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| Nanome had demos of their VR tool at NanoDay. |
“I wanted to raise awareness about what the major is, what
we do at UC San Diego, and also the potential future that could happen using
nanoengineering,” Tong said.
So he and the Nanoengineering and Technology Society (NETS)
at UC San Diego resurrected NanoDay, a celebration of all things
nanoengineering that hadn’t been held in at least the last four years. The
student organization plans to make the event an annual occurrence to highlight
all that’s going on in the department, and provide undergraduate students with
tangible ideas of what a career in nanoengineering could look like.
 |
| Professors Darren Lipomi and Sheng Xu shared their insight. |
UC San Diego was the first in the nation to create an
official academic Department of Nanoengineering in 2007 and began offering it
as an undergraduate degree program in fall 2010. In its simplest form, nanoengineering
draws on all disciplines of engineering to create devices at the nano, or sub-micron,
scale. It’s an interdisciplinary science relating biochemistry, engineering and
physics to create structures smaller than bacteria with complex functions.
As Darren Lipomi, a professor of nanoengineering and one of
four professors on a panel about academic life in nanoegineering put it,
nanoengineering principles underpin all of the concepts and phenomena we
understand on a larger scale.
“I think the challenge is to identify something that’s not
nanoengineering,” Lipomi said.
 |
| Professors David Fenning and Shaochen Chen answered questions about their career path and gave advice to students. |
He was joined on the panel by nanoengineering professors
Shaochen Chen, David Fenning and Sheng Xu.
For a taste of post-grad life in industry, students heard
from a panel of speakers from large companies like General Atomics, to small
startups like GrollTex, and nanoparticle manufacturer nanoComposix, all of which have
nanoengineering-specific positions.
Joseph Wang, chair of the Department of Nanoengineering, gave opening remarks at NanoDay about the wide scope of research
underway at UC San Diego—from needle-free tattoo-like glucose sensors, to micromotors
for drug delivery, stretchable batteries and flexible ultrasound patches, it’s
a diverse field.
 |
| Representatives from General Atomics and Grolltex shared their perspectives on nanoengineering in industry. |
Nanoengineering alumnus Steve McCloskey, who founded virtual
reality company Nanome, shared his post-grad story and advice with students. Nanome
allows users to experience and manipulate atoms and molecules in a 3D environment,
making it easier to visualize and design new medicines or chemicals, for
example. The startup was one of seven companies honored with a Best of Show
award at the Bio-IT World conference.
