For Students

Attracting the best and brightest from around the world

WIN Fellowships are awarded to graduate students pursuing nanotechnology research at the University Waterloo. Fellowships in Nanotechnology are valued at CDN $10,000 each. This Fellowship funding is on top of the Research Assistantship support from the supervising Faculty Member. Fellowships can be held simultaneously with other graduate awards (subject to the requirements of other scholarships/awards). These prestigious fellowships are open to new graduate applicants and current graduate students who have a minimum of two terms remaining in their program. Applicants must satisfy the general eligibility requirements for the University of Waterloo Graduate Scholarships.

Focus areas in nanotechnology include, but are not limited to:

• Nanomaterials for energy, environmental and health sectors
• Nanoscale electronic, photonic and hybrid devices and systems
• Nanotools, instrumentation and metrology
• Nanomedicine, medical devices & imaging, pharmaceutical engineering

Special consideration will be given to students intending to pursue projects involving cross-disciplinary collaboration in nanotechnology. Selection of recipients for the fellowships will be made by a committee chaired by the Executive Director of the Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology.

Fellowship winners & projects

Since 2008 the Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology has awarded 85 Nanofellowships awards of $10,000 each to students across 8 different departments.

Each year we accept applications from students around the world and the winners represent the very best of the best, boasting a mean grade average of approximately 90%.

The Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology would like to offer our congratulations to all our Nanofellowship winners and we thank all our talent students who apply.

Competition for Nanofellowships will open each spring term and a reception for the winning students will be held each new year (click here to view past receptions). Online applications will open Monday April 11, 2011. (view application)

Nanofellowship Winners

2010

• Michael Adachi
• Aijaz Baig
• Robert Black
• Zhu Chen
• Jun Chen
• (Vince) Yongjik Choi
• Ryan Denomme
• Behzad Esfandiarpour
• Scott Evers
• Anita Fadavi Roudsari
• Shokouh Sadat Farvid
• Ryan Hsu
• Jasper G. Huang
• Mousa Jafari
• Lei Jia
• Bryan Kuropatwa
• Hassan Mostafa
• Shruti Nambiar
• Sangtak Park
• Colin James Phipps
• Farzad Qassemi Maloomeh
• Allan David Rogalsky
• Parisa Sadatmousavi
• Sara Sharifian Attar
• Daryoush Shiri
• YeongHo Suh
• Weijie Wan
• Hui Wang
• Graeme Williams
• Wen Xu
• Mohammad Yeke Yazdandoost
• Nino Zahriovic

2009

• Morteza Ahmadi
• Nicholas Allec
• Sasan Asiaei
• Chad Robert Daley
• Anita Fadavi Roudsari
• Abdolhamid Firooz
• Amir H Goldan
• Sun-Todd Ryan Hsu
• Mousa Jafari
• Mohammadreza Khorasaninejad
• Angela Leung
• Seyed Mahyar Malzloumi Sadat
• Brad Moores
• Ali Najafi Sohi
• Farzad Qassemi Maloomeh
• MD Golam Rabbani
• Daryoush Shiri
• Faryan Tayyari
• Weijie Wan
• Yun Wang
• Jun Wang

2008

• Michael Musashi Adachi
• Arash Akhavan Fomani
• Chitral Jayasanka Angammana Mohottige
• Yanhui Bai
• Samad Bazargan
• Avisek Chatterjee
• Jun Chen
• Yiyoung Choi
• Kristina Cvrkalj
• Shankar Raman Dhanushkodi
• Anita Fadavi Roudsari
• Mohammed Hadi Izadi
• Mousa Jafari
• Minchul Jang
• Lei Jia
• Kun Liu
• Sangtak Park
• Farzad Qassehi Maloodmeh
• MD Golam Rabbani
• Abdullah Radi
• Parisa Sadatmovsavi
• Bahareh Sadeghimakki
• Niladri (Neil) Sarkar
• Mohsen Shahini
• Daryoush Shiri
• Christine Smid
• Arash Tajik
• Weijie Wan
• Yun Wang
• Hui Wang
• Fanny Yuen
• Bahram Zargar

International Doctoral School in Functional Materials (IDS-FunMat)

Earn two degrees and a full salary will studying jointly at two top Universities

IDS-FunMat is an International Doctoral Programme in Functional Materials funded by the ERASMUS MUNDUS Programme of the European Union. The school offers scholarships for PhD projects in Functional Materials Science, carried out in co-supervision between two universities from a consortium of 9 participating institutions. The 9 universities in the consortium are:

• Bordeaux, UB1 (France)
• Grenoble, INP (France)
• Caen, UCBN (France)
• Paris, UPMC (France)
• Louvain la Neuve, UCL (Belgium)
• Liege, ULG (Belgium)
• Waterloo (Canada)
• Darmstadt (Germany)
• Lisboa, IST (Portugal)

In most projects an industry partner is also involved. The PhD candidates must spend at least 6 months in each university. The projects start in October and take 3-4 years. The funding is as follows:

• Each Fellowship is for 3 years
• Up to 7500€ for travel (one time)
• 600€/month for Supervisor
• 2800€/month for Student

Current projects through the program:

Supervisor: Eric Prouzet
Integrative Chemistry applied to the fabrication of nanocomposite materials for sensing and electronic applications

Supervisor: Michael Tam
Designing stimuli-responsive soft nanostructures for biomedical applications

Supervisor: Michael Tam
Design and development of biodegradable and biocompatible cellulosic nanogel systems

Supervisor: Hany Aziz
Organic Photovoltaics: Active layer concepts for increased feasibility

Collaborative Nanotechnology Graduate Program

The University of Waterloo offers the first MASc, MSc and PhD programs in Nanotechnology of its kind in Canada. The interdisciplinary research programs, jointly offered by three departments in the Faculty of Science and four in the Faculty of Engineering, provide students with a stimulating educational environment that spans from basic research through to application. The goal of the collaborative programs is to allow students to gain perspectives on nanotechnology from a wide community of scholars within and outside their disciplines in both course and thesis work.

Nano Graduate and Fellowships Brochure

The MASc and MSc degree collaborative programs provide a strong foundation in the emerging areas of nano-science or nano-engineering in preparation for the workforce or for further graduate study and research leading to a doctoral degree. Four key areas of research strengths have been identified: nanomaterials, nano-electronics design and fabrication, nano-instruments and devices, and nano-biosystems. The objective of the PhD program is to prepare students for careers in academia, industrial R & D and government research labs. Students from Science and Engineering will work side-by-side in world class laboratory facilities namely, the Giga-to-Nano Electronics Lab (G2N), Waterloo Advanced Technology Lab (WatLAB) and the new 225,000 gross sq. ft. Quantum-Nano Center expected to be completed in early 2011.

There are nearly 50 faculty members involved in nanotechnology research at the university with many who are internationally renowned leaders in their fields. Among them are seven Canada Research Chairs and two NSERC Industrial Research Chairs.

Admission requirements

Admission requirements are the same as home department programs. The home department in which the applicant intends to pursue graduate study must approve the application. Interested students should apply directly to one of the following departments via the regular university application process:

• Biology
• Chemical Engineering
• Chemistry
• Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering
• Physics and Astronomy
• Systems Design Engineering

Degree requirements

Students must fulfill the minimum requirements of their home department including any thesis proposal and research seminar milestones specific to their department. It is possible that some students may need to take more courses than are prescribed by the home program requirements in order to meet the specific course requirements of the nanotechnology program.

Core courses

Core courses are designed to provide the base knowledge and skill set required to prepare students for more specialized courses and to conduct interdisciplinary nanoscale research. Generally, students are required to take two core courses and complete the Nanotechnology seminar. All core courses will have written examinations.

The two required core courses are:

NANO 701: Fundamentals of Nanotechnology (0.5 credit)
NANO 702: Nanotechnology Tools (0.5 credit)

Exemptions: Students who have completed their BASc degree in Nanotechnology Engineering at the University of Waterloo will not be required to take the two core courses. Instead, they can choose all graduate courses from the prescribed list of electives.

Research seminar

This seminar is a forum for student presentation of research results or proposals. Invited speakers from academia and industry will also present results of research from time to time. The range of topics that will be addressed in the seminar crosses all areas of research in the collaborative program. To receive credit, each student is required to present at least one research seminar.

For more information, please contact:

Lisa Baxter
Assistant to Program Director
Nanotechnology Graduate Program
(519) 888-4567 ext. 32019
lbaxter@uwaterloo.ca

Dr. Pearl Sullivan - Program Director

Canada’s Largest Nanotechnology Engineering Program

24 months of cooperative work experience prepares students for the jobs involving advanced materials, fabrication, and nanobiosystems.

Waterloo’s Nanotechnology Engineering degree program – unique in North America – is offered collaboratively by the Department of Chemical Engineering and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the Faculty of Engineering, and the Chemistry Department in the Faculty of Science. It will graduate nanotechnology professionals with hands-on materials science, clean-room fabrication and nanotools experience. Nanotechnology engineers will be at the forefront of research and development related to a cluster of technologies harnessing the unique properties and functions of nanoscale systems.

Four main theme areas are gradually developed as our students progress through a carefully designed curriculum, taught by accomplished faculty members with multifaceted nanotechnology expertise, augmented by extensive hands-on experience in state-of-the-art laboratory facilities, and linked to the workplace via the world’s greatest co-operative education program. The first theme area, nano-engineered materials, addresses the synthesis, characterization and engineering application of several classes of advanced materials, including nanocrystalline materials and nanopowders used in electronics and photonics applications, as catalysts in automobiles, in the food and pharmaceutical industries, as membranes for fuel cells, and for industrial-scale polymers.

The second theme area, nano-electronics, addresses the development of systems and materials that will enable the electronics industry to overcome current technological limits. Also part of this theme area is a new generation of electronics based on plastics, which is expected to create new markets with applications ranging from smart cards to tube-like computers.

The third theme area, nano-biosystems, addresses the molecular manipulation of biomaterials and the engineering of nanoscale systems and processes of biological and medicinal interest, such as, for example, the targeted delivery of therapeutic agents and the design of DNA, peptide, protein, and cell chips.

The fourth theme area, nano-instruments addresses some of the most far-reaching yet practical applications of miniature instruments for measuring atoms or molecules in chemical, clinical, or biochemical analysis; in biotechnology for agent detection; and environmental analysis.

We are committed to offering an education that prepares our students to be technological innovators and the next generation of leaders in the new frontier of nanotechnology. If you are interested in our program, I invite you to explore our website to learn more about our people, our curriculum and our facilities. Also, make sure to visit the Find Out More About UW website for plenty of interesting information about our University. If you have any more questions about the Nanotechnology Engineering Program, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Once again welcome,

Dr. Marios Ioannidis

Associate Professor, Chemical Engineering
Director, Nanotechnology Engineering

Teams & Events

From our Award Winning Midnight Sun Solar car to our first place finishing in the Alternative Fuels Challenge-X Competition, the University of Waterloo has a rich history of students teams and design competitions. This history continues at the micro/nanoscale with the Waterloo NanoRobotics Group (NRG). WIN supports teams and events that push the boundaries of science and engineering at the nanoscale.

WIN and the NRG have collaborated on a number of events and activities including:

• NanoConnect Day
• NanoJapan Conference
• NanoDay at the Children’s Museum
• First Lego Robotics

The University of Waterloo Nanorobotics Group captured third place in the annual Mobile Microrobotics Challenge held recently by the National Institute for Standards and Technology in Anchorage, Alaska. Out of 11 teams that competed Waterloo was the only Canadian team and the only one made up of all undergraduate students. The challenge consisted of having a robot of less than 600 micrometers in all dimensions complete in three events including a two-millimeter dash across a playing field on a silicon wafer.

NRG was founded by Keith Peris, Ivan Law and Edgar Cao of Waterloo’s Nanotechnology Engineering Undergraduate Program.

Students Are Researchers Too

The students in the University of Waterloo’s Nanotechnology programs (BASc, MAsc, MSc & PhD) are part of WIN because of their work and affiliation with faculty members.

All WIN Faculty supervise graduate students. These students work at advancing nanotechnology research by conducting experiments, putting on events, presenting at conferences and co-authoring papers and publications as part of their studies.

Through UW’s coop program, Nanotechnology Engineering undergraduate students intern in top University and Industry labs around the world. Their work is published in top Journals. Just ask Ted Mamo, the first co-op student to be hired by Harvard Medical School, and Mike Burek who’s paper he worked on as part of co-op placement was published in Science

We recognize and celebrate their achievements in advancing Nanotechnology at Waterloo.