Dave Johnson

While Dave Johnson studied for a two-year degree in biology, he wanted to expand his potential employment field to include nanotechnology applications.

Johnson said nanotechnology has become a buzz word, but the application has long been around.

"Understanding the atomic scale has implications in the macroscale world," Johnson said. "Dockers stain-resistant pants have hydrophobic or water fearing polymers woven into the fabric, and that is a nanotechnology application. Understanding the surface properties of the technology is something that would keep you from having coffee all over your pants."

Johnson graduated from Slippery Rock High School in 2001. While studying biology at Butler County Community College, he discovered a bridge program with Pennsylvania State University in which students could study nanotechnology during a Capstone Semester.

Tuition for the semester at Penn State remains at the community college rate for BC3 students, and anything not covered is taken care of by a state grant, Johnson said.

The Pennsylvania Nanofabrication Manufacturing Technology Partnership has been connected with BC3 for about 10 years.

Johnson eventually finished a four-year program at Penn State and now works for the Capstone Semester at the university where he coordinates labs. He said the program helped him expand the potential fields he could work in later.

"At an associate degree level, I wasn't sure what to do with a degree in biology, so I could get more education or explore other options," Johnson said. "With the nanotechnology certificate attached to my degree, I completed an extra set of classes at University Park and broadened my horizons without necessarily getting a four-year degree.''

Johnson said the program continues to recruit students at community colleges across the state, and he visits BC3 two times a semester.

Denton Dailey, professor of natural science and technology at BC3, said through the partnership, students can major in nanofabrication at BC3, take three semesters there, and then transfer to Penn State for the same tuition price, which is $93 per credit.

When the students arrive at Penn State, they take classes at the materials research laboratory and have access to state of the art equipment.

"It's 50 percent lecture and 50 percent lab, and you learn all of the processes and machinery used in the fabrication of micro and nanoscale devices," Dailey said.

Those devices include integrated circuits used to make microprocessors, miniature biomedical devices and microelectrical mechanical systems.

During the student's semester at Penn State, six nanotechnology courses are completed during the semester.

"We have a couple students a year who go through the program and they usually go with a dual major and pick up the courses they need and go to Penn State in the summer," Dailey said.

"A degree in electronics is a known quantity and it's a well established major.

"Nanotechnology is kind of new, and a lot of employers don't know what it is, but the more tools you have, the more skills you have and the more marketable you are," he said.

Dailey said the program gives students important skills and knowledge that could make the difference in getting a job.

"It is still a new industry in this area, but a typical employer for the field might be a chip manufacturer, or a company that makes magnetic storage for computers and that directly applies to nanofabrication," Dailey said.