Nanoengineers Class of 2014

Do these graduating nanoengineers look relieved? They just finished two days of final team presentations in Nano 120, a systems design course that all nanoengineering majors take in their final two quarters of the undergraduate program.
 

Class Photo: Students of Nano 120, a senior systems design class for nanoengineering students, with their professors (far left) Andrea Tao and Donald Sirbuly.

The senior design lab culminates in students designing a device that solves a real problem in a field of their choice, generally selected from problems faculty researchers are experiencing. For example, one team presented a lab on a chip that could screen drinking water and swimming pools for water-borne pathogens.

Although the Jacobs School of Engineering conferred its first undergraduate degrees in nanoengineering in 2013, this is the first crop of students to have spent their entire four years in the nanoengineering program that was created in fall 2010.

Zubin Mody said Nano 120 successfully brought together four years of both theoretical and hands-on learning about engineering at the nanoscale and fostered an entrepreneurial spirit in students.

"I've grown immensely through this department and all the people here, and the courses, the research opportunities -- all that together has made a cohesive, great educational experience," said Herad Moetazedi. "I'm prepared to keep learning and be productive in the world,"

After stopping for a class photo, the group gave themselves a big round of applause and went on their way.