Osama O. Awadelkarim - US grants

This Nanotechnology Undergraduate Education (NUE) program entitled, "Creating Baccalaureate Level Nanotechnology Minors with Pathways From Existing Associate Degree Programs in Nanofabrication," at Pennsylvania State University, under the direction of Dr. Stephen J. Fonash, is jointly funded by the Directorate for Engineering (ENG), Division of Electrical and Communications Systems (ECS) and Division of Engineering Education and Centers (EEC) and the Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR), Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE). The project will build upon the Pennsylvania Nanofabrication Manufacturing Technology (NMT) Partnership initiated in 1998 by the state of Pennsylvania. The objective of this program is create baccalaureate degree pathways for students holding community college associate degrees in nanofabrication and to give PSU undergraduate students the opportunity to fashion nanotechnology minors or concentrations in their last two years. An integrated effort is proposed to develop laboratory-intensive, upper division undergraduate courses to support options, minors, or concentrations in nanotechnology within existing baccalaureate degree programs at PSU and other baccalaureate degree granting institutions participating in the NMT Partnership. This effort will be achieved by engaging faculty members and administrators within PSU and other institutions in a process for joint development of upper division NUE courses; jointly design upper level undergraduate nanotechnolgoy courses with significant hands-on laboratory components to be offered within PSU and by other participating institutions; and create a "two-plus-three" bacalaureate degree program through which qualified gradutes of community college associated degree programs in nanofabrication can complete a Penn State B.S. in engineering with a minor in nanotechnology in three years.

The National ATE Center for Nanotechnology Applications and Career Knowledge (NACK) is creating the "NACK Network", a designation that reflects the philosophy, structure, and operation to be developed across the U.S. The objectives are enhanced national coordination and dissemination of micro-nanofabrication workforce educational resources, programs, and activities, and enhanced growth of the US nanotechnology workforce. The methods to be employed include pressing forward the NACK approaches of (1) resource sharing among community colleges as well as among community colleges and research universities; (2) providing course materials that deliver a core set of industry-recommended nanotechnology skills; (3) stressing broad student preparation for careers in any industry utilizing micro- or nanotechnology; and (4) developing economically viable, quality nanotechnology education across the U.S. NACK Network methods also include further expansion of its alliance of community college/university and community college/community college resource-sharing hubs, including the addition of virtual hubs.

To support this network and all U.S. community college nanotechnology education efforts, the Network offers up-dated and free-of-charge core skills course lecture and lab materials, recruiting materials, retention and completion approaches, web-accessible equipment capability, and faculty development workshop curricula at its web site www.nano4me.org. In addition the NACK Network is developing and disseminating an assessment rubric for its core skill course lecture and lab materials, and continues to work with industry to have its core skills institutionalized into industry standards. The NACK Network continues to offer its well-received faculty development workshops and is further expanding its dissemination methodologies at www.nano4me.org with enhanced functionality and the further enhancement of social networking tools. Recruitment, retention, and education completion are key NACK Network-wide endeavors and include new tasks addressing these issues as they impact veterans, Hispanics, African-Americans, and women.

Intellectual Merit: The intellectual merit of NACK's activities lies in their addressing, researching, experimenting with, and evaluating effective-practice approaches for (1) motivating students from across the U.S. social and geographic spectrum to consider careers in nanotechnology; (2) enhancing student retention, completion, and future career opportunities; (3) defining and evolving a model nanotechnology workforce education program, and (4) helping to develop economically sustainable nanotechnology workforce programs in colleges. Based on positive feedback on the intellectual content of its products and services, the continuation has a clear vision of what the community values and needs.

Broader Impacts: The NACK Network materials, practices and services are having a broad impact across the US. Their ready-availability at www.nano4me.org is strengthening secondary and community college education, in particular, and STEM education, in general. NACK workshops bring faculty and administrators together from across the country and have resulted in a better national understanding of nanotechnology education demands and requirements, approaches, resources, and sustainability issues. In addition, NACK's partnering/resource-sharing approach is a model for all aspects of science and technology education. The NACK Network establishes a nation-wide experiential basis for effective, working, community college/community college and community college/research university resource sharing relationships.

In their totality, the intellectual merit and broad impact of the NACK Network activities are profoundly important to the nation's nanotechnology workforce, and to the global competitiveness of U.S. industry.

Nanotechnology is constantly impacting society through the field of nanoelectronics and large numbers of nanotechnology-based products in other fields, such as health care, automotive and transportation, safety and security, and home and leisure. The existing Nanotechnology Applications and Career Knowledge (NACK) Network will transition to the NACK Support Center with the objective of continuing to support U.S. nanotechnology workforce education. The NACK Support Center will employ its community and technical college (CC)-industry-research university (RU) partnerships to carry out: 1) resource sharing among CCs as well as among CCs and RUs; 2) dissemination of learning materials that deliver a core set of industry-recommended nanotechnology skills; 3) live-streaming of professional development webinars; and 4) creation of more effective approaches for disseminating resources and expanding dissemination methodologies through a NACK website with added services and enhanced functionality.

NACK will carry out its work by: continuing to support and develop new nodes in the Remotely Accessible Instruments for Nanotechnology (RAIN) Network; adding new online-accessible characterization and processing tools; developing ways to increase awareness and usage of RAIN resources; and collecting data and statistics to evaluate RAIN's impact on nanotechnology education. Through a partnership with the industry standards organization ASTM International, NACK educational materials from its six core-skills courses will be institutionalized into industry standards. This partnership will allow students and working technicians to earn up to 6 stackable ASTM certificates with worldwide industry recognition via ASTM-administered tests based on these core courses. By continually updating core-skills course material and adapting it to online delivery via videoed lectures and labs, and by growing on-line course and equipment accessibility, educational opportunities will become increasingly available to highly diverse secondary and post-secondary level populations. The NACK Support Center's planned outreach to veterans and underrepresented student groups will address a key need to recruit these groups for advanced STEM education, and broaden nanotechnology awareness in general. Business outreach and the stackable certificate program will promote technician careers and visibility among a broad range of industries.

Workers with nanotechnology skills are rapidly becoming a key to economic development. Thus, nanotechnology courses are increasingly offered at community and technical colleges. It is important for these faculty members who teach nanotechnology to enhance, develop, and continually update their knowledge. Professional development programs are essential for these educators; however, face-to-face and "physical" hands-on workshops are expensive and pose time constraints which can make them inaccessible for many of these educators. To address the issue, the Center for Nanotechnology Education and Utilization at Pennsylvania State University will collaborate with community and technical colleges to form a Nanotechnology Professional Development Partnership (NPDP) and develop a live-streaming workshop program model in which course and laboratory training are delivered in a web-based format at very low cost. This workshop model will enable direct interactions, participation of faculty from their workplace locations, and attendance flexibility for mobile participants. Resources and best practices derived from this project will be shared nationwide. The project will increase access to professional development for nanotechnology educators at a variety of institutions, help to strengthen the educator workforce, and subsequently enhance the technical preparation of students and the nation's nanotechnology technician workforce.

The goal of the NPDP collaboration between Pennsylvania State University, Ivy Tech Community College (IN), Forsyth Tech Community College (NC), Erie Community College (NY), North Seattle College (WA), Atlanta Technical College (GA), and Northwest Vista College (TX) will be to develop a quality live-streaming and fully interactive professional development workshop model and resources, and apply it to the nanotechnology educator workforce. The workshops will be delivered via Adobe Connect and Zoom webcasts. The focus will be training and providing course materials for educators on nanofabrication processes and tools, nanotechnology applications, and safety and cleanroom protocols. The workshops will also include laboratory and cleanroom training featuring web-based remote access to nano-characterization tools, such as scanning probe microscopy and transmission electron microscopy, as well as simulated experiments and data analysis exercises. This workshop approach is optimum since it will offer the direct and instantaneous aspects of interaction with instructors and peers; the online aspects of session time and location flexibilities; and the ability to overcome challenges related to cost and resources. The workshop model will be applicable and adaptable to other STEM areas. The project will contribute new cost-effective methods to make professional development and continuing education more readily available to a wider audience of nanotechnology educators, including secondary school teachers.

The Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program assists universities and colleges in diversifying the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workforce through their efforts at significantly increasing the numbers of students from historically underrepresented minority populations (African-Americans, Hispanic Americans, American Indians or Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians or Other Pacific Islanders) to successfully complete high quality degree programs in STEM. Louis Stokes Regional Centers of Excellence in Broadening Participation (LSRCEs) are designed to serve as regional testbeds for outreach, knowledge-generating and diffusion activities or other activities that contribute to successful practices in STEM education. LSRCE activities may also be concentrated in the development of disciplinary research institutes.
Norfolk State University, Tidewater Community College and Pennsylvania State University (lead collaborators) and other partner organizations that include the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Langley Research Center (NASA-LaRC), Jefferson National Research Laboratory Applied Research Center (JLab-ARC), and Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS), all active members of the broader nanoscience and engineering research community, will collaborate as part of the Southeastern Coalition for Engagement and Exchange in Nanotechnology Education (SCENE), a regional Louis Stokes Center for Excellence in Broadening Participation.

SCENE utilizes nanotechnology and its many applications as a conduit for engaging and inspiring talented students from traditionally underrepresented minority populations. Through guided mentoring and opportunities for research and hands-on training experiences, students will (1) pair student participants with accomplished research professionals to seed and motivate continuing research activities; (2) sponsor student-centered research and training activities to achieve cohorts of students who are prepared and competitive for opportunities in advanced STEM environments; and, (3) utilize its unique resources and established collaborative connections to deliver and disseminate a suite of digitally prepared products and services to users. The program design augments an extensive summer training and internship component, with an aggressive strategy to prepare and mentor talented students as they generate portfolios and generate competitive profiles for research opportunities at national labs and federal research agencies (e.g. NSF GRFP and NASA Graduate Student Fellowship Program (GSFP) applications).

The center will be led by multiple institution types including a historically black university, a community college, and a research I institution that houses the Center for Nanotechnology Education and Utilization in addition to federal and private sector organizations.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

In addition to its roles in basic research, nanotechnology is also a research and development enterprise that focuses on rapid commercialization of products and technology. For the US to capitalize on its investments in nanotechnology, it is essential to prepare a skilled technical workforce with the appropriate nano-scale skill set. The Nanotechnology Applications and Career Knowledge (NACK) Resource Center proposes to extend a nation-wide nanotechnology education approach that includes providing resources and assistance to the nanotechnology education infrastructure. These resources can strengthen and streamline efforts to ensure that students develop industry-relevant knowledge, skills and abilities. In addition, the project will maintain web courses and remote equipment access, as well as provide faculty professional development to ensure that faculty remain at the cutting-edge of nanotechnology advances.

The NACK Resource Center will support and grow partnerships between community and technical colleges and research universities to: 1) share resources and disseminate learning materials; 2) deliver web-based professional development workshops and webinar series; and 3) widely disseminate resources using the NACK website, nanoHUB, and ATE Central. Additionally, the Remotely Accessible Instruments for Nanotechnology (RAIN) network will continue to support current and develop new RAIN nodes, add new online-accessible characterization and processing tools to the network, develop ways to increase use of the network, and collect data to evaluate RAIN?s impact on nanotechnology education. This project is funded by the Advanced Technological Education program that focuses on the education of technicians for the advanced-technology fields that drive the nation's economy.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

The United States (U.S.) has been experiencing a semiconductor chip shortage due in part to the pandemic. This shortage has impacted businesses and industry, including automotive, consumer electronics, data science, and cybersecurity to name a few. Efforts are underway to support semiconductor and microelectronics technologies in the U.S., which will require a prepared and diverse skilled technical workforce to support these critical economic engines. A strong nanomanufacturing workforce will enable the U.S. to be competitive in the global economy and will support the U.S. leadership in microelectronics and semiconductor technologies. This project led by the Center for Nanotechnology Education and Utilization at Pennsylvania State University will support members of the U.S. military, veterans, and family members to gain the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) to move into the semiconductor and microelectronics workforce. Many of these individuals have relevant experience with military technology as members of teams responsible for building mechanical, electrical and communication systems. Veterans without direct military technology experiences also have skills such as teamwork and project management skills that industry recognizes as needed skills within their workforce. <br/><br/>This project will provide educational opportunities for military personnel, veterans, and family members to gain the KSAs needed to enter the nanomanufacturing workforce. Members of the collaborative include 2-yr and 4-yr institutions, microelectronics companies, and the Global SEMI Trade Association. The project will leverage a successful pilot that involved the U.S. Navy, Tidewater Community College and Norfolk State University, which will be adapted and scaled to involve additional academic institutions and branches of the military. The project will: (1) adapt and implement the content of the pilot and offer a Microelectronics and Nanomanufacturing Certificate Program (MNP) supported by community and technical colleges and universities, (2) continually assess and adjust the content in consultation with industry for skillset needs, (3) work to secure the endorsement of the MNP by departments of veteran services for different military branches, and (4) elevate the role of community and technical college faculty in the delivery of the MNP minimizing the dependence on the research universities. This project is funded by the Advanced Technological Education program that focuses on the education of technicians for the advanced-technology fields that drive the nation's economy.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.