The Future is NEAR - Nanotechnology Research at North Penn High School

The Future is N.E.A.R. (Nanotechnology Education And Research) program is an exciting STEM education opportunity that allows North Penn High School students to perform research in the exciting world of nanotechnology, experimental design, and engineering research.

The program parallels the Engineering Design and Development course (EDD) of the Project Lead the Way engineering academy and offers its students an opportunity to gain 21st century STEM skills that prepares them to become successful leaders in a global society. READ MORE


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Students from NPHS Lansdale, PA, USA and Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School Faversham, UK have been researching the development of cellulose nanofibers from ionic liquid systems.

Cellulose nanofibers have never been researched at North Penn before. This research endeavor is particularly interesting, not only because of the international collaboration, but because cellulose has many inherent properties that could improve the function of nanofibers developed for many applications.

Please check back often for news and updates.


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This year, there are 30 students in 10 research teams in the Engineering Design and Development Capstone Course of the North Penn High School Engineering Academy. The main research endeavors that the students are involved with are listed below. Many of the students within these teams will also be performing various extended and supplementary experiments. A team research section will be added to the website soon to share various images and videos of the students' research. Please check back often!

Bio-Based Textiles
Materials Science and Environment Research and Development

MATERIALS SCIENCE
RESEARCH

Rayat Karim | Carter Laubach | Christian Snell

Although textile recycling programs exist, they are costly and often too small-scale to make a difference to the pollution issue. Textile pollution, mostly caused by non-biodegradable materials, is causing a build-up of synthetic textiles in landfills, amounting to around 92 million tons in 2015. Polyester, which accounts for 70% of the world's textile use/production, is non-biodegradable and can take over 200 years to break down in a landfill. Research must be done to help find a new textile suitable for consumption.

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Energy Harvesting R & D
Energy Research

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RESEARCH

Carter Briggs | Aiden Gardner | Patrick Moore | CJ Tobiaz

Renewable energy is not the primary source of energy production due to high costs, low efficiency, and not enough real estate. Most of the world relies entirely on fossil fuels due to affordability, since it would be around $62 trillion to convert to renewable energy. Because most of the world relies on energy, this problem affects almost everyone, with 90% of people accessing a power grid. Therefore, further research is necessary to develop alternative methods of harvesting renewable energy.

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Hydrogen Fuel Cell Membrane
Energy Research and Development

ENERGY
RESEARCH

Nathan Au | Benjamin Dawson | Logan O'Mara

Current energy production methods account for approximately 72% of air pollution, causing 99% of people to breathe air exceeding the World Health Organization standards. Of those methods, Hydrogen Fuel Cells produce no harmful emissions. Further improvements in Hydrogen Fuel Cell efficiency would make them widely used across the world, thus having better effects on the environment.

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Bioluminescence & Sustainable Lighting
Energy and Environment Research and Development

MATERIALS SCIENCE
RESEARCH

Shafic Henaidy | Isabella Kee | Munem Khan

In modern society, light is essential for human survival. All around the world, the workday does not end at nightfall, creating the need for artificial light. The electricity grid is crucial to providing lighting solutions, but approximately 1.4 billion people cannot access it. QuantumLux aspires to create an alternative light source, independent from electricity, that is accessible and affordable to people worldwide. Our research aims to empower underprivileged communities and achieve global equity in access to light.

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Organic LEDs
Materials Science and Engineering Research and Development

MATERIALS SCIENCE
RESEARCH

Own Cary | Ved Vyas

Despite the widespread adoption of OLED displays, with about 900 million products sold in 2023, these devices experience degradation from moisture, heat, oxidation, and continuous operation. Since failure rates reach about 50% after 5-10 years of typical usage, these issues increase the maintenance and replacement costs for consumers and manufacturers. Developing cost-effective solutions to improve durability and resistance against environmental stressors is essential to enhancing the competitiveness and lifespan of OLED technology.

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Acoustic Levitation
Materials Science and Engineering Research and Development

MATERIALS SCIENCE
RESEARCH

Dax Perry | Jamir Watkins | Ayush Yavagal

The current methods of electrospinning nanofibers are very unstructured, and attempts to spin more precise fibers do not result in the necessary accuracy. Without advancing in precise nano-scale fiber production, industries would be economically stagnant with their current capabilities. To continue advancing humanity�s technological prowess, it is necessary to find viable, efficient ways to create precise nano-scale structures for materials; since current methods either produce fibers at too slow of a rate to be industrially viable or fail to match the same nano-scale diameter of fibers produced by electrospinning methods.

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Energy Harvesting
Energy Research and Development

ENERGY
RESEARCH

Ryan O'Donnell | Vikesh Patel | Adam Wauls

Irreversible damage is being done to the Earth�s ecosystems due to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions, specifically carbon dioxide. Over the last couple of decades, CO2 emissions have spiked alarmingl), leading to harmful consequences including almost 9 million air pollution-related deaths in 2021. In an attempt to reverse these negative effects and prevent the further degradation of our atmosphere, additional research must be performed on the various ways to decrease the extreme amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

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Carbon Capture and Reduction
Environment Research and Development

ENVIRONMENTAL
RESEARCH

Rafauel Armanious | Nathan Pagnoni | Matthew Pimpinella

A balanced environment, where the atmosphere regulates the ecosystem, is critical to human existence. However, the extensive addition of carbon dioxide gas will negatively impact humanity. If carbon dioxide accumulates, the heating factor of the greenhouse gas effect has changed and unbalanced our environment and will continue to do so. Further research is required to advance and create methods to prevent further carbon emissions and its harmful effects.

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Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting
Energy Research and Development

ENERGY
RESEARCH

Matthew Cole | Markus Glaeser | Md Jehan | Nathan Wohlberg

In the energy-hungry world of today, a significant amount of kinetic energy generated by passive human movements remains untapped and wasted. Nevertheless, it's still possible to harvest this energy with the correct technologies. Without further research and development, energy inefficiencies are perpetuated and advancements are delayed in self-sustaining systems that could significantly improve convenience, reduce reliance on traditional power sources, and support global sustainability goals.

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Energy Storage
Materials Science and Engineering Research and Development

MATERIALS SCIENCE
RESEARCH

Evan Rosica | Landon Welch

Increasing the storage capacity of large-scale batteries for electrical transportation and widespread power grid application would significantly reduce carbon emissions and slow the progression of climate change. Improving the battery capacity of electric vehicles would decrease fossil fuel reliance both commercially and domestically. Greater storage at the power grid level would allow more widespread use of renewable energy sources. Inadequate electrical storage capacity also necessitates the use of gasoline-powered motor vehicles, which are both personal daily-use cars and large semi-trucks. The loss of electricity generated from renewable sources due to lack of storage ability reduces the possibility of their widespread application. Motor vehicles account for 28% of all carbon emissions in the U.S.A., and electrical power generation accounts for 25%. A necessary goal of finding improvements to the storage and transportation of generated electricity will cut emissions of these fields and be integral in halting the progression of climate change.

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