|
In 1998 Penn State University, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and Pennsylvania industry joined together to work toward the ambitious objective of creating a State-wide effort for the purpose of injecting nanotechnology education into 2-year and 4-year undergraduate degree programs. The effort quickly evolved into the Pennsylvania Nanofabrication Manufacturing Technology (NMT) Partnership, which is headquartered in Penn State's Center for Nanotechnology Education and Utilization (CNEU). Six nanotechnology courses were create for use across Pennsylvania for providing an intense "Capstone Semester" of hands-on exposure to micro- and nanotechnology by December, 1998, and the first students emerged from these courses in the spring semester of 1999. From these beginnings, the Partnership has grown to encompass Penn State University, 29 other post-secondary Pennsylvania institutions, Pennsylvania industry, State government, and the National Science Foundation. Today the "Capstone Semester" is taught as a service by CNEU three times a year at Penn State's University Park campus and it is now used in certificate programs for workforce development, associate degree (2-year), and baccalaureate degree (4-year) programs by institutions across Pennsylvania. The Partner institutions now offer a total of 54 degree programs in nanotechnology or in fields such as biology, chemistry, engineering, and physics with a nanotechnology concentration. Today, in addition to the unique, shared "Capstone Semester", the NMT Partnership also offers one-day and three-day Nanotech Camps for secondary school students, nanotechnology workshops for educators, programs for bringing nanotechnology into the secondary school curricula, programs for post-secondary school curriculum enhancement, incumbent worker training, and industry workshops. |