Impact of Nanotechnology Themed Learning Community (TLC) Program in Freshmen Engineering

A new Bachelor of Science track in Nanotechnology (Nanotechnology Track) has been developed at the School of Engineering and Technology at Indiana University Purdue-University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Within this track, a cohort of 25 freshman engineering students from Electrical & Computer Engineering (ECE) and Mechanical Engineering (ME) participated in a nanotechnology Themed Learning Community (TLC) program. In this program, the students enroll and progress simultaneously in a group of three strategically connected freshman engineering courses with a nanotechnology theme (Introduction to Engineering, Introduction to Engineering Profession, and Fundamentals of Speech Communication). TLC faculty members closely worked with each other to coordinate teaching and learning efforts that reflect the goals of the developed nanotechnology track. This paper presents the components of the developed and implemented TLC program including details of the courses and assessment data, showing the impact on freshman engineering students in nanotechnology education. Comparative assessment data show, 20% higher freshman retention in the TLC cohort than the traditional group, which highlights the impact of the TLC program on freshman engineering students in nanotechnology education. Data also shows that the TLC (three courses) has guided over 75% of the students towards interests in nanotechnology tracks and research, and over 90% of the students indicate that they are enjoying the multidisciplinary activities of the program. This may be attributed to the “attached learning” when incorporating nanotechnology into real engineering applications, such as renewable energy, medicine, quantum computers, and many others.