The University of Texas at Austin’s NASCENT Nanotechnology Center in the Cockrell School of Engineering offers an online Certificate in Experiential Nanotechnologies and Big Data. Students completing the program receive 9 credit hours of graduate engineering course credit on a UT Austin transcript, and a Certificate from the Nanomanufacturing Systems Center (NASCENT).

Courses

Goals

  • To teach critical thinking in interdisciplinary areas such as fabrication/metrology, and devices such as flex electronics, displays, wearables & integrated circuits
  • To enable experiential learning by portable nano labs shipped to each student – a unique feature of this program
  • To introduce students to big data analytics in the context of nanotechnology
  • To expose students to industry trends/roadmaps.

Want to learn more? Watch a pre-recorded informational video. 

Admissions Requirements, Registration & Program Cost

To qualify for admission to the certificate program, prospective students must:

  • Have an undergraduate degree in a science, engineering, or similar field.
  • Have maintained an undergraduate GPA of at least a 3.0 (out of 4.0).
  • Be able to provide a copy of your undergraduate transcript if requested.

If you do not have an undergraduate GPA of at least 3.0/4.0, you may submit a letter detailing any mitigating circumstances or factors to NanoCertificate@utexas.edu, and the program administrators will consider your application.

Apply Now

To apply, please complete a short application to the Certificate program:

https://utexas.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0iTbCDyouN4IBdI

Once you complete the online application, your application will be reviewed within 3-5 business days. We will then reach out to you by e-mail with additional questions, or with a link to the course registration page.

The program consists of 3 graduate engineering courses, each with a tuition fee of $2500:

  1. Nanofabrication and Nanomaterials (offered in the Fall semester);
  2. Nanodevices (offered in the following Spring semester); and
  3. Nanometrology and Big Data (offered in the following Fall semester).

We can work with students to provide all supporting documentation needed for students who have a tuition reimbursement program, or other similar program with their employers. 

Questions?

Email: epd@engr.utexas.edu

Overview of the Program

The Experiential Nanotechnologies & Big Data Certificate Program provides students with a meaningful introduction to leading-edge and emerging trends in nano-enabled technologies, and related data analysis skills, vitally important to today’s global economy. The program is designed to enable engineers in the semiconductor and other nanotech-related industries to engage more deeply and comprehensively in their careers through online course instruction, real-time office hours, hands-on experiments, and associated computational projects.

Throughout the three-course graduate program, students are exposed to manufacturing technologies (e.g., thin film deposition, lithography, etch, and particle and contamination control) and device technologies (e.g., displays, virtual, augmented, & mixed reality (“XR”), photovoltaics, solid state memory, processors, imaging, and energy storage). Courses in the program are taught by a team of distinguished faculty internationally recognized for their research and innovation.

Benefits to you:

  • For engineers focused on individual unit processes – gain an overview of the entire manufacturing infrastructure necessary for fabricating complete, working systems.
  • Earn 9 credit-hours of valuable graduate engineering credit online from a top-10 engineering school.
  • Stand out from your peers – gain skills better enabling you to think critically in interdisciplinary areas such as semiconductor devices, displays & XR, healthcare, and energy.
  • Learn concepts and problem-solving skills important for career advancement and future graduate programs.
  • Learn how nanoscale manufacturing technologies work together to fabricate today’s cutting-edge nano-enabled devices. Gain exposure to how devices such as photovoltaics, transistors, displays solid state memory, and hard drives function.
  • Learn relevant sensing and metrology approaches in nanotechnology. Understand how to manage, interpret & visualize the resulting big data that comes from these sensing & metrology approaches. Understand learning algorithms & optimization techniques, and automated process control applicable to these systems.

Taught by Nanofabrication & Nanodevice Experts

This certificate program was created and is maintained by experts from the Nanomanufacturing Systems Center headquartered at UT Austin. NASCENT is an NSF-funded engineering research center created with the goal of developing novel wafer-based and roll-to-roll nanofabrication systems to enable future mobile devices. The center has fostered research collaborations with the world’s leading nanofabrication companies (e.g., in the semiconductor industry), and includes world-leading faculty in nanofabrication, nanodevices, and data analytics.

Online Learning with Hands-on Lab Experience!

  • Each of the three courses comprising the certificate program is a semester-long course.
  • Students completing each course earn 3 transcript credit hours of UT Austin engineering graduate course credit.
  • Courses are taught online, with recorded lectures that can be viewed at the student’s convenience. Multiple online office hours are held weekly with the instructor in a real time video conferencing solution.
  • Students gain hands-on experience by completing several portable nanotech labs which are shipped to each student. The labs may be completed at home, and are included with the course at no additional cost.
  • Students gain computational & big data experience by completing computational projects accompanying the lectures and hands-on experiments.