Journal of Nanoscience Education

[thoughtandthinker]

Hello all,

Before our session in class together comes to a complete close, I wanted to bring up one last topic, which is education in nanotechnology. This is something first brought to my attention by a friend of mine at UC Irvine, and I learned a little more about STEM pedagogy myself this quarter through a seminar for grad students and post docs. There is one annual, peer-reviewed journal on this topic, which can be found here.

http://www.aspbs.com/jne.htm

Much of the emphasis is on high school and undergraduate education, but I believe the techniques are applicable at all levels. Those of you TAing for undergrad nanoengineering courses at UCSD may find some of the past publications of interest. Most of the articles report the different effects of using certain assignment and exam protocols, but I'm surprised there isn't much on using simulation software, like that found on nanohub or through MATLAB or Python. Given I come from a computer science and software oriented background, perhaps the nanoengineers in our group have more to comment on what made their nanoscience education  successful or not.

[samontoy]

Last post.... 

From all my research experience in graduate school and industry there are only two software’s which are a must: a simple data analysis and plotting software (like OriginLab or Kaleidagraph) and numerical computing environment (like Matlab or Mathematica). Personally, I’ve been using Matlab for quite some time and I’ve become comfortable with all the libraries and huge collection of support available online. One the nice things that I like most about Matlab, is the possibility of interfacing with a lot of tools in the lab using a GPIB connection. This way you can control all tools in an experimental set up, perform tests, and analyze the information in real time. Plus when you deal with large quantities of data, it tends to make life a bit easier to analyze and plot all your data. Whereas, having a compact and standalone plotting tool like Kaleidagraph allows you to plot things without a hassle. 

I would definitely suggest anyone in the class to learn a numerical analysis environment. 

Good night all, 

Sergio