UCLA’s Center for Scalable and Integrated
Nanomanufacturing (SINAM) Reaches out to Young Minds to Replenish
the Engineering Workforce
KiMi Wilson, education and outreach coordinator
for SINAM, helps students from Camino
Nuevo Middle School get started on their circuit boards.
By Wileen Wong Kromhout
The Center for Scalable and Integrated
Nanomanufacturing (SINAM) was created in 2003, after the National
Science Foundation awarded the UCLA Henry Samueli School of
Engineering and Applied Science a grant worth nearly $18 million
over five years to establish a new Nanoscale Science and Engineering
Center (NSEC) that would focus on developing cost-effective
nanomanufacturing technologies by working closely with industry.
Besides wanting to bridge the gap
between scientific research and economically feasible manufacturing
solutions, SINAM knew it needed to also address critical high
tech work force needs through an integrated research and education
program.
One aspect of the center’s
educational outreach program is geared towards middle and high
school students, grades 7 - 12. Knowing that traditionally the
science curriculum for those grades does not provide any exposure
to engineering, SINAM, with the help of Sarah Tolbert, professor
of chemistry and biochemistry, put in place a program called,
“Discover the Exciting World of Nanotechnology,”
where students are given the opportunity to learn about photolithography
by creating their own circuit boards.
Exposure stations at work during the photolithography/circuit
boards experiment
Led by Adrienne Lavine, chair
of the mechanical and aerospace engineering department and KiMi
Wilson, education and outreach coordinator for SINAM, the team
has already brought this personal hands-on experience to several
schools in the last couple years including Camino Nuevo Middle
School and Camino Nuevo High School, both of Los Angeles, and
New City Charter School of Long Beach.
According to Wilson, “We
felt that it was important to provide the students with an experience
that would enrich their science education, satisfy some of the
California State science standards, and expose students to the
exciting new field of nano-engineering.”
The center believes that planting
the engineering seeds in young minds early will attract many
of the best students to the engineering profession. Lavine added,
“This program supports our goal of reaching out to underserved
communities and increasing the pipeline of students entering
the science and engineering fields.”
Professor Adrienne Lavine, also chair of the
mechanical and aerospace engineering department, along with
SINAM PhD student in Systems and Control, Shalom Ruben, are
pouring etchant into a beaker for the students to use in the
removal of unwanted copper on their circuit boards which would
then leave a desired copper pattern to form electrical wires.
This year, instead of spending
three days at each of the participating school sites, the students
are brought to UCLA for a more complete university experience.
“Bringing the students to campus enables us to involve
more faculty and graduate students in the program and to expose
the kids to the excitement of a college campus,” said
Lavine.
In a college lecture hall, students
not only learn the fundamentals of electrical resistance and
nanomanufacturing by creating circuit boards, but they are also
treated to a special lunch discussion on nanoscience with a
volunteer faculty member. The day ends with a tour of the campus.
“As an eighth grade science
teacher, with our curriculum, it is very hard for me to do much
hands-on work,” said Michelle Kim, of Camino Nuevo Middle
School, who participated in this year’s first Nanotechnology
class at UCLA. “So I’m very happy that the students
have this opportunity and am very impressed with what Professor
Lavine and Mr. Wilson have done for us today. The kids have
responded very well.”
Besides the “Discover Nanotechnology”
program for middle and high school students, SINAM’s other
educational programs include The Nanomanufacturing Summer Academy
(NMSA), an intensive eight-week research experience for high
school and college students and the Graduate Young Investigator
Program, where individual or groups of graduate students propose
an innovative research topic that involves at least two faculty
members in SINAM from different fields, to study a nanomanufacturing
topic using a multidisciplinary approach. All three educational
components under SINAM reach out to under-represented minority
and female students.
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04.04.08
photos: Don Liebig, UCLA Photography
