Engineering Professor Selected to Develop Nanomanufacturing Curriculum

Sarah Leach, an associate professor of mechanical engineering technology at South Bend, is one of 25 faculty nationwide selected as a field-test instructor as part of a National Science Foundation project to develop curriculum modules about nanomanufacturing for students at associate-degree granting institutions.

Leach will attend a workshop in Las Vegas and begin incorporating what she learns into Purdue Tech courses that begin Jan. 12. At the workshop, Leach will attend sessions on subjects such as synthesis and assembly, carbon nanotubes, molecular electronics, introduction to bottom-up manufacturing and top-down manufacturing, self-assembly, and deposition.

She will incorporate what she learns from the workshop into the manufacturing processes course she teaches in the Department of Mechanical Engineering Technology and will collaborate with faculty in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Technology to provide nanotechnology-related instruction. Purdue University College of Technology at South Bend, based on the Indiana University South Bend campus, has an enrollment of about 175 students.