Columbia- Berkeley Seminar Series in Micro/Nanotechnology
In September 2006, the Mechanical Engineering External Advisory Board (EAB) convened its first meeting at Columbia University. As accomplished leaders in their respective fields in the academic and industrial worlds, the members of the EAB are in a unique position to provide advice and counsel to the Mechanical Engineering Department on current and future needs. The support of the EAB will guide the ME Department on its mission to not only prepare for today's workforce but also for a successful future.
Among the EAB members is Dr. Albert P. Pisano, who is currently the Director of the Berkeley Sensor & Actuator Center (BSAC) and Chair of the Mechanical Engineering Department at Berkeley University. Dr. Pisano is also an alumnus of Columbia University's Department of Mechanical Engineering, from which he received his B.S. (1976), M.S. (1977), and Ph.D. (1981) degrees. He and other EAB members were impressed by the direction that the Department has taken and they reaffirmed their assessment by noting that the Department is currently building a significant forward momentum. This new and energized momentum is a result of careful planning and implementation of strategic goals and the efforts of creative faculty members who are willing to pursue new and unconventional research directions in the field of Mechanical Engineering. Specifically, Dr. Pisano was excited about the research conducted in Micro/Nanotechnology, his own area of expertise. Dr. Pisano suggested increasing our interactions with his colleagues at Berkeley to provide new avenues of collaboration and highlight the work of our faculty members in the area of Micro/Nanotechnology.
Taking up Dr. Pisano's proposal, Professor James Hone visited him at Berkely in November 2006 to plan for such increased interactions. As as result, it is decided to start with a joint seminar series between Columbia and Berkeley in the area of Micro/Nanotechnology. Each semester, at least one faculty member active in the research area from each university will pay a visit and present a seminar at the counterpart institute. Professor Hone will visit and give the inaugural seminar at Berkeley on January 31, 2007. Dr. Pisano will visit Columbia in late Spring 2007 as a guest speaker. Additional seminars are in preparation.
Professor Hone's work is focused on assembly and testing of carbon nanotubes, nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) and nano-biotechnology. Besides Professor Hone, additional members of the ME Department faculty are active in Micro/Nanotechnology research. Professor Daniel Attinger's expertise is in the area of microscale interfacial research. Professor Qiao Lin's current research is focused on designing and creating micro/nanosystems, in particular, micro/nanofluidic systems for controlling the motion and measuring the dynamic behavior of biological species. Professor Chee Wei Wong works on nanoscale optical structures, controlling dispersion, nonlinearies and non-classical interactions with photonic crystals and silicon nanophotonics. Professor Jeffrey Kysar studies mechanical properties of nanocomposites.