Course Description

Swansea has a strong history of innovative and creative engineering which is epitomised by the cutting edge research conducted within the Multidisciplinary Nanotechnology Centre. Engineering at the nanometre scale is one of the greatest challenges known to modern man and has the potential to revolutionise the way we live our lives, from star trek-like gadgets through to site specific medical diagnosis and drug delivery within the human body. Indeed, the Multidisciplinary Nanotechnology Centre at Swansea has developed an international reputation in many new fields that stretch traditional engineering concepts to the extreme. This has only been made possible by radical thinking that combines engineering with science, mathematics and medicine. Therefore, the Multidisciplinary Nanotechnology Centre (MNC) has an active strategy to develop projects that bridge traditional disciplines to provide a step change in technology.

The Centre was founded in 2002 based on strong and rapidly growing nanotechnology activities in engineering and science, and supported by significant investment from the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales, The Royal Society/Wolfson Foundation and Swansea University in excess of £4 Million. The Centre has achieved significant recognition from the international community, the UK Research Councils, the European Union, the regional development agency and industry. As a measure of the success of the Centre, it is home to a prestigious EPSRC Portfolio Partnership in Complex Fluids and Complex Flows. This is a major award worth £3 million and is a reflection of the high quality research that is conducted. Furthermore, the Centre spearheads the Nanotechnology activity across the whole of Wales. Within Swansea, the Centre involves more than 25 academics from a range of disciplines (engineering, physics, chemistry, biology and medicine) and a central suite of laboratories housing unrivaled state-of-the-art facilities. Of particular interest are directions based on semiconductors, oxides, liquids, polymers, organic and biological materials. Emerging fields such as bio-electronics, nano-medicine, nano-fabrication, nanorheology, fundamental modelling at the nanoscopic level and bio-nanotechnology have been identified as key areas to develop.