Dakota County Technical College First to Welcome NanoProfessor Program
College provides cutting-edge nanotech education and training to students
in meeting the shifting needs of the American workforce
Dakota County Technical College (DCTC), in Rosemount, Minn., will serve as the inaugural pilot site of the NanoProfessor NanoScience Education Program, which will provide students with a curriculum written by nanotechnology experts covering the areas of Nanotechnology Basics, NanoPhysics, NanoChemistry, and NanoBiology.
By implementing the NanoProfessor Program in the 2010 academic year, DCTC has taken an important step toward offering students an education in nanoscience.
"Our mission at Dakota County Technical College is to provide our students with education and training that prepares them to compete in the rapidly-changing marketplace," said Ronald E. Thomas, president of Dakota County Technical College, a member of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System. "We recognize the importance of nanoscience education, its many applications, and the advantage that the NanoProfessor Program will provide our students in preparation for future jobs in all areas of nanoscience."
"Students enrolled in our nanotechnology program at DCTC will benefit from the NanoProfessor's curriculum, which is focused on concrete applications of nanotechnology. The suite of equipment also allows the concepts of nanotechnology such as molecular interactions to be explained and studied through hands-on experience rather than just charts and simulations," said Deb Newberry, director of the nanoscience technology program at DCTC. "The addition of the NanoProfessor Program will help us provide our students with an unmatched education, giving them the skills and knowledge to find employment in companies that are applying nanotechnology to product development, testing, research, and manufacturing design."
"Dakota County Technical College is at the forefront of innovation in education," said Dean Hart, executive vice president of NanoInk.
According to Career Voyages, a Web site collaboration of the U.S. Department of Labor and U.S. Department of Education, careers in nanotechnology are second only to biotechnology in terms of current and future demand for skilled workers. For students, knowing about these emerging industries can help them choose educational and career paths that will keep them on the cutting edge of this rapidly growing profession.
Students participating in the NanoProfessor Program at DCTC will use interdisciplinary-focused experiments to quickly and easily begin working at the nanoscale level. These skills can be applied to careers in virtually every industry using nanotechnology to enhance everyday products like printers, automobiles, cosmetics and sports equipment; new advancements are being made in medicine and energy, too.
The NanoProfessor Nanoscience Education Program aims to advance the field of nanoscience and address the growing need for skilled workforce of nanotechnologists. The program utilizes NanoInk's state-of-the-art NLP 2000 Desktop Nanofabrication System to provide students an interdisciplinary-focused, hands-on approach to quickly and easily build custom-engineered, nanoscale structures in a classroom setting. The NanoProfessor Program, including equipment and an expert-driven curriculum, is available for community colleges, technical schools, high schools and universities nationwide. More information is available at www.NanoProfessor.net.
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