Graduate/Undergraduate Teaching

Spring 2006: ME 51 (Mechanical Design) Section 2.

My teaching interests are in all aspects of solid mechanics, machine design and micro/nanoscale systems.

At Penn State, I have developed a new course "Micro/Nanoscale Science and Engineering", which was offered in Fall 2003 and 2004. I invite students of all science and engineering disciplines to this class. It offers a very broad overview of micro and nanoscale science and technology. We start with scaling theories in mechanical, fluidic, electrical and thermal systems and then discuss a wide class of micro and nano sensors to see how the scaling effects are exploited. After sensors, we discuss micro/nano actuators and applications. At this point, the class wonders, how do we make those tiny machines? So we discuss nanofabrication techniques, both top-down and bottom-up approaches. Our next discussion is on how all these are changing the science and engineering? We study materials behavior, fluid mechanics and thermal sciences at the nanoscale and wrap up with a discussion on the future of micro/nanotechnology from science/engineering/science fiction aspects.

I also invite leading nanotechnology researchers at Penn State University as guest lecturers, mainly to make my students aware of the research being done here and to give them a chance for  very informal discussion/mingling with these acclaimed scientists and engineers. The students get a tour to the Penn State Nanofabrication Facility, which houses state of the art nanofabrication tools. I am aiming to develop a graduate version of this class-with 5-10 students, working hands-on in the Nanofab Facility on research projects.

Here are some pictures of our Class of 2004 Nanofab Tour. Pic 1, Pic 2, Pic 3, Pic 4, Pic 5, Pic 6, Pic 7, Pic 8, Pic 9, Pic 10

Academic Outreach:

The next few decades will see revolution in nano, bio and information technology. There will be a mind blowing fusion of science and engineering, which will see people from far off  disciplines working together (like mechanical engineers working with medical doctors). No matter what your or my son/daughter wants to be - doctor,engineer, physicist, chemist, biologist - chances are he/she will work on nanoscale aspects of these disciplines. It is our job to make them ready. But how do we introduce them to the fascinating small world without intimidating them with the unknowns? I take the unique approach of microscopy, because it is our only interface to the micro/nano world and also a picture is for all ages. We can easily impress the young minds with state of the art microscopy without explaining a thing on esoteric electron optics.

Have you ever wondered why a kid wants to be a police or fire man (my one wants to be a spider man though). Its because of the ultra-visibility of these heroic professions. My goal is to etch the profile of a 'scientist' or an 'engineer' in their extraordinarily receptive young minds, to attract them towards engineering education. With help of my collaborators at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign,  I started "Electron Microscopy for Future Scientists" program in 2004. We send them our specimens and then the middle and high school students observe them (and even operate) with an Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope located at UIUC. This web-interfaced microscope can go upto 100,000X, and allow the school students to explore the microcosm without 'any pre-requisites!'

In 2004, the specimens were (1) Stomata on leaves, 6233x (2) Bee compound eyes, 735x (3) Thiobacillus ferrooxidans, 13466x (4) Bacteria on leaves, 23515x (5)  Yeast Spores - 10,000x, (6) Pollen Grain on Beetle Elytra - 5,356x, (7) Grain of Salt - 322x, (8) Beetle Claw - 161x (9): MEMS device

State College Area High School (Collaborator: Mr. Shawn Davis, Chemistry) 1, 2, 3 (more pictures to appear)

Park Forest Middle School (Collaborator: Ms Nell Piergallini, Biology), 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 , 8