Nano-Style

First-year students get hands-on simulated
nanotech experience at Ohio State

Entering a domain ordinarily reserved for graduate or doctoral students, College of Engineering freshmen are getting a look at the transforming new study of nanotechnology — science at the tiny atomic, molecular or macromolecular levels.

In their First-Year Engineering Program, students fabricate a lab-on-a-chip, on which they perform an experiment within grooves about twice the width of a human hair on a miniature device. During the class, they discover a wider view of different concepts in engineering: chemistry, electronics, mechanical design, fluid mechanics and photobiology. They also develop communication, team-building and project management skills.

“Nanotechnology is an area currently generating a lot of interest in research and has the potential of opening up the marketplace,” said David Tomasko, associate professor of chemical engineering, who developed the class as part of a National Science Foundation grant. “One of the things we owe to students is to make them employable.”

Nanotechnology is gaining attention from government, industry and researchers as the science explores the possibilities, for example, of detecting molecules of chemical warfare agents, creating a new generation of computer components or making medical strides on the molecular level.

The lab, part of a class called Fundamentals of Engineering, ties together not only a design-build project but lessons in how research is leading to new products in this lab-on-a-chip field. “It’s taking cutting edge research out of the graduate laboratory,” Tomasko said, “and putting it in front of freshman engineers to demonstrate the potential for high-tech jobs in the future.” — Joan Slattery Wall, Associate Editor, Engineering Communications

Related links:

College of Engineering

College of Chemical and and Biomolecular Engineering

Professor David Tomasko's page

First-Year Engineering Program

Fundamentals of Engineering for Honors