The wave of the future includes nanotechnology and new NVC Nanotechnology coordinator, Bharathi “Bharti” Subramaniasiva, Ph.D, is hoping to build upon NVC’s program to make it a sought-after feeder program for four-year universities.
NVC Nanotechnology is already one of only four nanotechnology associate degree programs at a Texas community college. Bharti is taking over where former NVC Nanotechnology coordinator, Qiaoying “Joy” Zhou, left off. Joy has taken over as the new coordinator of the Engineering.
Nanotechnology is the next scientific revolution. This technology has spread in almost all fields of science and engineering, such as designing medical diagnostic devices to building better batteries, from creating cosmetics to enhancing energy efficient windows, from auto and plane manufacturing to researching the nature of matter itself. The knowledge of nanoscale science and technology will be increasingly important during upcoming years and decades.
“We are trying to get our students and community understand the importance of this technology. Because, it will impact almost every aspect of life, starting from the food we eat, the clothes we wear and the air we breathe,” said Bharti, who is new this semester and previously taught at BASIS San Antonio North, a charter school system.
Bharti brings in vast research experience from her doctoral and post-doctoral studies on Nanotechnology. She obtained her doctorate in Physics, specializing in Thinfilms and Nanomaterials, from Bharathiar University in India. Later on, she pursued her postdoctoral research at the Texas Sustainable Energy Research Institute at UTSA, focusing on the nanotechnology solutions for efficient energy conversion, storage, and transportation. She has published her research outcomes in several high impact journals on nanotechnology.
Her goals with the NVC program include expanding the internship opportunities for the students, inviting more professional speakers to the classroom, taking students on field trips to various industrial sites and continuing to attract more industrial and academic partners for the program. Currently, the the NVC Nanotechnology program is serving as a teaching hub for the Nanotechnology Applications and Career Knowledge (NACK) Network, which is the National Science Foundation’s National ATE Center for Nanotechnology Workforce Development that helps create and sustain nano education in the U.S.
The NVC Nanotechnology program is also building on a partnership with the Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where Bharti will be spending her summer developing more instructional and classroom research modules for students.
Bharti said she’s also hoping to add more transfer agreements to expand the opportunities for students and make the NVC Nano program a “center of excellence” in the district.