering, and related education in the realm of
nanoscience and nanotechnology.
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
National Science Foundation Center for Directed Assembly
of Nanostructures at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
was created to discover ways to assemble "nanoparticles,"
with their amazing new properties, so that the promise
of such profound advances are completely realized.
Through the process of "directed" assembly, structures
will be designed and experimentally created into the
revolutionary materials of nanotechnology that will
change the world.
Rice University: Center for Biological and
Environmental Nanotechnology (CBEN)
This exhibit provides an overview of the Rice University
Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center (CBEN). Working
toward transforming nanotechnology from a laboratory
curiosity into a real-world tool, this center is focusing
on the "wet/dry" interface between complex aqueous
systems and nanomaterials. Research thrust areas include
medical therapeutics/diagnostics and environmental
engineering. Novel programs involving entrepreneurship
education, high-school teacher training, and nanomanufacturing
are also described.
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