Nanoengineering - the curriculum

The nanoengineering option is one of the most interdisciplinary options available in the Engineering Science curriculum. One can specialize in electronics, materials chemistry, bioengineering, and photonics through the courses offered in the third and fourth years. The third year curriculum gives students a broad range of courses, especially in physics and physical chemistry, forcing them to learn specialist courses in each area. While taking courses in organic chemistry, physical electronics, and materials, one learns the information that students in the specialist programs have been learning all along. It is a bit overwhelming at first to be confronted with all this new information, but most of the course material begins to make sense the further on one progresses through the course.

The third year courses are very specialized, but form a strong basis for the different specialties one can take in fourth year. The course calendar does not show these specific areas of specialty, but along with Donna/Morag, you can tailor your courses for a direct path in to the area you wish to study after your fourth year. It is also important to get your hands on an Arts and Science Calendar and look for technical elective courses as well as your arts elective. For those looking into the chemical and biomedical areas, this is especially important, as there are a large number of courses that you can incorporate into your program. If you are unsure of where to begin to do your course selections, speak to a current or past fourth year student, as they can provide you with information about the courses they took and how they enjoyed these courses.

FALL SESSION-YEAR 3
Physical and Inorganic Chemistry CHE390H1
Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry CHE391H1
Physical Electronics ECE350H1
Signal Analysis and Communication ECE355H1
Quantum Mechanics I PHY355H1

WINTER SESSION-YEAR 3
Materials Chemistry CHM325H1
Economic Analysis and Decision Making MIE374H1
Structure and Characterization of Nanostructured Materials MSE358H1
Advanced Physics Laboratory PHY327H1
Atoms, Molecules and Solids PHY358H1
Written and Oral Communication ESC300H1

FALL SESSION-YEAR 4
Thesis ESC489Y1 or ESC499Y1 Y
Synthesis of Nanostructured Materials MSE459H1
Complementary Studies Elective**
and two of:
Chemical Properties of Polymers CHE461H1
Solid State Chemistry CHM434H1
Optical Engineering ECE426H1
Cellular Bioelectricity ECE445H1
Complex Analysis MAT389H1
Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) and Nano Electro-Opto Mechanical Systems (NEOMS) MSE457H1
Advanced Physics Laboratory PHY427H1
Modern Optics PHY485H1
Other Technical Elective

WINTER SESSION-YEAR 4
Thesis ESC489Y1 Y or ESC499Y1 Y
Quantum Structures MSE460H1
Advanced Physical Properties of Structural Nanomaterials MSE550H1
and two of:
Cellular Molecular Bioengineering I BME395H1
Polymer Chemistry CHM426H1
Linear Systems and Control ECE356H1
Photonics l ECE527H1
Biomaterials and Biocompatibility MSE452H1
Advanced Physics Laboratory PHY427H1
Basic Statistical Mechanics PHY480H1
Condensed Matter Physics PHY487H1
Other Technical Elective

The objective of this course is to introduce fundamental chemistry required in order to understand environmental systems. The chemistry of inorganic compounds will be introduced in terms of atomic orbitals, molecular structure, periodic trends and coordination chemistry. The impact of pH, oxidation potential and complexation
on chemical speciation will be described and related to chemistry in natural waters. Intermediate level concepts relevant
to chemical kinetics such as rate laws and mechanisms will be presented and applied to photochemistry and atmospheric chemistry. Partitioning in multiphase systems will be discussed with emphasis on adsorption and chemistry in water/soil systems.

This course examines the sources, structures, properties and reactions of organic chemicals with reference to their interactions with the environment. Industrial organic chemistry, biochemical compounds and relevant biochemical reactions will be discussed.

The crystal lattice and basis; real and reciprocal space; diffraction experiments. Electronic theory of semiconductors: energy bands, crystal momentum, effective mass, holes. Semiconductors in equilibrium: Fermi-Dirac statistics, electron and hole densities, donors and acceptors. Carrier transport. Excess carriers, generation
and recombination, lifetime, ambipolar diffusion. Semiconductor diodes: the ideal p-n junction, non-idealities, small signal and transient response, photodiode, LED, semiconductor laser; metal semiconductor contact; heterojunctions. MOS capacitor, MOST. BJT: carrier distribution, currents, the Ebers-Moll model, small signal parameters, switching, secondary effects.

An introduction to continuous-time and discrete-time signals and systems. Topics include characterization of linear time- invariant systems, Fourier analysis, linear filtering, sampling of continuous-time signals, and modulation techniques for communication systems.

Wave Particle Duality, Dirac Formalism, Postulates of Quantum Mechanics, Two Level Systems and Spin 1/2, The Harmonic
Oscillator, Angular Momentum, The Hydrogen Atom. Reference:

Fashioned to illustrate how inorganic and polymer materials chemistry can be rationally used to synthesize superconductors, metals, semiconductors, ceramics, elastomers, hermoplastics,thermosets and polymer liquid crystals, with properties that can be tailored for applications in a range of advanced technologies. Coverage is fairly broad and is organized to crosscut many aspects
of the field.

An example of a pure memory-work course, the evaluation consisted of two tests and the final. The polymer portion concentrated on synthesis while the solid state part included synthesis, structure, properties and charactersitics of low dimensional electrical conductors. Study previous exams, tests and sample questions, since they have a tendancy to show up again.

This course deals with both the theoretical and experimental interpretation of the structure and chemistry of nanostructured materials. The structural characteristics of self-assembled clusters, nanoparticles, nanowires, nanotubes and quantum dots, as well as three-dimensional bulk nanocrystalline materials and their defect structures will be discussed in detail. Experimental techniques for characterizing their structure and chemistry will be described including electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction, Auger electron spectroscopy, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, secondary-
ion mass spectroscopy and scanning probe microscopy.

Although this course required a lot of independent learning, attendance was necessary to pick up hand outs that had to be memorized for the exam. The content is equivalent to that of an introductory materials science course, covering crystal structure, phase diagrams and instruments used to characterize materials.

This course consists of four labs each spanning three weeks. Like most labs, if you take the time to read up on the theory you'll learn a lot from the experiment, especially since many of them are either original or variations of experiments that won a Nobel Prize. Understanding the theory is what will get you the marks at the interviews and oral exam, but setting up the equipment is what will drive you insane during lab sessions. You'll find that Mr. Tak Sato is a magician who will soon become your best friend. The marks are usually quite high in this course so don't worry too much.

Harmonic oscillator in three dimensions. Perturbation theory; radiation from atoms’ fine and hyperfine structure of the hydrogen atom, variational principle; the helium atom; an approach to an accurate ground-state wave function for the helium atom; complex atoms, structure and orbital coupling. Electrons in diatomic molecules; the Born-Oppenheimer approximation; symmetries of electronic orbitals in diatomic homopolar and heteropolar molecules, nuclear motion and infrared absorption.
Crystal binding, Bravais lattices; electron in a periodic potential; reciprocal lattice; Bloch’s theorem; energy bands; Fermi surfaces. References: Quantum States of Atoms, Molecules and Solids by Morrison, Estle and Lane.

Professor Griffin was very enthusiastic about the material and went at a pace that allowed everyone to keep up. While Quantum I was a pre-requisite for this course, Prof. Griffin reviewed all the important points that I hadn't understood before. Problem sets were often long, but illustrated key concepts in the course. This course acts as a spring board for condensed matter physics.