NUE: Introduction to Nano-Engineering: A Web-based Approach to Expand Nanotechnology Horizons

University Of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell MA

Investigators

Abstract

This Nanotechnology in Undergraduate Education (NUE) award to the University of Massachusetts -Lowell supports Drs. Carol Barry,of the Department of Plastics Engineering, Alkim Akyurlu of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Jacqueline Moloney and Steven Tello of the College of Continuing Studies and Corporate Education for their work to develop interactive lectures and virtual experiments with the same level of effectiveness as traditional laboratory-based courses. The online course will be part of the University's offerings for the "general education" core. Such laboratory courses are critical to the expansion of the knowledge base in nanotechnology, particularly nano-engineering. The strength and diversity of three engineering faculty with research interests in nanotechnology and two administrators having extensive experience in online education is combined to create the course materials, assess the effectiveness of a virtual laboratory compared to a similar hands-on engineering laboratory, develop techniques for group projects in an online course, which will facilitate a shared-learning experience, and evaluate the effectiveness of group project techniques as an educational tool. While the online course will be part of the undergraduate curriculum, course modules will be used in undergraduate classroom education, extended to K-12 classrooms, offered in the University's industrial seminar program, and made available to other interested parties. The proposal for this award was received in response to the Nanoscale Science and Engineering Education announcement, NSF 03-044, category NUE and was jointly funded by the Division of Design, Manufacture and Industrial Engineering (DMII) and the Division of Engineering Education and Centers (EEC) in the Directorate for Engineering (ENG).