| Monday, April 07 , 2008
Nanotechnology: Are we ready?
Tamil Nadu institutions scramble for laboratory equipment and
trained faculty
Nanotechnology is the new buzzword in scientific circles and
a number of colleges and universities across the state have
started to offer teaching and research programmes in the highly
advanced field. Unfortunately, not all of these pioneering institutions
have the physical infrastructure or qualified faculty required
to run these programmes.
In terms of laboratory facilities, experts say that a good teaching-cum-research
programme must have access to highly specialised equipment which
could cost anywhere from Rs. 5 to 15 crore. The equipment list
could include such items as a scanning electron microscope,
scanning probe microscope, atomic force microscope, very high
vacuum physical vapour deposition system and a particle size
analyser.
Considering the high costs involved, government grants and funded
research projects are essential to setting up such facilities.
Bharathiar University, which started offering an M.Sc and PG
diploma course in 2007, has received grants from the central
and state governments and the University Grants Commission which
helped set up the necessary infrastructure worth several crores.
Madras University was given a Rs. 100 crore grant as part of
its 150th year celebrations to set up its National Centre for
Nanoscience and Nanotechnology. The centre is still in the process
of setting up its own laboratory, but has already enrolled students
for its M.Sc course, which started in 2006.
Several academics feel this is the wrong way to go about it.
“Many universities are starting programmes without equipment.
But if you just teach theoretically, the students will not learn
anything,” says C. Gopalakrishnan, who heads the Nanotechnology
Research Centre at SRM University. Since it opened in December
2006, the Centre has equipped its laboratory through an initial
investment of Rs. 2 crore and later government funding worth
Rs. 1.2 crore. This seems to be the model followed by institutions
such as Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, which has the
best nanotech lab facilities in the state, and the National
Institute of Technology, Tiruchi. Both are undertaking extensive
research programmes, and are planning to offer Masters degree
programmes soon. Sharing of facilities is also a compromise
option being considered by some institutions. According to R.
Radhakrishnan, vice chancellor of Anna University, Coimbatore,
which started its M.Tech programme in Nanotechnology in 2007
, a fully-fledged laboratory has not been built due to lack
of space. “Students use the bio-technology laboratory
at Government College of Technology and also those at some of
the industries. They will be sent to institutions like the IIT,
Chennai, and the SRM University to train at the laboratories
there during the summer," he says .
Madurai Kamaraj University professor S. Shanmugasundaram says
colleges should either form a cluster or have tie-ups with established
institutions like the IITs if they want to have a meaningful
nanotechnology programme. Industry tie-ups are also important.
SASTRA University at Thanjavur has been offering a healthcare-oriented
M.Tech in Nanotechnology from 2006 and has tied up with pharmaceutical
firms to do research in tissue engineering, advanced biomaterials
and stem cells, according to the programme’s director
S. Swaminathan. Mepco Schlenk Engineering College, Sivakasi,
has signed an MoU to do research with the Defence Research and
Development Organisation and some foreign universities. The
co-ordinator for Madras University’s nanotechnology programme
S. Ramasamy says that human resources are as important and difficult
to get as physical infrastructure. While he himself belongs
to the Nuclear Physics department, he has done nanoscience research
for two decades. However, the University has not yet been able
to hire any qualified teaching faculty and is making do with
visiting faculty and staff drafted from other departments. Dr.
Ramasamy is considering applicants trained in the US, Singapore
and Japan. “It will take five to ten years before the
graduates of the new programmes are ready to provide Indian-trained
faculty,” feels Dr. Gopalakrishnan of SRM. However, D.
Mangala Raj, head of the Nano Science and Technology department
at Bharathiar University, feels that scientists from related
fields who have experience in nanotechnology research are also
qualified to teach the subject.
As students eye the growing opportunities in this emerging field
of research, they would do well to first research the physical
and human resources available in the institutions offering nanotechnology
programmes.
Courtesy: The Hindu - Education Plus
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