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Georgia Tech Education Activities Summary
Georgia Institute of Technology’s NNIN site is located within the Microelectronics Research Center (MiRC) and houses the coordinating office for NNIN Education and Outreach. In addition to coordinating all of the NNIN sites and working with other national nanotechnology education initiatives, the Georgia Tech site is actively involved in local programs.
GIFT/RET Program - The Georgia Intern-fellowships for Teachers program located at Georgia Tech has placed two RET participants at MiRC during summers 2004 and 2005. These teachers are actively engaged in research in our clean room and laboratories while working seven weeks with a faculty member associated with MiRC. Summer 2005 participants worked in the cleanroom and established growth and characterization methods for plasma enhanced chemical deposition. The teachers developed an implementation plan on how they will incorporate their experiences into their classrooms. In summer 2006, we expect to host 4-5 teachers from the metro Atlanta area. Check our web site for details.
REU Program – MiRC hosted six REU participants from the NNIN REU program during summer 2005. Our students are from colleges and universities throughout the southeast: Johns Hopkins, Clemson University, University of Virginia, Rice University, University of Florida, and Vanderbilt University. These students conducted research in our facilities in this 10-week summer mentored research program. In addition to the network activities, the REU students attend events sponsored by other summer programs on campus such as SURE (Summer Undergraduate Research Home Institutions. Our participants are highly satisfied with the experiences they obtain at our NNIN facility:
"I couldn't have asked for a better internship experience. I feel so fortunate about all aspects of the experience….. In turn, these things really made it easy for the six interns to develop camaraderie. When I was saying bye to the other interns, we all felt that the NNIN REU program was really a good program, but having Georgia Tech as the host site was what made it special."
Ian Yang Georgia Tech REU 2005
We expect to host 4-6 students during summer 2006.
Nano@Tech - Our site hosts an organization of graduate students, undergraduates, faculty, and staff from a variety of nanotechnology research laboratories and programs across the Georgia Tech and Emory campuses. There are over 100 members of this organization. The purpose of Nano@Tech is to encourage interactions among the various disciplines represented by the members, share ideas, and serve as a communication and support network. Seminars and networking sessions are held monthly and the schedule of meetings can be accessed at our web site. Nano@Tech participants formed a subgroup called NanoPartners. These volunteers are actively engaged in our outreach activities and have served as mentor/guides to K-12 visitors and are developing a speaker’s bureau for school and civic group presentations.
NanoCamp - Each summer the MiRC hosts a week long summer camp for high school students interested in nanotechnology (non-residential). The 2006 camp will be held the week of June 26 and is titled Advanced Topics Course: Nanotechnology Explorations. The program is a combination of hands-on activities, laboratory tours, and lectures. Information on the camp is at: http://www.ceismc.gatech.edu/summercamps/ or at our web site.
School Visits – MiRC has hosted several school groups who have participated in hands-on activities and tours of the facilities. In March 2005, we hosted a visit of 350 eighth grade students from Austin Road Middle School over a two day period. Seventy volunteers from 15 research laboratories assisted these students in learning about nanotechnology through hands-on activities, demonstrations, and laboratory visits. In addition, students learned about education and career opportunities in nanoscale science. In February, students from Brown’s Mill Elementary visited MiRC and had fun with the Big Ideas about Little Things kit developed by our colleagues at the University of Texas.
Cleanroom Training – MiRC has several training options for use of the cleanroom facility. Several training videos have been developed which can be accessed through the MiRC Cleanroom website: http://grover.mirc.gatech.edu/. The “bunny-suit” video and clean room WebCam are used in activities with visiting school groups. Also check out our webcam to see live images of researchers in our cleanroom.
K-12 Resources and Training – MiRC is currently developing models for summer nanocamps for middle and high school students. These will be placed on the NNIN Education Portal. Please check our website for additional information. (http://grover.mirc.gatech.edu/)