Industrial Outreach - Section in Development
MRSEC industrial outreach programs vary considerably from one center to another. Center Directors, staff and faculty are generally available to discuss potential collaborations, interactions and partnerships. Involvement in MRSEC activities by industrial scientists and engineers benefits those organizations in many ways. Besides access to the latest scientific discoveries and innovations in the Universities, research programs can often be jointly designed to address issues of mutual interest. Getting to know the students through collaborative interactions prior to being available on the job market also gives the company a considerable edge in hiring the best talent. Indeed, the majority of MRSEC trained students and postdocs are hired by industrial R&D or manufacturing organizations. Since the MRSECs attract faculty that are interested in interdisciplinary and (collaborative research, it is easy to interact with an entire community of researchers through the MRSEC and to build external relationships with faculty inclined to forming partnerships. Many individual MRSEC faculty members are available for consulting and other arrangements as well.
Industrial Partnerships
The MRSECs are actively engaged with industry to stimulate and facilitate knowledge transfer and strengthen links between University based research and its applications. Many different programs have been locally developed to address specific needs and opportunities. Individual activities may include:
- Affiliate programs
- Funding from the Nanoelectronics Research Initiative
- Industrial externships
- Joint development/use of Shared Equipment Facilities
- Joint seminar series/workshops
- Licensing opportunities
- Other partnerships
- R&D programs
- SBIR/STTR or other funding
- Startup Companies
- Visiting scientist/engineer programs
Industry Highlights [more]
May 15, 2008 :: BASF Advanced Research Initiative at Harvard
BASF, a major international chemical company headquartered in Germany, has established a major research initiative at Harvard, the BASF Advanced Research Initiative, that will provide up to $4M/yr in research support.
April 07, 2008 :: Materials Research Outreach Program (MROP)
The annual 3-day program is held in late January to showcase the materials research capabilities of UCSB. The MROP has evolved from a polymer-focused program to a broad materials-themed event over the past 6 years, and features a combination of “latest and greatest” research presentations by UCSB senior students, post-docs, and faculty as well as featured guest
March 14, 2008 :: Printed Organic FETs on Plastic
In a collaboration with an industrial manufacturer of aerosol jet printers (Optomec, Inc.), Lodge, Frisbie, and their students have demonstrated successful low voltage operation of an array of ion-gel gated OFETs printed on flexible polyimide substrates. Every component of the OFETs was printed—the metal electrodes (gold colloidal ink), the semiconductor (poly(3-hexylthiophene), and the gate insulator (the new ion gel material).
February 22, 2008 :: Doping Affects Electronic Transport Through Molecular Junctions
Electronic transport through a junction formed between silicon (Si), a monolayer of alkyl chains (C14H29) self-assembled on Si, and a metal (M) is dominated by thermionic emission above the semiconductor barrier and tunneling through the insulating molecular layer [1]. This team of PCCM and Weizmann investigators recently showed [2] that exposing the alkyl monolayers to electron irradiation induces new states between the occupied and unoccupied states of the pristine alkyl chain, evidently through the creation of C=C double bonds and C-C crosslinks since the overall layer density is unaffected.
February 18, 2008 :: Si Nanowire Grids Polarize Down to 193 nm
The continual decrease in microelectronic device feature size, captured in the famous "Moore’s Law", has come in part from a decrease in the wavelength of light used in the photolithographic steps used to pattern these features. Today, the most advanced production photolithography uses 193 nm ultraviolet (UV) light from an ArF excimer laser. At such short wavelengths, control of the