Midwest Regional Center for Nanotechnology Education (Nano-Link)

This project establishes the Midwest Regional Center for Nanotechnology Education (NANO-LINK), building upon the success of Dakota County Technical College's ATE MnNANO project in partnership with the University of Minnesota. That project developed a pioneering multidisciplinary AAS degree program designed to prepare graduates for markets where the broader field of nanoscience is emerging.

NANO-LINK is designed to provide resources and support to colleges along the Midwest corridor from North Dakota to Michigan as they develop similar programs to grow a skilled nanoscience technician workforce that will foster economic growth in nanoscale science and technology in the region. Six two-year colleges in North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan have partnered to develop NANO-LINK along with two research universities in the region--the University of Minnesota and Northwestern University.

NANO-LINK focuses on seven key goals: establish a Midwest Regional Industry Advisory Board; develop multidisciplinary nanoscience programs; partner with the University of Minnesota to provide remote access delivery for nanoscience experiences in pre-capstone and capstone courses; partner with the NSF National Center for Learning and Teaching Technology in Nanoscale Science and Engineering (NCLT) at Northwestern University to provide professional development for secondary educators and college faculty; establish a clearinghouse infrastructure for undergraduate instructional materials; develop outreach activities to enhance recruitment of students into nanoscience programs, with an emphasis on underrepresented students; and provide venues for dissemination including an annual nanoscience conference for faculty, students, alumni, and industry.

The Intellectual Merit of this project is based on the wide availability of a multidisciplinary nanoscience technician education curriculum in an emerging field of science and engineering, which greatly impacts our nation's competitiveness and future job growth in many industries, such as biotechnology, medical devices, agriculture, materials, and electronics. It is also building coordinated partnerships among regional educational institutions and industries that enable them to offer quality nanoscience educational programs as well as training for incumbent workers

The Broader Impact of this project is that it supports coordinated adaptation of a multidisciplinary Nanoscience Technology program for technician education at community and technical colleges throughout the region. It is partnering with NCLT to provide professional development opportunities for educators and preparing them to infuse modules into nanoscience and STEM curricula. It is partnering with the University of Minnesota to deliver a high level capstone experience as well as unique remote access educational experiences with a focus on instrumentation in capstone and pre-capstone courses. The clearinghouse offers best practice nanoscience lecture and laboratory curricula materials for use by faculty teaching courses in undergraduate programs. Materials and activities are being developed to enhance the recruitment of students into the nanoscience programs. The benefit to society is that high quality educational programs prepare nanoscience technicians to meet the emerging needs of industry.