NPSE 8002: Nanoparticle Science and Engineering Laboratory

Spring 2008

Instructor: To be advised , Instructor name, email, phone, address

Credits:   3

Grading: A-F

Format:   Laboratory

Times:   There will be a required orientation meeting at the beginning of the semester, and student presentations in weeks 8 and 15 of the semester.       

Location:   To be advised (for orientation and presentations)

Prerequisites:   IT graduate student or consent of instructor.

General information.

NPSE 8002 is a one-semester course that gives students practical exposure to computational and experimental techniques in nanoparticle research.  The course is required for Ph.D. students who subscribe to the University’s freestanding minor in “Nanoparticle Science and Engineering.”

Students who take NPSE 8002 rotate through two different University of Minnesota Laboratories engaged in nanoparticle research.  The rotations last seven weeks each.  The laboratories are run by members of the graduate faculty of the “Nanoparticle Science and Engineering” freestanding minor.  Students will spend an average of at least eight hours per week in the lab.  During their rotations, students will be assigned to work closely with a graduate student or post-doc. They will assist in data acquisition and analysis, in equipment maintenance, and in computer programming, as appropriate.  They also will attend and participate in laboratory group meetings and related events. 

Results of the laboratory projects will be presented either orally or as written reports:

• For one of the projects, students will give a brief research presentation (10 minutes for the formal presentation and 5 minutes for discussion).  Students will prepare a concise abstract of the presentation, not to exceed 300 words.
• For the other project, students will submit to the research supervisor and to the course coordinator a concise written report limited to eight pages of text, excluding figures, tables, references, etc.

Students may list up to three choices for their projects from a list distributed at the beginning of the semester. The requests must include laboratories from at least two different departments other than the students’ home department.  Students will not be assigned to work in the laboratories of their M.S. or Ph.D. Advisors.  Although every attempt will be made to honor as many rotation requests as possible, slots will be assigned by the course instructor.  Assignments will be distributed to students no later than Friday of the first week of class. Students are expected to contact their rotation Advisor no later than the following Monday.

Textbook.

The course has no textbook.  Students will be directed to appropriate reading material by their laboratory supervisors.

Grading.

Comments from supervisor for Project 1: 25%     

Comments from supervisor for Project 2: 25%

Oral presentation: 25%

Written report: 25%            

Incompletes.

Incompletes will only be given in the event that some extenuating circumstance arises, and provided that a majority of the course work has been satisfactorily completed at the time the circumstance arises.  Incompletes will not be given on the basis of poor performance.

NPSE 8002 Laboratories

To be advised. The following is a list of laboratories that have in the past hosted NPSE 8002 students.  Abbreviations are as follows: CEMS = Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, CHEM = Chemistry, ECE = Electrical and Computer Engineering, GEO = Geology and Geophysics, ME = Mechanical Engineering and PHYS = Physics.