Issue 7

As computational techniques become increasingly important in the design and development of new materials, scientists and engineers are accessing nanoHUB tools from unexpected locations — recently, Walt Disney World Resort, Florida, the site of TMS 2012, the annual conference of The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society held March 11-15. A short course, conference talk, and booth in the exhibition highlighted nanoHUB resources.

Katsuyo Thornton, associate professor of materials science and engineering, University of Michigan, used the nanoHUB tool DFT Calculations with Quantum ESPRESSO in her short course, Integrated Computational Materials Education on March 11.

"nanoHUB eliminates the need for purchasing or installing software and allows the participants to use it without complications," Thornton says.

Students taking the short course included faculty involved in integrating computational techniques into the undergraduate curriculum and others interested in learning the fundamentals and applications of computational thermodynamics tools. Read More

Engineering professors are incorporating simulation programs in their courses — without having to write them — and engaging their students in new ways with nanoHUB resources. Tanya Faltens, lecturer at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, began using nanoHUB simulations in her upper-division electrical engineering class the week after attending her first nanoHUB workshop, and she has been using nanoHUB simulations in her courses ever since. Faltens says nanoHUB assignments can generate enthusiasm among students.

"Any little change to a class takes extra effort, but I am still looking for — and finding — appropriate tools and lessons on nanoHUB. Over time, it seems as though more of the material is useful for my classes," she says. Read more

When the inaugural class offered by nanoHUB-U concluded March 9, students offered anonymous, overwhelmingly positive feedback about Supriyo Datta's teaching and asked for more courses to be offered using the same online format.

Over 600 students enrolled in the course, titled Fundamentals of Nanoelectronics, Part 1: Basic Concepts. Over 330 students are enrolled in Datta's current course on quantum models.

Additional nanoHUB-U courses are being developed by Purdue University professors for the fall of 2012 on atomic force microscopy, taught by Arvind Raman and Ron Reifenberger, and the fundamentals of nanotransistors, taught by Mark Lundstrom. Read more

"nanoHUB is definitely a very important resource for research students. nanoHUB is world recognized. Its impact is global. Two weeks ago, I was in Switzerland giving an invited talk on the first inversion-mode gate-all-around III-V MOSFETs paper, and a graduate student came up and said he is taking a class of Professor Datta's through nanoHUB."
—Peide Ye, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University