This document describes nano-technology programs and research being pursued at California State University, Long Beach in an interdisciplinary manner. It outlines the development of two new lower division courses on nano-technology for undergraduate students, as well as web-based resources for distance learning. Current research efforts at CSULB in nano-technology are also supported by partnerships with aerospace and technology companies that provide funding and equipment. The goal of the programs is to educate students across disciplines on nano-scale science and engineering and train them to work in multi-disciplinary teams.

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San Juan, PR July 23 – 28, 2006
9th
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Nano-Technology As a Catalyst for Multidisciplinary
Engineering and Science
Tulin Mangir, Ph.D.
Electrical Engineering Department
CSULB, Long beach, CA 90840-8303 temangir@csulb.edu
Abstract- In this paper we describe the nano-science and
engineering programs and research we are pursuing in an
interdisciplinary/multidisciplinary manner.
Nanotechnology requires collaboration and knowledge of
many different broad based science and technology
professionals. Our goals as (engineering) educators are
developing and exposing tomorrow’s workforce to the
many facets of nano scale science, engineering and societal
implications, and train them to be productive in various
cycles of the commercialization and product development.
We have developed both innovative project based
curriculum and research programs. We also integrated
outreach activities through our lecture series and
workshops. We are also taking advantage of the web and
virtual laboratory concepts and web based access to
instrumentation to enlarge our geographical reach.
For our campus, the programs and research has brought
multidisciplinary faculty together. We expect this effort to
be enlarged to include other disciplines as chemistry,
business, and philosophy (and ethics) in the following
stages.
Index Terms – Engineering education, Multidisciplinary
courses, Nano-science, Nano-engineering,
INTRODUCTION:
Nano-technology is concerned with materials and systems
whose structures and components exhibit novel and
significantly improved physical, chemical, and biological
properties, phenomena, and processes due to their nano-scale
size [1-5]. The aim is to exploit these properties by gaining
control of structures and devices at atomic, molecular, and
supra-molecular levels and to learn to efficiently manufacture
and use these devices. Maintaining the stability of interfaces,
and the integration of these “nano-structures” at the micron-
length scale and macroscopic scale is another important
component of nano-science.
In recent years there has been a rapid increase in the pace and
breadth of research in the area of nano-technology in the hope
that that this academic investment will lead to dramatic
changes in the ways that nano-materials, devices, and systems
are understood and created [3,15-19]. Much of this research
has been fueled by the promise that advances in knowledge in
the areas of nano-science and nano-technology will likely have
major beneficial implications for the health, wealth and peace
of society in the future decades. However, there are also
concerns about nano-science and nano-technology: that the
demands for new technological products may be outpacing the
slower and more deliberate science that creates the technology;
that the existing silicon semiconductor industries may not be
capable of embracing this new technology; or that this
technology may be inappropriately utilized for terrorism in a
way that could irreparably damage society. All these concerns
and the nature of nano-technology has made it imperative that
disciplines from basic sciences (math, biology, physics,
chemistry), computational sciences-for modeling the behaviour
at the nano scale - ethics, legal, business, be involved in
understanding and developing this incredible potential and its
responsible applications along side with engineers of all
backgrounds. Increasingly, we need to work in
multidisciplinary teams to make sense of our world and to
benefit from the properties of materials and forces, especially
in the nano-realm. We have sketched the traditional sequence
for multidisciplinary application and product development in
Figure 1. Engineering in the nano realm requires us to be more
involved in all aspects of this cycle/sequence where we must
interact with multiple disciplines to design develop and
understand many areas, including tool development (AFM,
STM, atomic probes, processing facilities, etc ) as well as then
using these tools for further understanding of the properties of
materials.
CURRENT PROJECTS AND STATUS AT OUR
INSTITUTION:
Our current projects and programs in nanotechnology area are
being sponsored by both NSF Nanotechnology Undergraduate
Education (NUE) and more recently by ARO- Electronics
Division.
a) Goals and Objectives
Despite the obvious need for providing a local workforce
educated in the area of nanotechnology, there has been little
emphasis placed on developing lower division classes at
CSULB in this emerging technology. Indeed, there were no
course offerings on nanotechnology at CSULB specifically
designed for lower division classes. In this project, faculty
from three different departments physics, biology, electrical
engineering, worked to pro-actively expand and develop
curricula for both, undergraduate major and non-major

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students, and also develop a teacher training component to
increase general awareness and promote career options to fill
the vacant capacity in this rapidly growing discipline. The
latter being accomplished by developing and providing
internships for hands-on experience for both major and non-
major undergraduate students by involving them in various
ongoing and new projects in the Long Beach and Los
Angeles metropolitan areas.
More specifically, this project aimed to accomplish the
following goals:
i) The development of an interdisciplinary survey course on
nano-technology co-taught by faculty from Engineering,
Physics and Biology designed for engineering and science
majors in their sophomore and/junior year. A top level outline
is attached in the Appendix.
ii) The development of a junior/senior course with a
combination of lecture and laboratory that provides students
with an in-depth understanding of the techniques and
technology used in nano-scale science and engineering.
iii) The generation of web-based resources and interaction
modules designed for distance learning, and also aimed for
science and engineering teacher preparation classes.
iv) The development of summer workshop to disseminate the
information of courses developed, web-based resources and
interaction modules to campus, CSU, and grades 7-16 teacher
communities.
Funding for this project allows curricular, institutional and
teacher development.
These courses, together with the internships, will provide
undergraduate students from all backgrounds a graded
sequence of experiences of increasing sophistication, from the
survey to the hands-on learning of state-of-the art instruments,
their use and the possibilities for future advancements this
technology provides. Throughout this project are reviewing
and integrating lessons learned from other projects [7-14].
2. Results of Current Projects:
i) Courses developed
Although a number of individual faculty at CSULB are
conducting research in the areas of nanosensors, nano-robotics,
biotechnology, nano-technology and devices, micro- and nano-
electromechanical systems (MEMS and NEMS), these are the
only lower division courses specifically on nano-science &
technology designed for undergraduates at this present time.
Currently there are two upper division classes being offered at
CSULB that include materials dealing with nanotechnology;
namely EE 436/536 Micro and Nano-technology and
Fabrication offered by the Electrical Engineering Department,
College of Engineering
(COE) and PHYS 445/545 Fundamentals and Techniques of
Materials Physics offered by the
Physics Department of College of Natural Sciences and
Mathematics (CNSM).
Below, we briefly describe the development of two lower
division courses and a web based resource database on nano-
scale science and engineering. The courses are developed in a
modular fashion so as to allow their integration to appropriate
existing introductory courses as appropriate and desired. This
is of great importance, as nano-science and technology cuts
across a number of disciplines. The two new courses
developed are multi-disciplinary in nature and are co-taught by
faculty from the COE and CNSM. More details concerning the
need for the development of each course and the development
of the web-based resource for distance learning are given
below:
1) An Introduction to the Fundamentals of Nano-
technology : A Tour In Nano-Land
This course being a multi-disciplinary overview course
designed for engineering and science majors in their
sophomore/junior year. The course being taught by a team of
faculty from engineering, physics, and biology, thus providing
a uniquely interdisciplinary program. Each faculty brings their
own expertise to the course to provide students with a broad
overview of the key areas, applications and emerging
importance of nano-scale science and engineering in today’s
society. Although this class does not include a laboratory
component, a number of interactive, real-time demonstrations
on the use of X-Ray Microscopes, Environmental Scanning
Electron Microscope (ESEM), AFM (Atomic Force
Microscopy) and STM (Scanning Tunneling Microscopy) in
nano-technology being incorporated using PCI Quartz.
Technology (see below in (iii); web-based laboratory
exercises). We also include an introduction to the NNUN
(National Nano Users. Access Network), so students can
understand the extent of possibilities for their own projects in
future classes. The primary aims of this offering is to provide
students with an introduction of how new developments in this
area of nano-scale science are changing everyday life, in the
hope that increased awareness in this rapidly expanding field
will promote lower division students to take an interest in
science and engineering early in their college careers, and to
motivate them to take technical elective courses.
2) Principles and Applications of Nano-Science &
Technology
This course being designed for juniors/seniors in Science and
Engineering and will include a combination of lecture and
laboratory exercises, which can provide an in-depth
understanding of techniques used in nano-scale science and
engineering. This course is also team-taught and in addition to
the laboratory exercises, includes field trips to facilities in
the local industry and facilities. The laboratory exercises
associated with this class being developed around NNUN and
capital equipment that are already present in the College of
Natural Sciences; namely an Atomic force Microscope (AFM),
a JEOL 1200EXII Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM),
a FEI Quanta Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope
(ESEM) and a Nanoscope III Multimode Scanning Probe
Microscope (SPM) from Veeco (previously Digital
Instruments). The acquisition of the TEM and ESEM was
made possible by NSF MRI grants together with matching

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institutional funds. Upper division classes for undergraduates
are currently being offered, that train students in the utilization
of these instruments for investigatory research]. However,
these classes have been developed independently and, while
each instrument has applications in nano-scale science &
technology, the classes have evolved somewhat divergently
such that in their current configuration there is little or no
discussion as their obvious overlap as investigatory tools for
nano-science. By allowing us to: (i) modify some of the
existing laboratory exercises in the Atomic Force Microscope,
AFM, using, X-Ray Microscope form Raytheon, web based
virtual laboratory access, and TEM and SEM classes; and (ii)
add new lecture and laboratory components, this project will
allow us to develop a new nano-technology class centered on
an integrated series of exercises involving the hands-on use of
these instruments in nano-science & engineering. TEM and
ESEM exercises precede the AFM and X-Ray exercises to
allow the students to orientate themselves spatially by
providing important contextual overlap between the resolution
ranges offered by these technologies.
By the latter part of the course, each student being expected to
be sufficiently familiar, facile and proficient with the various
techniques and technologies to allow him/her to individually
conduct and complete a research project that utilizes the
virtues of the various instruments and understand the resources
of NNUN, to study some aspect of nano-science and
technology. This research project constitutes one of the major
assignments of the class. This elective course will therefore
lead to subsequent undergraduate (and graduate) student
research opportunities, since these experimental techniques,
instruments, and facilities are used by faculty with active
research programs in this area.
3) Interactive Web-based resources and modules for
distance learning of nano-technology.
A major problem currently confronting not just CSULB but
other California Universities is how to provide quality
education on a shrinking state budget in the face of increasing
enrollment. One solution has been to make better use of
Internet resources and to promote distance learning. This type
of “virtual classroom” lends itself to conventional lecture style
classes but is harder to apply to laboratory based courses that
require hands-on experience. While the solution to this
problem is not easily addressed, one approach has been to
provide “simulated” hands-on access by using a software
interface that allows for remote but real-time, interactive
contact between the student and the instrument or its operator.
Initiatives involving student learning through remote access
modules and instruments that are currently in place the COE
and CNSM are listed below: The COE has web-based access
modules and interactive environments we have used. [18-21]
to teach Virtual Laboratory sessions for sub-micron
semiconductor processing and packaging concepts using
virtual facilities and experiments. Currently, the COE has
remote control and access modules using Lab View to control
instruments and robotics from a distance, which is built and
modified by students, for various competitions. These
networking and robotics laboratories, were partially funded by
NSF, also enable students to experiment with projects for
remote applications, such as in telemedicine or tele-robotics,
and tele-control projects where information is transferred
and/or analyzed across the net at a remote location.
Through the NSF funding, both ESEM and AFM are
networked into the PCI quartz system, which provides remote
access to the instruments.. Instructions can be given to the
operator via two-way audio transmission via the network to
manipulate the specimen to the desired aspect for analysis. The
live video resolution and refresh rates are remarkable and
provide up to 640x480x24 bits at up to 30 frames per second.
Data, in the form of AFT, STM, secondary, backscatter, and
cathode illuminescence images or associated energy or
wavelength dispersive X-ray spectra can be collected, stored
on the server and retrieved by the user remotely. Once
retrieved, the images can be dynamically resized and
reformatted and can be extracted at full resolution for
publication and presentation purposes. PCI quartz. therefore
resolves the major limitation that has historically plagued
TEM, SEM and AFM; that of limited access and information
distribution.
By including faculty from different disciplines and colleges we
intend to maximize the impact of the project. At this point in
time it is difficult to anticipate the enrollment associated with
the proposed classes. One of the challenges of integrating the
new courses into the existing curricula, and in particular the
survey class., being to provide for program flexibility to ensure
that student enrollment is maximized.
CURRENT RESEARCH AND INITIATIVES IN NANO-
TECHNOLOGY AND INTEGRATION OF RESEARCH
AND TEACHING:
The majority of the current research efforts in nano-technology
at CSULB are being conducted in the COE. Four major
initiatives, supported by major local corporations, have been
recently developed in support of nano-technology research in
the COE.
• The college and Boeing Company jointly support the
Center for Advanced Technology Support for Aerospace
Industries, a research center where faculty and student interns
work with Boeing engineers to develop better tools for
aerospace manufacturing. Boeing has donated $1.15 million in
cash and millions more in equipment and materials to the
university and is interested in developing projects involving
nano-science & technology.
• Cadence Design Systems and the college jointly
support a student intern center on campus where 15 interns
work with Cadence staff to help develop new integrated circuit
(IC) designs. Cadence Design Systems has contributed several
million dollars in hardware, software, scholarships, and
support to the college. Currently, Cadence supports tools down
to 90nm range for nano-fabrication and design/ simulation
projects.

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• Raytheon Corporation and Aerospace Corporation
are working with our faculty to develop a center for nano-
science and technology, and has provided X-Ray Micro-scope
access to our faculty and students.
• As part of a new Consortium being formed, Northrop-
Grumman Corporation is working with our faculty to develop
a wireless sensor and ad-hoc networks facility which will
include nano-sensors and bio-sensors.
The elective course .Principles and Applications of Nano-
technology. is perceived to be an import link between teaching
and research since the proposed curriculum is aimed heavily
towards educating and training students in the principles of
operation, and applications of state-of-the art instruments, and
facilities, both on and off campus. The technical nature of the
class will help integrate student teaching and faculty research
and development in three ways.
First, past experience has shown that, although many faculty
do not have the time to embrace new techniques and
incorporate them into their research, they are more than willing
to enroll their students into an existing class to explore the
possibilities and applications of the technology as it pertains to
their research objectives. By indirectly promoting faculty
awareness and participation in the technology, these classes
will increase the likelihood that the technology being
incorporated into existing projects or used to develop new
areas of research. Second, students completing this class are
trained to participate in under- graduate and graduate research
involving the use of these or similar instruments, techniques
and facilities. Since involving undergraduates in research
normally requires an intense investment in time for training
before they can be effective in a laboratory, it is highly likely
that students trained in the proposed courses being sought after
by prospective faculty mentors in a variety of disciplines.
These trained students will give faculty an opportunity to
broaden their research and to develop collaborations with other
faculties and researchers utilizing these state-of-the art
resources and instruments, further promoting multidisciplinary
work. Finally, the training provided by this class will also lead
to internship opportunities inside and outside the campus,
since these experimental techniques are widely used in
industry to study nano-scale science, materials, and devices.
From a broader perspective, it has been reported that the
graduation rate of science and engineering students is higher in
programs that allow students to participate in an undergraduate
research experience. These types of programs also appear to
attract more students who see that the development of skills as
a necessary prerequisite for employment in the technical
sector. In order to attract, retain and graduate good minority
and under-represented group of students who may not have an
opportunity to pursue a career in science and engineering, we
need to offer more undergraduate research opportunities. By
participating in a research project, students enrolled in the
proposed courses will have an opportunity to observe a live
science in action, to learn the work ethics associated with
scientific experimentation, to acquire practical techniques to be
utilized in professional careers, and to participate in research
presentations. These types of research and hands-on project
based experiences provide students with the necessary
confidence to pursue higher education in science and
engineering.
We offered the first class in fall semester 2005 as a Special
Topics class. We are currently offering the Introductory class
for the first time. We have observed more of a resistance in
incorporating a new course at the lower division level as it is
perceived that it will cut into the current enrolments of the
physics, biology, and chemistry service level courses. That is
why developing the course in modules and ask the faculty to
incorporate these modules in appropriate courses will allow,
we think, expanding the reach of this topics to all majors early
in their education.
Courses developed and offered all included a class project as
part of the course work. Students enrolled in the classes came
from computer science, computer engineering, electrical
engineering, mechanical engineering, physics, biology,
chemical engineering.
Upper Division Course:
This course is structured into three modules:
Module I: SEM and Laboratory Exercises
(Biology Department)
In this module, students learned principles of SEM, how it
works, scientific background, using SEM for a number off
applications, such as identifying composition, observing scale
date etc.
Module II: AFM and Laboratory Exercises
(Physics Department)
In this module, students were exposed to the background and
operating princliples of AFM and how it can be used in the
nano scale projects. Students observed plant samples, and
electronic circuits as part of their laboratory exercises.
Module III: Applications and Projects
(Electrical Engineering Department)
In this module, students were exposed to a boad range of
applications ranging from medical (targeted drug delivery),
bio-medical (prosthetics), biosensors, nano-robots, nano-scale
circuits, water and environmental cleaning to a set of potential
consumer applications-some curretly available! Students then
were asked to pick a project topic in consultation with faculty
members. As part of their project, they were asked to develop
a project proposal, plan and justify why they were proposing
using the tools -they have learned to use in the first two
modules-as part of their project investigations.
This module also included visits to local laboratories and
facilities such as UCLA Nano-fabrication Facility, UCI
Integrated NanoSystems Research Facility, and Aerospace
Corporation Space materials Nanotechnology Research

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Facility. This further exposed the students to the facilities,
research and researchers in our local area. Through the
Internet, students also were able to be informed and
communicate with geographically dispersed institutions such
as Northwestern University, Cornell University, First Nano
Corporation and others. These connections also enabled us to
acquire samples that we could use for our research –both
students and faculty- for building our future engineering and
science As a result of this exposure, many of our students have
chosen to focus in this area for their thesis work and do
internships in local industry and universities in this area,
thereby fulfilling a significant goal of the NSF funding.
Sample Student Projects include
( will be described in the presentation)
• Mapping Elements surrounding Laser cuts in
NdBaCuOJeremy Young - Physics
• Feature Discrimination in AFM Data
Nick Hansen – Mechanical Engineering
• Characterization of Thin Films For Memory
Applications
Juan Chaves – Electrical Engineering
Soheil Yasrebi- Physics
Currently, we are developing and preparing to offer other
new/graduate courses in the areas of interconnects and
future computing architectures, and systems with multiple
sensor interfaces [18,19].
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This Project is supported by funds from NSF-NUE and ARO –
Electronics Division.
We also like to thank UCLA NCSI for providing samples for
student projects.
REFERENCES:
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18 number 5 2002
2. R. P. Feynman, "There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom"
December 29th, 1959
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Challenges in California, California Council on Science and
Technology, April 2003
6. V.Vogel and C.T.Campbell- Education in Nano-technology:
Launching the First Ph.D. Program, Special Issue
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7. R.W.Kelsall- The Masters Training Package in Nanoscale
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8.J.G.Shapter,M.J.Ford,L.M.Maddox, E.R.Waclawik -
Teaching Undergraduates Nanotechnology, Special Issue
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L.Vanasupa- Microelectronics Process Engineering at San Jose
State University: A Manufacturing –oriented Inter-disciplinary
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Volume 18 number 5 2002
10. P.M.Hallacher,D.E.Fenwick and S.J.Fonash- The
Pennsylvania Nanofabrication Manufacturing Technology
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IJEE, Volume 18 number 5 2002
11. Z.Weiss,P.Wyslych,M.Kristkova,D.Havlova and
P.Capkova- Analysis of Nanostructured Materials- a Ph.D.
Course, Special Issue .Nanotechnologies, IJEE, Volume 18
number 5, 2002
12. A.A.Dasgupta,R.A.Matthes,C.G.Takoudis and S.S.Dang-
Web-based Instruction on the Fundamentals and Design of
Micro-and Nanoelectronic Processes. Innovations, challenges
and Benefits, Special Issue .Nanotechnologies, IJEE, Volume
18 number 5 2002
13. S.M.Condren J.G.Breitzer ,A.C.Payne, A.B.Ellis,
C.G.Widstrand, T.F.Kuech and G.C.Lisensky- Student
Centered, Nanotechnology-enriched Introductory College
ChemistrCourses for Engineering Students, Special Issue
.Nanotechnologies, IJEE, Volume 18 number 5 2002
14. T.M.Chang,P.Jaroonsiriphan and X.Sun- Integrating
Nanotechnology into Undergraduate
Experience.A Web-based Approach, Special Issue
.Nanotechnologies, IJEE, Volume 18 number 5 2002
15. R. A. Freitas Jr., Nanomedicine, vol. 1, Landes
Bioscience,1999, at www.nanomedicine.com
16. E. M. Purcell, "Life at Low Reynolds Number", American
Journal of Physics, 45:3-11 (1977)
17. A. G. Requicha, "Nanorobots, NEMS and Nano-
assembly", in Proc. of IEEE special issue on Nano-electronics
and Nano-processing
18. T. Mangir, “SOC Implementation Of Security Using NPU
Platform for Wireless,” SoC, Nov. 2005
19. T. Mangir, “Integrity and Integration Issues for Nano-tube
Based Systems,” Invited, CNAN, June 2006

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Figure 1. A Conceptual Diagram of Multi-disciplinary Nature of Nano- Technology in
Various Stages of the Development Cycle (Due to space limitations, examples of each will
be given in the presentation.)
Figure 2. Approximate Time Scale for Broad Commercialization of Nanotechnology.
Converging technologies (Source : IMEC)
strategic basic
research
engineeringdevelopmentapplied
research
Physics, Biology, Chemistry,
Engineering, Informatics,
Applied Math
Physics, chemistry, biology, materials,
Electrical, mechanical, chemical,
biomedical eng. medicine
Experimental structures,
Concepts, packaging
Products
Safety, ethics,
Legal, business
Science and technology
understanding/discovery/
evaluation
Tool adaptation,
tool development