namsoo kim - US grants

This NUE in Engineering program entitled, "NUE: Printing Innovative Nano Technology Research and Elite Education (PINE TREE) Program", at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), under the direction of Dr. Namsoo Kim, will be a supplemental program for the Printing Nano Engineering (PNE) concentration option available at UTEP beginning in the Fall of 2014. The goal of this proposal is to design and implement a 24-credit-hour PNE concentration (with opportunities for international experiences) under the Bachelor of Science in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering (MME) program, which will prepare graduates for advanced, high-tech engineering and manufacturing careers in printed electronics. The PINE TREE Program has established three objectives to achieve its goal: 1) Recruit and prepare lower-division pre-engineering students to pursue a career option in Nanotechnology. 2) Modify, evaluate, and refine upper-division PNE courses to ensure that students are prepared to enter careers in printing nano-engineering. The strategic actions include the assessing and evaluating of the upper-division curricula and refining courses based on assessment results. 3) Integrate research and development into undergraduate education to reinforce the concepts acquired in the PNE curricula. The PINE TREE program builds on nano-scale and pedagogical research that is already established at UTEP, as well as on the newly established program between UTEP and Seokyeong University (SKU) in Seoul, South Korea that offers upper-division PNE courses to SKU students who transfer to UTEP in their junior year. This international collaboration between UTEP and SKU will help advance PNE education in the U.S. and has the potential of serving as a model which can be replicated by other universities and strengthen the U.S. global manufacturing position.

The students who complete the PINE TREE program will be experts in the field of printed electronics and able to manufacture printed electronics in the areas of printable material development, system manufacturing, and development of flexible electronics. Since the UTEP MME Department has an undergraduate student population that is 81% Hispanic and 31% Female, the PINE TREE Program will create a diverse group of engineers with the skills and qualifications needed in industry for printed electronics; the students will be diverse not only in ethnicity and gender, but in educational background. The program also features international collaborations that will help advance PNE education in the U.S.

Nanoindenter (indenting at a scale about thousand times finer than the human hair) is a highly versatile experimental tool for materials characterization that utilizes diamond indenter of 10-20 nanometers in diameter into the surface of materials to determine mechanical properties, including hardness, stiffness, adhesion strength, and wear. It also has the unique ability to rapidly and precisely make several hundred measurements for probing the surface properties of materials. These characteristics make nanoindentation an indispensable tool for research in disciplines ranging from Engineering to Biology, Chemistry, Geology and Medicine. The significance of the project relates to exploring at a fundamental level the mechanical behavior of materials that include the response at high impact, local hardness of thin films for electronic applications, and wear of biomedical implants. Furthermore, the project addresses the challenge of tailoring the surface properties of materials for a host of applications from susceptibility to scratching of electronic devices to adhesion of cells on biomedical implants, providing new directions in the development of next generation of advanced materials with superior mechanical performance and longer life. The project supports nanotechnology education in the Colleges of Science and Engineering at the University of Texas at El Paso and provides practical training to undergraduate and graduate students throughout the campus in a manner that will enable new understanding to emerge at the atomic or molecular level. The compact all-in-one configuration is envisioned to advance the research capabilities of more than 10 research groups, over 45 graduate students, 40 undergraduate students, and 5 post-doctoral researchers, in terms of new understanding at the nano or molecular level, thereby opening entirely new avenues of research in materials science and engineering, and biomaterials and biomedical engineering including the design of nanostructured materials, organic-inorganic hybrid materials, materials for nanoelectronics, and biomedical applications. The research team is committed to disseminate the educational resources on nanoindentation to facilitate broader participation of K-12 audience to scientific and engineering concepts on nanoindentation.

Strength is a fundamental property of the majority of materials systems. Automated, advanced nanoindentation and scratch experiments are appropriately suitable for this challenging task because of high spatial resolution and throughput. The acquisition and subsequent utilization of an automated nanoscale deformation system for materials research at the University of Texas at El Paso constitutes the scope of the project. The goals are to use nanoindention in areas of research that concern deformation mechanisms in nanostructured materials, mechanics of mechanically-induced surface deformation in thin films and polymer nanocomposites, nanomechanical characterization of 3D-printable materials, biomechanical properties of tissue engineered biomaterials including bone, cartilage and skin, adhesion strength of cells, and mechanical properties of ceramic proppants used for hydraulic fracturing. The approach and method involves use of different modules (ultra-low mechanical force, dynamic mechanical analysis, extended z-range, high temperature stage, high load transducer, high resolution imaging, and fluorescence microscope), enabling the researchers to acquire new understanding of the materials at the nanoscale.

This award from the Major Research Instrumentation program supports the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) with the acquisition of a Lab-on-a-Printer (LOP) with RX1 Bioprinting Platform. The instrument will enable accelerated fundamental 3D-bioprinting research at UTEP. The LOP technology is uniquely capable of combining multiple cell types and biomaterial inputs on a single printhead cartridge, enabling the precise deposition of different cells and materials in 3D to recreate and mimic the complex structure of real tissue. The RX1 Bioprinting Platform uses the LOP technology to rapidly and precisely construct functional 3D living tissue, with an advanced material processing capability providing accurate control over patterning of the biological building blocks, rapidly. At UTEP, the RX1 Bioprinting Platform will be used in several high impact projects including, engineering tissues with blood vessels, the human heart wall, tissues for nerve regeneration and developmental biology, and the application of novel 2D/advanced materials for in-vitro studies. Concurrently, the RX1 Bioprinting Platform will provide sustained and cross-disciplinary studies while contributing to and advancing STEM education and training by providing students access to cutting-edge teaching, research technologies and opportunities.


The main objective of the researchers is to employ the Lab-on-a-Printer (LOP) to utilize hydrogels (synthetic and naturally derived) as scaffolds for bioprinting aimed at tissue-on-a-chip studies. In addition, non-hydrogel type materials such as polymer blends (including Polyurethane, PCL-PLLA), shape memory polymers and nanocomposites with nanowire inclusions will also be targeted. The 3D-printed constructs will include biological neural network development, dose optimization/ minimization of small molecule based therapeutics and enhanced dielectric energy storage and energy harvesting for energy related applications. The LOP technology can easily enable printing of soft structures (such as tissues) which provides needed exploration of biomaterial with advantageous properties than currently possible. The instrument will support multidisciplinary, team-based opportunities involving Engineering faculty at UTEP and faculty from other scientific disciplines and help establish new critical regional collaborations within the state of Texas and neighboring New Mexico. The technology and hands-on use of this printer will be incorporated into existing or new courses with laboratory component, exposing nearly 100 students annually to this technology. It will strengthen outreach to the community, local middle- and high-school students. It will lead to new industry-academic collaborations benefiting both the scientific community at UTEP and industry, nationwide.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.