MRC Outreach

The Micoelectronics Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin has conducts several activities in the area of Education and Outreach.

In 2006, MRC UT-Austin organized two hands-on workshops on Imprint Lithography. These one-day workshops involved lectures by Professor Neikirk of UT-Austin, and Molecular Imprint Engineers and hands-on session in the clean-room. The workshop on Feb’06 emphasized on SFIL process on IMRPIO100. The one on Aug’06 focused on Template fabrication for SFIL IMRPIO system. The hands-on session gave the opportunity to the attendees to work on state-of-the-art lithography equipment: EBL and IMPRIO100. Undergraduates, graduates, faculty and researchers (in total 24 attendees) from all around the US (University of Central Florida, UC Davis, UT El Paso, Center of Nanofabrication Stanford, HP Oregon, etc.) attended these workshops.

MRC UT-Austin hosted 4 undergraduate students from other institutes during the Summer 2006 Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program funded through NNIN. This was the third time the MRC hosted such a program and it was very successful, as measured by the results of the undergraduate experience. The four students involved with the 2006 program were Sarah Hernandez, Caleb Yu, Amit Vasudev, and Joseph D’Silva.

MRC-UT Austin provided clean-room tours to Summer Camp kids (100), High school students (75) as well as specific communities.

Rice University during its Nano-Japan program and INNOVATE TX symposium (NSF-PIRE grant), visited our facilities. 16 undergraduate students from Rice University, University of Florida, Virginia Tech, University of Tulsa, University of Tulsa and 4 graduate students from Tokyo Institute of Technology Tokyo joined the tour with their advisors.

MRC- UT Austin visited K-12 classrooms. We gave the students an introduction to microelectronics and nanotechnology. Topics like dress code in clean-room with bunny suit were discussed. The kids viewed the alphabet pattern generated on 4-inch wafers under an optical microscope, and wrote on silicon wafers with a diamond pen.

For information on Outreach programs in MRC, please contact:

Marylene Palard

Research Fellow, PHD
E-mail: marylene@mer.utexas.edu
Phone: 512 471 3674

The University of Texas at Austin
Microelectronics Research Center
Room # MRC 1.606F
10100 Burnet Road Bldg 160
Austin, TX 78758-4445

Participation in “Introduce a Girl to Engineering” Day
IGERT Trainees participates in “Introduce a Girl to Engineering” Day, sponsored by Women in Engineering in the College of Engineering. Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day (Girl Day) is celebrated internationally during Engineers Week each year. Families and educators are encouraged to join their students at UT for an afternoon of engineering fun. Girl Day gives 1st through 8th grade students a chance to:

have fun doing grade-specific, hands-on engineering activities,
meet students, professors and engineers from industry
explore discovery booths
see what it’s like to be an engineer