Nanoengineering

Nanoengineering is the practice of engineering on the nanoscale. It derives its name from the nanometre, a unit of measurement equalling one billionth of a meter.

Nanoengineering is largely a synonym for nanotechnology, but emphasizes the engineering rather than the pure science aspects of the field.

Degree programs

See also: Nanotechnology education

The first nanoengineering program in the world was started at the University of Toronto within the Engineering Science program as one of the Options of study in the final years. In 2003, the Lund Institute of Technology started a program in Nanoengineering. In 2005, the University of Waterloo established a unique program which offers a full degree in Nanotechnology Engineering. ^[1] Louisiana Tech University started the first program in the U.S. in 2005. The University of California, San Diego followed shortly thereafter in 2007 with its own department of Nanoengineering. In 2009, the University of Toronto began offering all Options of study in Engineering Science as degrees, bringing the second nanoengineering degree to Canada. DTU Nanotech - the Department of Micro- and Nanotechnology - is a department at the Technical University of Denmark established in 1990.

Techniques

• Scanning tunneling microscope (STM) - Can be used to both image, and to manipulate structures as small as a single atom.
• Molecular self-assembly - Arbitrary sequences of DNA can now be synthesized cheaply in bulk, and used to create custom proteins or regular patterns of amino acids. Similarly, DNA strands can bind to other DNA strands, allowing simple structures to be created.

References

1. ^ "Welcome to Nanotechnology Engineering at UW". Department of Nanotechnology Engineering. http://www.nanotech.uwaterloo.ca/About_Nano_at_UW/. Retrieved 2008-10-07. 

See also

• Nanotechnology
• List of nanoengineering topics
• Picoengineering

External links

• Nanoengineering
• Nanoengineering on videos
• Alliance of the Fraunhofer Society