On Friday March 20, 2015, the Nanotechnology Engineering Fourth Year Capstone Design Symposium was held. This event showcases design projects from the Nanotechnology Engineering program senior class which they work on over the course of three terms. Twenty-four projects in the theme areas of Nano Electronics & Photonics, NEMs & Nano Fluidics, Nanobiotechnology & Biomedical Systems and Nano Functional Materials were presented by the students throughout the day.
The poster presentation competition rewarded three teams:
First prize
Navid Abedzadeh, Nigel Clarke, Matt Lavrisa, Brent McCleave
Colour-Changing Metasurface for Displays and Customizability: Using a phenomenon known as surface plasmon resonance, we have developed an active metasurface that can completely change its appearance by selecting which colours of ambient light are reflected and which are absorbed in real-time, all with near-zero power consumption. As a display technology platform, this metasurface is versatile in its possible applications, which include instantaneously colour-changing cars, displays which remain crisp and bright in direct sunlight, and mobile devices can last for days between charges.
Thank you to our design symposium poster award sponsor, Intlvac.
Second prize team 1
Derek Jouppi, Andrew Martinko, Rachel Pautler, Hayden Soboleski, Chad Sweeting
Suncayr: We have developed a colour changing ink that tells you exactly when to reapply sunscreen. This is drawn on as a marker or pen and then sunscreen is applied as normal. When your sunscreen wears off, the picture that you drew is exposed to UV light and changes colour, instantly telling you when to reapply. The ink forms a thin film that is non-toxic, waterproof, and stays on the skin all day.
Third prize
Kristopher Bicanic, Richard Garner, Matthew Mulvale, Adam Svatos
Microfabricating an Electrospray Ion Thruster for use on Microsatellites: Microsatellites with a mass of one to ten kilograms have become popular in recent years due to their rapid development cycles and their low cost of launch. However, most microsatellites have unpredictable lifetimes since they cannot control their position or velocity after launch. This arises from the fact that the propulsion technology currently available for microsatellites is too heavy or voluminous to be applied without compromising the original mission. As a solution, our group has further developed and tested a microfabricated ion thruster design invented at MIT’s Space Propulsion Laboratory. Our ion thruster is being integrated into WATSAT-2, the microsatellite developed by the University of Waterloo Satellite Team, for Canadian Satellite Design Challenge - a competition where the winning team has their satellite launched into orbit.
