Lansdale, Pennsylvania—June 3, 2015—The Engineering Design and Development students of the Engineering Academy at North Penn High School hosted a nanotechnology and engineering research presentation on Wednesday, June 3, 2015 at North Penn High School in Lansdale PA.

Engineering Design and Development, or EDD, is the capstone course of a national Pre-engineering program called Project Lead the Way.  In this course, students work together to research, design, and construct solutions to engineering problems. 

North Penn’s EDD course has a unique nanotechnology program, developed by its instructor, known as The Future is N.E.A.R. (Nanotechnology Education And Research).  The EDD course and NEAR program offer its students the opportunity to gain essential 21st century skills that will prepare them to become successful leaders in a technological global society.  

 

 
The program introduces the fundamentals of nanotechnology, engineering research principles, and a rigorous application of their skills and knowledge to high school students while cultivating their interest in engineering, problem solving and life-long learning.  Students seek opportunities to design and test solutions to global issues by capitalizing from the fundamentals of nanotechnology and engineering utilizing the latest published research available.

This year, there were 15 students in five research teams.  Please see some images from their final presentation below:

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Image 1: The Future is NEAR (Nanotechnology Education and Research) students after their presentation.

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Image 2: The Future is NEAR (Nanotechnology Education and Research) students after their presentation.


 
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BCS Technologies running the Scanning Electron Microscope.
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BCS Technologies running the Scanning Electron Microscope.
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2014-2015 Senior EDD research students.
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Mr. Boyer Introduction.
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Mr. Boyer's daughter, Claudia, at the Zeiss microscope.
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Research team: Electrifiber.
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Gifted mentorship student: Jason Blocklove.
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Gifted mentorship student: Jason Blocklove. 
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Angstrom Scientific: Hitachi 3030 SEM
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Electrospinning station
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Research team: BCS Technologies
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Research team: BCS Technologies.
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Visitor viewing electrospinning station.
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Research team: BCS Technologies
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Research team: BCS Technologies.
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Research team: BCC Biotech
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Research team: DeltaTech.
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Scanning electron microscope.
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Research team: Valence.
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Research team: Valence.
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Research team: Electrifiber
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Electrospinning Station
       
 
 
Cameron Benchouk  |  Connie Conboy  |  Justin Craig

Antibacterial and Bioabsorbable Fabrics
 A wound left untreated or uncovered can lead to infection, contamination, and ultimately loss of limbs. Current bandages are nothing more than woven fabrics, plastic or latex strips that prevent dirt from entering the wound. However, if these bandages were left on too long, the risk of infection is greatly increased. Traditional bandages do not treat or prevent an infection. Previously curable infectious diseases have become untreatable and have spread throughout the world. Therefore, we propose to embed antibacterial particles into a fabric to lower the risk of infection.
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Image 1: The Future is NEAR (Nanotechnology Education and Research) Presentation 6/3/2015.
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Image 2: The Future is NEAR (Nanotechnology Education and Research) Presentation 6/3/2015.
 
EJ Bevenour  |  Nicholas Pleim

Superconductive Nanofibers
 Power lines are meant to transport electricity from power stations to homes and businesses. However, approximately 4.5-9 million dollars worth of electricity transported this way is lost due to voltage drop. Current methods for increasing efficiency of power lines include better conducting alloys and cable structures, but do not solve the underlying problem of overcoming voltage drop over long distances. Significantly more work is needed on superconducting power cables that would allow a transfer of electricity without voltage drop.
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Image 1: The Future is NEAR (Nanotechnology Education and Research) Presentation 6/3/2015.
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Image 2: The Future is NEAR (Nanotechnology Education and Research) Presentation 6/3/2015.
 
Jacob Boyce  |  Jack Pedicone  |  Chris Sibel

Melt Electrospinning
 Electrospinning, and by extension nanotechnology research, has the potential to solve many major problems of the 21st century. Unfortunately, many impressive breakthroughs can fall short due to the gap between the properties of nanotechnology discovered in research labs and products on the market functionalizing these properties. Two of the largest factors in this gap are corrosive solvents used in the process of solution electrospinning and the lack of control over the motion of the fibers leaving a random, non-woven fiber mat. Current additive manufacturing technology only allows control down to a scale of 50 micrometers on average when working with materials.

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Image 1: The Future is NEAR (Nanotechnology Education and Research) Presentation 6/3/2015.
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Image 2: The Future is NEAR (Nanotechnology Education and Research) Presentation 6/3/2015.
 
Joe DiFeo  |  Alex Noce  |  Connor Sloan

Electrically Conductive Nanofibers / Wet-spinning
 The e-textile industry is projected to grow to $3 billion by 2024. Electronic textiles (e-textiles) are fabrics that have electronics and interconnections woven into them, with physical flexibility and size that cannot be achieved with existing electronic manufacturing techniques. It is imperative to be on the forefront of this research by creating an efficient, cost-effective process to produce baseline conductive fibers and textiles. Developing a process that can create these fibers in a simple and relatively low cost process would be beneficial to the industry. However, few of these methods exist, revealing a need to expand the number of options to produce these fibers, so that a better solution can be found and employed to fuel a growing industry.
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Image 1: The Future is NEAR (Nanotechnology Education and Research) Presentation 6/3/2015.
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Image 2: The Future is NEAR (Nanotechnology Education and Research) Presentation 6/3/2015.
 
Brandon Berlin  |  Rahul Pendurthi  |  Alex Pham

Solar Regeneration, Energy Harvesting & Storage
 Dye sensitized solar cells (DSSC’s) have many potential applications for renewable energy generation. However in 2013, U.S. energy consumption relied mainly on non-renewable resources and renewable resources with outdated, inefficient technology.  Current DSSC technologies lack efficiency and lifespan, resulting in unreliable electrical generation. Through variations in component materials and chemical makeup, it is believed that efficiency and lifespan of DSSC’s can be improved. Significantly, more research in variations is needed to develop enhanced DSSC technology.
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Image 1: The Future is NEAR (Nanotechnology Education and Research) Presentation 6/3/2015.
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Image 2: The Future is NEAR (Nanotechnology Education and Research) Presentation 6/3/2015.