Seen in the Press
College's future looks very small
Sarah Lemagie , Star Tribune Last update: September 26, 2006 - 10:57 AM
ARTech emerges as charter success More high school students take college-level classes You, yes you, can fight fires, too Teen builds a promising future from a sad past Interim principal named at Lakeville North O n a recent Thursday morning in Rosemount, Deb Newberry stood in front of a whiteboard covered with math scribblings, teaching a class of Dakota County Technical College students how to convert meters to nanometers. "This stuff is really, really easy... well, okay," she amended, as one student guffawed and the rest of the class, mostly young men, started laughing.
Newberry, whose background as a nuclear physicist includes work on satellites for NASA, took on a cutting-edge challenge when she started teaching at DCTC two years ago. As the designer and primary instructor of the college's new nanoscience technology program, she is training some of the first students in the country to earn associates' degrees in a field peopled largely by researchers with PhDs.
From the computer hardware in thumb drives to airbags and stain-repellant fabric, nanotechnology -- which Newberry describes as "the ability to imagine, design, modify (and) study at the molecular and atomic level" -- has already begun to transform a host of industries.
3M is using the technology to study adhesives. Motorola uses it in cell phone chips. L'Oreal -- holder of the most nanotechnology patents -- is developing new varieties of skin treatment lotions. And some Australian vineyard owners even use special sensors that hinge on nanotechnology to monitor the moisture content of their soil.
Future applications of the field -- being tested -- are even more mind-boggling. Imagine, for example, a substance that could be coated on nanoparticles and released into the bloodstream to detect cancer. Or how about house paint that could act as a solar panel?
The problem, say Newberry and DCTC leaders, is preparing the workforce for the growing demand for low-level technicians skilled in the use of nanoscience equipment, such as atomic force microscopes. At least 40 companies in the Twin Cities alone are doing research involving nanotechnology, Newberry estimated. A 2001 study by a National Science Foundation advisor indicates the United States will need close to a million nanofabrication workers by 2015.
In the absence of college-trained technicians, many companies either must invest heavily to train their own technicians or hire grossly overqualified employees, said Steve Campbell, director of the nanofabrication center at the University of Minnesota.
DCTC is the first college in Minnesota -- and among the very first in the nation -- to offer two-year training in the field.
The community college, long popular for its truck driver and nursing programs, may seem an unlikely site for training in nanotechnology, but it's a step the college took to keep up with advances in the 21st century.
"The backbone of this college has been the good, solid trades since the beginning," said Mike Opp, dean of the transportation and industry programs at DCTC. "But the way technology is evolving, this is the next thing."
The program, which graduated its first students this spring, came about after DCTC administrators heard the word "nanotechnology" at a conference and organized a meeting of local industry leaders to gauge interest in the field. More than 80 people showed up -- twice the number the college expected.
"I remember them cutting bagels in half and muffins in half," said Newberry, who was on a panel of experts at the event.
When the college asked local companies the question, "If we create these employees, will you hire them?" Newberry said the answer was a "resounding" yes. So DCTC applied for and received a $700,000 National Science Foundation to launch the program. This summer, the college got a second grant from the NSF to plan a midwestern center for nanoscience technology, which DCTC administrators hope will attract new corporations to the region.
Unlike the "knob-twiddling programs" that Newberry said some colleges offer for technical degrees, DCTC's nanotechnology program gives students a solid grounding in the math and science concepts underlying the equipment they'll actually use. In their final semester, they get hands-on experience with $50 million worth of equipment in the University of Minnesota's nanofabrication center, which is otherwise used mostly by graduate students or private corporations.
The program is tough enough that after the first year, the college realized it had to do a better job of counseling prospective students, said Opp. Of the 28 students who started in the fall of 2004, only 13 finished this spring.
"We think some of that is because some students came in thinking 'I want to build nano robots,' " he said. The college learned to tell those students, "Well, no, that's science fiction. However, what's not science fiction is
this , and this is what you'll be doing." With just a dozen students this year, the program isn't a big draw yet. "Until it becomes the next big thing and people are crying for our graduates, it's going to be a tough sell," Opp said.
Still, he said, "If we're going to move this college into the future, we've got to start moving into the sciences as well."
Sarah Lemagie * 612-673-7557 *
slemagie@startribune.com Copyright 2006 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.