The Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology at Georgia Tech has announced the winners for the 2017 Fall Seed Grant Awards. The primary purpose of the IEN Seed Grant is to give first or second year graduate students in various disciplines working on original and un-funded research in micro- and nano-scale projects the opportunity to access the most advanced academic cleanroom space in the Southeast. In addition to accessing the high-level fabrication, lithography, and characterization tools in the labs, the students will have the opportunity to gain proficiency in cleanroom and tool methodology and to use the consultation services provided by research staff members of the IEN Advanced Technology Team.  In addition, the Seed Grant program gives faculty with novel research topics the ability to develop preliminary data in order to pursue follow-up funding sources.

The 4 winning projects, from a diverse group of engineering disciplines, were awarded a six-month block of IEN cleanroom and lab access time. In keeping with the interdisciplinary mission of IEN, the projects that will be enabled by the grants include research in materials, biomedicine, energy production, and microelectronics packaging applications.

The Fall 2017 IEN Seed Grant Award winners are:

• Saswat Mishra (PI Woon-Hong Yeo, Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering), Stretchable Hybrid Electronics for Wireless Monitoring of Salivary Electrolytes Assays
• Arith Rajapakse (PI Anna Erickson, Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering), Ionizing Radiation Detection Using a Vertically Aligned Carbon Nanotube Array Transistor
• Nujhat Tasneem (PI Asif Khan, Electrical and Computer Engineering), Co-integration of Logic and Non-volatile Memory in Front-End-of-the-Line (FEOL) Processes
• Congshan Wan (PI Muhannad Bakir and Tom Gaylord, Electrical and Computer Engineering), First Circular Waveguide Grating-Via-Grating for Interlayer Optical Coupling

Awardees will present the results of their research efforts at the annual IEN User Day in 2018.

For more information about IEN cleanroom facilities, research capabilities, and collaboration opportunities please visit www.ien.gatech.edu.