Nano's Big Bang: Transforming Engineering Education and Outreach

The rapid emergence of nanoscale science and engineering as a focal point for a broad range of government and privately-sponsored basic research activities ‐ intended to catalyze breakthrough technologies and commercially-successful advances in medicine, computing, materials, manufacturing and defense‐ is having a correspondingly influential impact on the design of engineering education and outreach programs aimed at university, K-12, and public audiences. This paper examines the nature of this influence as well as the opportunities and challenges it presents to education and outreach professionals, in light of current trends in STEM education. The authors are involved in a collaborative effort to devise strategies to tackle some of these challenges through the design and development of the education and outreach aspects of the Center for High-Rate Nanomanufacturing (CHN), an NSF-sponsored Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center (NSEC). Close collaboration among CHN’s science, engineering and societal implications researchers, university and K-12 educators, and science museum public engagement specialists, is expected to lead to new models for integrating research, education, outreach, and public engagement within the context of the National Nanotechnology Initiative.