Elements of Nanotechnology Education in Engineering Curriculum Worldwide

Nanotechnology has developed by leaps and bounds due to potential high impacts of its application in the world today. Nanotechnology has many potential benefits including energy savings, alternative energy supplies, efficient use of raw materials, environmental protection, agriculture applications and medical breakthroughs. All of these applications are related to engineering. Thus, it is important that nanotechnology be taught during undergraduate for engineering students to prepare then in career related to nanotechnology. In this paper, a comparative study of the nanotechnology course contents from several universities in the world is made. Courses on nanotechnology in undergraduate level for engineering are typically taught either as a common course or junior/senior level elective course. The common course of nanotechnology in engineering requires the entire engineering student to take this course for the understanding of the fundamental and introduction to nanotechnology, where the pre-requisite courses are pre-university Physics, Chemistry or Biology. For the 3rd/4th year level elective courses, students typically choose the elective course of nanotechnology with the requirement of some pre-requisite subjects. Comparison between Malaysian universities and other universities in USA, UK, Singapore and Australia shows that engineering curriculum within Malaysian universities are lagging behind in terms of offering nanotechnology exposure through courses at the undergraduate level. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd.