Cambridge NanoScience through Engineering to Application Doctoral Training Centre: Assembly of Functional NanoMaterials and NanoDevices

剑桥纳米科学从工程到应用博士培训中心：功能纳米材料和纳米器件的组装

• 批准号: EP/G037221/1
• 负责人: Jeremy Baumberg
• 金额: $ 861.2万
• 依托单位: University of Cambridge
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Training Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2009 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FG037221%2F1
• 关键词: Cambridge; NanoScience; through; Engineering; Application

NanoScience is the emerging research discipline of building designer materials or machines which do entirely new things, by combining thousands of atoms arranged in intricate assemblies and connections. Understanding and controlling this new science results in NanoTechnology estimated to be one of the massive opportunities in the 21st Century, for making devices that really do what we want cheaper, faster, cooler, smarter and more efficiently. The process of assembly is the key to fostering widespread implementation of nanoscience discoveries. This is an area in which the UK must be strong to reap the rewards of increased investment. Most emerging opportunities depend on radically improving such nano-organisation, needed to impact major societal themes of Energy, Healthcare and Nano. However despite all these claims, which are mostly well-founded conceptually, the difficult is in how to really build on this extreme scale. Bigger than molecules but smaller than machinery, we have only learnt in recent years how to grow a plethora of nano-components. But perfecting ways to bring together these nano-components into active devices is the new challenge. Traditional approaches that piece things together laboriously are completely unfeasible here. The aim of our Doctoral Training Centre in Assembly of Functional NanoMaterials and NanoDevices is to hothouse training of a high-calibre cadre of inter-disciplinary nano-researchers and spur them to develop entirely new ways to assemble nano-machinery for doing something useful. The academics involved in this Nano DTC have all had experience of helping to teach young researchers across a range of research fields such as Physics, Materials Science, Chemistry and Engineering, and have also shown a real interest in developing novel ideas into practical inventions and engaged with companies (many of them their own spin-offs). The University of Cambridge has a large number of scientific programmes in this area, so a large opportunity exists to join them up, with the PhD students all interacting very widely across these disciplines, as well as engaging with the nitty-gritty tools of how nano-innovation can make it out into the real world.The Nano DTC will operate as a distinct PhD nursery, with the entry co-housed and jointly mentored in the initial year of formal courses and project work. Students from a range of undergraduate disciplines will thus spend considerable time together while each postgraduate will have a selection of 1st year courses crafted on entry by the DTC management committee, depending on their specific skill set and aspirations. The initial year provides additional skills in disciplines outside their degree, understanding of the Enterprise landscape relating to Nano-Innovation, specific knowledge of the nanoscience and application of self-assembly to NanoDevices and NanoMaterials, and miniprojects spanning different disciplines to broaden students' experience and peer networks, aiding final PhD project selection. A range of joint activities are programmed in later years including Nano DTC cohort student-led conferences, and industry reviews.Although individual examples of nano-entrepreneurship can be found across the UK, graduate students are rarely exposed to this experience, and frequently it is seen as detrimental to their research progress. A repeated theme emerging from nano research-to-application projects is how early-stage nano-construction strategies benefit from being informed by eventual scale-up, implementation routes, market potential and societal awareness. In turn, this joined up approach feeds back into the basic science process, frequently stretching research programs beyond the well-trodden paths and stimulating high impact science as well as innovation. The aim of the Cambridge Nano DTC is to make this experience pervasive for a new brand of UK Nano PhD students.

纳米科学是一门新兴的研究学科，它通过将成千上万的原子排列在复杂的组件和连接中来构建设计师材料或机器，从而完成全新的事情。理解和控制这一新的科学成果，纳米技术估计是一个巨大的机会，在21世纪世纪，使设备，真正做到我们想要的更便宜，更快，更酷，更聪明，更有效。组装过程是促进纳米科学发现广泛应用的关键。这是英国必须强大的领域，以获得增加投资的回报。大多数新兴的机会取决于从根本上改善这种纳米组织，需要影响能源，医疗保健和纳米等主要社会主题。然而，尽管所有这些主张，其中大部分是有根据的概念，困难的是如何真正建立在这个极端的规模。比分子大但比机器小，我们只是在最近几年才学会如何生长大量的纳米元件。但是，完善将这些纳米组件整合到有源器件中的方法是新的挑战。传统的方法，拼凑起来的东西费力在这里是完全不可行的。我们在功能纳米材料和纳米器件组装博士培训中心的目的是培养跨学科纳米研究人员的高素质干部，并激励他们开发全新的方法来组装纳米机械做一些有用的事情。参与这个纳米DTC的学者都有帮助教授年轻研究人员的经验，这些研究领域包括物理学，材料科学，化学和工程学，并且还表现出将新想法发展为实际发明的真实的兴趣，并与公司（其中许多公司都有自己的副产品）合作。剑桥大学在这一领域有大量的科学项目，因此有很大的机会将它们结合起来，博士生们在这些学科中进行了非常广泛的互动，并参与了纳米创新如何进入真实的世界的基本工具。纳米DTC将作为一个独特的博士苗圃运作，在第一年的正式课程和项目工作中，参赛者共同住宿和共同辅导。因此，来自一系列本科学科的学生将花费相当多的时间在一起，而每个研究生将根据他们的具体技能和愿望，在DTC管理委员会的入学时选择一系列第一年的课程。最初的一年提供了额外的技能，在他们的学位以外的学科，与纳米创新，纳米科学的具体知识和自组装应用到纳米器件和纳米材料的企业景观的理解，以及跨越不同学科的迷你项目，以扩大学生的经验和同行网络，帮助最终的博士项目选择。一系列的联合活动，包括纳米DTC队列学生主导的会议，和行业评论，在以后的几年里编程。虽然纳米创业的个别例子可以在英国各地找到，研究生很少接触到这种经验，而且经常被视为不利于他们的研究进展。从纳米研究到应用项目中出现的一个重复主题是，早期阶段的纳米建设战略如何受益于最终的规模扩大、实施路线、市场潜力和社会意识。反过来，这种联合起来的方法反馈到基础科学过程中，经常将研究项目延伸到人们熟悉的道路之外，并刺激高影响力的科学和创新。剑桥纳米DTC的目的是使这种经验普遍为一个新品牌的英国纳米博士生。