Center on Materials and Devices for Information Technology Research

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The Science and Technology Center on Materials and Devices for Information Technology Research, University of Washington, Seattle is a multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional activity designed to support a goal-directed, sustained effort to broadly advance the science and technology of materials, devices and systems for advancing information technology. Center activities involve six universities, University of Washington (UW: lead institution), plus the U. of Arizona (UA), California Institute of Technology (Caltech), U. of Southern California (USC), U. of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) and Berkeley (UCB). The STC emphasizes vertical integration of knowledge and applications that span the intellectual range in fundamental optoelectronic materials and engineering research from molecules to integrated devices and systems for improved signal generation and detection and for improved information transport, processing, and storage. Research is divided among four strategic thrust areas: 1) Electro-Optic and All-Optical Materials and Devices; 2) Infrared Organic Light-Emitting Diodes, Amplifiers, and Lasers; 3) Advanced Assembly and Patterning Approaches to Integrated Optics; 4) Theory.The educational activity is planned around three primary elements: 1) Under-represented groups and institutions in the STC including Minority and HBCU partnerships, emphasis on undergraduate participation in research, and an aggressive outreach effort; 2) A vertically integrated program on education in optical science, materials, and devices; 3) Integration of science, engineering, and business education. The Center includes assessment strategies for evaluation of the effectiveness of new approaches in their educational activities which have a strong web based component. The Center aims to create a vertically integrated, web-based, modular resource emphasizing optical science, materials and devices, offering 1) resources for developing courses and for students' independent studies, 2) web-based courses, and 3) an STC-"IT" news-page (with links to industrial websites) describing new technical advances, job opportunities, conferences, professional courses, and academic curricula. The Center has a strong, collaborative program for fostering outreach to and participation by non-center researchers in research activities. Interaction with industry and Federal Laboratories will be implemented at several levels. Projects with early societal impact will be integrated with longer-term projects. For example, development of 3D integrated circuitry, the exploitation of photonic bandgap device structures, and the exploitation of controlled coupling to microresonators will be a theme of both short-term (e.g., electro-optic information processing) and longer-range (e.g., all-optical information processing) impact projects to advance knowledge, understanding, and technology performance in information technology. This center is projected to become a focal point in the U.S. for education of the workforce in the fields of telecommunication and information processing; photonics; and opto-electronics.