| Posted: September 3, 2009 |
Nanotechnology company partners with University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire |
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(Nanowerk News) A partnership announced in June will allow a new nanotechnology company in the area to use UW-Eau Claire facilities,including the Materials Science Center, for research and provide internships to science majors.
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Resonant Microsystems Inc., which specializes in micro electrical mechanical systems, will do quality control research for its Eau Claire products, while production will occur at Chippewa Valley Technical College.
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Doug Dunham, director of the Material Sciences Center, said the partnership has been in the works for three years and is pretty open- ended as far as its duration.
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Resonant Microsystems now pays a standard fee for using Eau Claire facilities, but Dunham said a subcontract is being developed that would have the company help pay for equipment in the Material Sciences Center that could be used by students and the company.
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"We love to help them out," Dunham said, "because it gives our students opportunities that they wouldn't have had otherwise."
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Currently, Resonant Microsystems, which is leasing property in the NanoRite Innovation Center, is working on fuse chips through a U.S. Department of Defense grant.
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The chips are meant to better control detonations of ammunition.
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"(Eau Claire's) material science program has a lot of cool testing equipment to characterize materials and to measure dimensions," said Frank Bucheger, general manager of Resonant Microsystems. "They can help us identify the materials in our product … which is especially important in quality control."
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This fall is the first semester that Eau Claire has offered the material sciences major.
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There was one student enrolled in the new program on the first day of classes Tuesday, Dunham said.
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Dunham said the program is starting with new students and incoming freshmen because work is still being done to create upper-level courses for the major.
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Senior Joel Peppler, a physics and engineering double major, is one of three interns hired at Resonant Microsystems.
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Peppler said much of the work he has done for the company has been researching equipment and figuring out how to drastically cut the weight and cost of the chips.
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"I'm really excited about this because it's practical work experience," Peppler said.
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Peppler said he benefits much more from actually performing the research than simply sitting in a classroom and learning theory.
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Though the project and the material sciences program is starting slow, Dunham said he hopes there will be larger projects to tackle with Resonant Microsystems in the future.
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"We're hoping to work on some bigger projects too down the road here," he said. "Some basic research things to help them design better products."
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