Kishore Tenneti

Competition between liquid crystallinity and block copolymer self-assembly in core–shell rod–coil block copolymers

Core-shell type of architecture revealed the subtle competition between liquid-crystalline ordering and block copolymer (BCP) self-assembly in a rod-coil BCP system.

DNET: The Drexel Nano Engineering Track.

Early exposure of Nanoscale Science, Engineering and Technology (NSET) to undergraduate students is anticipated to play a pivotal role in recruiting highly qualified professionals for industry and in preparing future faculty and researchers for graduate education. Focusing on early undergraduate education in NSET, the newly launched Drexel Nano Engineering Track (DNET) program at Drexel University addresses the urgent need for early NSET education at the University level. The primary objective of the DNET program is to expose freshmen and sophomores in Drexels College of Engineering to basic concepts in NSET. It is envisioned that the career decisions of a large fraction of students will be directed as they learn the vocabulary of NSET and see potential engineering applications. The current DNET program activities include (1) updating/modifying a series of freshmen/sophomore courses / laboratories to infuse NSET into early undergraduate curriculum. Because of the size of the established tDEC program, this initiative has been able to reach a remarkably large body of students immediately. Over 700 students are enrolled in NSET-revised freshmen courses, and they will progress to NSET-revised sophomore courses the next year. (2) developing a number of modules for NSET education and (3) launching/maintaining a DNET web for information dissemination, performance assessment and outreach activities. The DNET program, together with the existing Nanotechnology Institute and Drexel/Upenn IGERT program that focus on the NSET research and graduate education, offer a stream of NSET education from college to graduate school at Drexel University.