Stanford Education and Outreach

The NNCI Site @ Stanford offers a wide variety of education and outreach programs. 

• Web-Based Library of Just-in-Time Educational Materials: To become proficient users of shared nanofacilities, students and others must acquire considerable knowledge. All users must learn to operate sophisticated equipment. Many users must learn complex nanofabrication processes that require multiple tools. The NNCI Site @ Stanford is creating a web-based library of just-in-time educational materials that will enable users at any shared nanofacility to gain a foundation of knowledge independently before they receive personalized training from an expert and whenever they need it during the course of their research.
• Nanoscience Summer Institute for Middle School Teachers (NanoSIMST): nano@stanford hosts a four-day in-person workshop at Stanford and leads a 5 day virtual workshop supported by 7 other NNCI sites. Each summer, 30+ teachers learn about nanoscience, prepare classroom materials, and help to design classroom activities for their middle-school students.
• Community College Internships: nano@stanford hosts local community college students for 20 week experiential learning internships in the nano shared facilities. Interns, 1) Learn deposition, etching, lithography, laser cutting, SEM, ellipsometry, ICP-MS, etc., 2) Create Instagram content and  training videos, 3) Support staff and research with process control, and 4) Build community with each other and inspire other students through outreach events.
• Tours: Tours of the NNCI Site @ Stanford are available to visitors. During these tours, we provide activities for the students as well as delivering lectures, demonstrating research results, discussing STEM career opportunities, and conveying nanotechnology’s potential to benefit society. For extended tours, our staff can engage in hands-on demonstrations of various research tools.
• Remote Tours: For educators who are not able to travel to the Stanford campus with their classroom, we offer remote tours. Depending on the need, remote visitors can connect with research staff via video conference and remotely view NNCI Site @ Stanford facilities and instruments.
• Hands-on nanoscience: The NNCI Site @ Stanford engages in a number of events that seek to engage the public in nanoscience and engineering through hands-on activities.  Examples include NanoDays and Bay Area Science Festival.

For more information, please visit https://nanolabs.stanford.edu/education-outreach.