Kristen P. Constant - US grants

Existing curricula in materials processing are generally outdated, lack an interdisciplinary approach, and are limited in their scope and availability to undergraduate students. Iowa State University will address these shortcomings by developing eleven flexible course modules, each of 4 to 6 weeks duration, which emphasize ceramic powder processing, metal powder processing, and the processing of glass and of electronic materials. Industrial practice will be introduced prior to designing model experiments and discussing fundamental concepts. Each module will also be linked to appropriate structural and mechanical characterization activities. The modules can be used either to update existing courses by inserting them in place of outdated materials or to form an entire new course. Each module will be in the form of a booklet, video tape, and computer disk. Modules will be made available for use and evaluation by other institutions as they are developed and tested at Iowa State. Evaluation will be carried out on the basis of the effectiveness of the modules in addressing the key weaknesses in current undergraduate materials curricula and in terms of their effectiveness in attracting more students, particularly minorities and women, into the materials field.

This project involves the development of a never-before-possible, next-generation lab for the teaching of x-ray diffraction (XRD). Although XRD is one of the most heavily used and depended upon of all analytical techniques in materials science and engineering, it has been extremely difficult to teach because of the time needed to run a typical x-ray scan. Hence, most of the class period is consumed by acquiring a scan, while any on-line, real-time analysis of the XRD data is impossible. Through this project, a new XRD system is developed for real-time analysis of crystallographic structures by using an x-ray generator with the high-speed acquisition capabilities of a position sensitive detector. The XRD hardware is linked to analysis software and databases by way of a local area network of PC-based engineering workstations to provide on-line, real-time analysis of XRD data and crystal structures. In this way, the major difficulty in teaching XRD, namely, the time needed to acquire a scan, is substantially diminished. This method revolutionizes the teaching of XRD because extended exposure to advanced studies involving XRD methodologies is available to undergrads for the first time.

Faculty members in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction and the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Iowa State University (ISU) are establishing an instructional program and a classroom dedicated to bringing the capabilities of the scanning electron microscope (SEM) into elementary and secondary classrooms. The goal of this program is to enhance student and teacher understanding and learning of the microscopic world around them. With the development of the Internet and remote-controlled SEMs, a unique opportunity now exists to facilitate children's access to extremely expensive, technologically advanced equipment via inexpensive Internet connections. The classroom will consist of an environmental SEM fully connected to the World Wide Web and the Internet. A summer training program involving present and pre-service teachers at the elementary and secondary levels will be conducted, instructing them on how to use the SEM in the classroom. Teachers will develop the lessons, which will vary in content and SEM access, depending upon grade level. Classroom teachers will receive instruction in the SEM's use and capabilities through a series of summer workshops. During the school year, pre-service elementary and secondary teachers who are specializing in science and mathematics will facilitate the classroom investigations.

This project builds on the commitment of Iowa State University's College of Engineering and College of Education to the enhancement of the undergraduate preparation of future mathematics and science K-12 teachers. Through this Proof-of-Concept project, inquiry modules involving the WWW-controlled environmental scanning electron microscope (SEM) are developed and incorporated into three courses for pre-service elementary and secondary teachers, demonstrating the integration of WWW-controlled science content into existing teacher education courses. The modules support the learning through inquiry concepts and are consistent with the National Science Education Standards to improve the science pedagogical and content knowledge of pre-service teachers.

The two pilot modules in the areas of Failure Analysis of Materials and Structure of Organisms contain a problem-setting video, an inquiry workbook, a kit of materials, and supplementary SEM images available on the WWW homepage. The project complements the Iowa State Collaborative for Excellence in Teacher Preparation (ISCEPT) and the Mathematical Engineering Networking with Teachers of Real Science (MENTORS) activities.

This award provides funding to Iowa State University, under the direction of Dr. David Jiles, for the support of a Combined Research-Curriculum Development project entitled, " Vertically Integrated Engineering Design for Combined Research and Curriculum Development." This project focuses on a combination of design experience and research to meet the educational needs of future generations of engineers in the most efficient manner possible and without increasing the number of course credits needed for graduation. The mechanism devised for achieving this is termed "vertically integrated design," which will provide a broader design experience for engineering students. This approach will engage students throughout their undergraduate career, beginning with sophomores, using state-of-the-art engineering simulators that illustrate the various critical stages in the life cycle of manufactured components. The specific field of research involved is nondestructive evaluation, which combines recent advances in life-cycle engineering, modeling and strong industrial interactions through the NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center for Nondestructive Evaluation. Formal courses on engineering practice and design will be taught in parallel with the experimental research project, which will involve sophomores, juniors and seniors working together.

This grant provides support for the acquisition of a comprehensive high temperature and high purity glove box materials processing facility for education and research at Iowa State University. One of the most significant changes in the development of new materials is the sophistication in the processing of the materials. Modern materials are now being designed at the atomic level and precise control of the composition, structure, and impurities are allowing new materials to be fabricated with exceptional properties and performance. Several current projects critically depend upon the clean, dry, and oxygen-free environment afforded by a high quality glove box system. This new state-of-the-art glove box preparation system will dramatically improve the quality, purity, and structure of the materials. This project has significant intellectual merit in that the new glove box system will be used by ~ 8 different research groups across the Midwest on a wide variety of projects. This multi-purpose glove box will enable new fast ion conducting glasses to be prepared that have exceptional conductivities, new photonic band gap materials will be processed with never before possible structures, new transparent conducting oxides will be prepared with exceptionally purity, new ferroelectric materials will be processed at exceptional purity so that the details of the micro-failure can be examined, new ultraphosphate glasses will be prepared that will enable new insights into the frequency dependence of the ionic conductivity, and finally a new class of polymeric materials will be processed with unprecedented levels of functionality.

This project has significant broader impact due to the high level of undergraduate and graduate student use of the glove box processing system. Nearly all students in Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) at ISU will use the glove box system and it will form a core research facility. Undergraduate research groups at nearby undergraduate institutions, Coe College and Creighton University, and as a Midwest Regional Facility by research groups at the University of Indiana and the University of Missouri-Rolla, will benefit, among others

The objective of this research is to acquire research instrumentation for doing research on photonic waveguides and photonic devices, integrated biosensors, sensors for detection of toxic chemicals, organic semiconductors and neuron regrowth. These devices demand state of the art alignment capability with both front and back alignments. Iowa State has active research programs in each of the above areas, but does not have back and front sub-micron mask aligner. In this proposal, we plan to acquire a Suss MA/BA6 mask aligner capable of sub-micron lithography and of simultaneous back and front alignment so that device can be made on both sides of a substrate and devices in the submicron range can be made. This aligner will complement our existing array of tools, thereby allowing for a significant increase in our research productivity across a large number of disciplines.
Intellectual merit and Broad Impact
The proposed instrument meets a critical need at the University. No other comparable instrument is available at Iowa State. The instrument complements the following tools we own: Alcatel Deep RIE, poly-Si CVD furnace, Standard Si fabrication tools, Metal evaporators, Nanocrystalline Si plasma deposition reactors, Organic LED reactors, Single cantilever AFM tool. The instrument will allow faculty, students and research staff from Chemical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Physics, Chemistry and Biology to conduct experiments in the fields of photonic bandgaps, directed neural regrowth, nanocrystalline Si devices, integrated chemical and biological sensors based on OLED's and GMR devices, thin film resonators and multi-cantilver AFM tools for combinatorial diagnosis of surfaces. The instrument will be housed at the Microelectronics Research Center (MRC), an inter-disciplinary center at Iowa State where all the complementary facilities exist and are available for use by all the Iowa State faculty, staff and students. A full-time scientist will be in charge of the instrument and will maintain it in addition to some of the other tools. A maintenance account will be set up to charge the users a use-fee to pay for maintenance.
There will be significant impact on education of students, both graduate and undergraduate. This instrument, along with the existing instruments will be used for future experimental modules in courses dealing with fabrication of semiconductor, photonic and MEMS materials and devices Approximately 40 graduate students in many disciplines who use MRC facilities, and about 15 undergraduates who do research at MRC as part of their senior design or independent research projects will benefit from the acquisition of this instrument. A significant number of women and minority students are expected to participate in research activities made possible by the acquisition of this instrument. The proposed research activity has potentially broad impacts in the fields of electronic and photonic devices, sensors and neural science and engineering.