ToPoliNano: Nanoarchitectures Design Made Real

Many facts about emerging nanotechnologies are yet to be assessed. There are still major concerns, for instance, about maximum achievable device density, or about which architecture is best fit for a specific application. Growing complexity requires taking into account many aspects of technology, application and architecture at the same time. Researchers face problems that are not new per se, but are now subject to very different constraints, that need to be captured by design tools. Among the emerging nanotechnologies, two-dimensional nanowire based arrays represent promising nanostructures, especially for massively parallel computing architectures. Few attempts have been done, aimed at giving the possibility to explore architectural solutions, deriving information from extensive and reliable nanoarray characterization. Moreover, in the nanotechnology arena there is still not a clear winner, so it is important to be able to target different technologies, not to miss the next big thing. We present a tool, ToPoliNano, that enables such a multi-technological characterization in terms of logic behavior, power and timing performance, area and layout constraints, on the basis of specific technological and topological descriptions. This tool can aid the design process, beside providing a comprehensive simulation framework for DC and timing simulations, and detailed power analysis. Design and simulation results will be shown for nanoarray-based circuits. ToPoliNano is the first real design tool that tackles the top down design of a circuit based on emerging technologie

Herramientas en línea para desarrollar propuestas didácticas

En el siguiente trabajo se presenta una propuesta didáctica, en la que se utilizan recursos de la Web, para ser aplicada en el primer ciclo de una Facultad de Ingeniería. El interés en innovar, a través de diferentes recursos tecnológicos, surge como consecuencia de la dificultad que presentan los estudiantes para trabajar con diferentes modelos físicos. La propuesta desarrollada complementa el estudio de un modelo físico a través de la aplicación de dos programas que se obtienen en línea. Uno de ellos permite diseñar lecciones, las cuales pueden ser recorridas por los estudiantes según sus respuestas. Su uso es interesante porque facilita la personalización del aprendizaje a través de una herramienta accesible al docente y puede ser incorporada como SCORM o ser utilizada en forma independiente. El otro programa, diseñado en lenguaje Java, permite procesar videos codificados. Si bien en este trabajo se muestra un ejemplo aplicado a la Física universitaria, ambas herramientas pueden utilizarse en distintas situaciones didácticas y en diferentes niveles educativos. Con la implementación de las TIC al aula convencional no se pretende reemplazar recursos didácticos eficaces, pero sí enriquecerlos adaptándolos a las necesidades cognitivas de los estudiantes en acuerdo a un determinado contexto de formación.Facultad de Informátic

Desarrollo de material educativo para estudiar un péndulo simple con MYUDUTU

Este trabajo presenta el proceso de generación de material educativo, a partir de un video para el estudio de un modelo físico, utilizando herramientas obtenidas en la Web. Uno es un programa en línea que permite diseñar lecciones, las cuales pueden ser recorridas por los estudiantes según sus respuestas. El otro es un programa de código abierto que permite procesar videos codificados. Si bien se muestra un ejemplo aplicado a la Física universitaria, podrían adaptarse a distintas situaciones didácticas y niveles educativos. Development of educational resources to study a simple pendulum with MYUDUTU Abstract This paper presents the development of educational resources to the study a physical model, beginning with a video and using two software from Web. One of them is a freeware on line, wich allows design lessons, adapting the content to the students answers. The other one is a free open source, wich allows processing encoded videos. This paper shows an application to the university physics, but both tools can be used into differents teaching situations and differents educational levels

Análisis de las dificultades conceptuales del movimiento circular a través de la resolución de problemas y la experimentación

En este trabajo se presenta un análisis de las estrategias y las dificultades que presentan estudiantes universitarios durante la resolución de tres problemas de movimiento circular. Los problemas fueron trabajados en dos comisiones con diferentes contextos, en una se trabajó con soporte experimental y en la otra no. Por otra parte, se describe cómo es abordado este tema en los libros que se recomiendan en la materia. A partir del análisis de los datos, por medio de una metodología exploratoria y cualitativa, se identificaron las dificultades de conceptualización que presentan los estudiantes al enfrentarse a la resolución de problemas sobre movimiento circular.In this paper, we present an analysis of the strategies and difficulties that University students have when solving three problems of circular motion. These problems were solved by two groups in different contexts. Only one of the groups worked using experimental support. Furthermore, we include a description on how this topic is treated by the books recommended for this subject. By analyzing the information using an exploratory and qualitative methodology, we identified the difficulties of conceptualization that students show when solving circular motion problems.Facultad de Ciencias Exacta

Silicon nanowire-based circuit: fabrication, characterization and simulation

An intense effort in nanofabrication and measurement of silicon nanowire (SiNW) devices has been profounded at INRiM in the last ten years, for different metrological applications ranging from current and voltage standards, quantum electronics, sensing and biosensing. All these activities are currently developed at Nanofacility Piemonte, a Laboratory of Electromagnetism Division, in the Quantum Metrology group, and more recently in cooperation with the Electronics and Telecommunications Department of Politecnico di Torino. The major objectives of my Ph.D. program was the fabrication of silicon nanowires, the electrical characterization of a single NW and the development of a method to simulate its behaviour in a complex electronic circuit. First two objectives were pursued at INRiM, whereas the ``computational'' part was carried out in the Department of Electronics and Telecommunications (DET) at the Politecnico. A protocol of fabrication has been drafted so as to obtain a sample of ordered nanowires with the same geometric and structural properties; this has been possible through the exploitation of the properties of self-assembling nanospheres of polystyrene. These nanowires were manipulated in order to obtain a device that would allow the analysis of the electrical characteristics of a single nanowire. In parallel, it has been provided a Spice method for simulation of electronic circuits that can use data tables from measurements or from literature works, or models too

Silicon nanowire-based circuit: fabrication, characterization and simulation.

An intense effort in nanofabrication and measurement of silicon nanowire (SiNW) devices has been profounded at INRiM in the last ten years, for different metrological applications ranging from current and voltage standards, quantum electronics, sensing and biosensing. All these activities are currently developed at Nanofacility Piemonte, a Laboratory of Electromagnetism Division, in the Quantum Metrology group, and more recently in cooperation with the Electronics and Telecommunications Department of Politecnico di Torino. The major objectives of my Ph.D. program was the fabrication of silicon nanowires, the electrical characterization of a single NW and the development of a method to simulate its behaviour in a complex electronic circuit. First two objectives were pursued at INRiM, whereas the ``computational'' part was carried out in the Department of Electronics and Telecommunications (DET) at the Politecnico. A protocol of fabrication has been drafted so as to obtain a sample of ordered nanowires with the same geometric and structural properties; this has been possible through the exploitation of the properties of self-assembling nanospheres of polystyrene. These nanowires were manipulated in order to obtain a device that would allow the analysis of the electrical characteristics of a single nanowire. In parallel, it has been provided a Spice method for simulation of electronic circuits that can use data tables from measurements or from literature works, or models tool

Edutec : revista electrónica de tecnología educativa

Resument tomado de la publicaciónEste trabajo presenta el proceso de generación de material educativo, a partir de un video para el estudio de un modelo físico, utilizando herramientas obtenidas en la Web. Uno es un programa en línea que permite diseñar lecciones, las cuales pueden ser recorridas por los estudiantes según sus respuestas. El otro es un programa de código abierto que permite procesar videos codificados. Si bien se muestra un ejemplo aplicado a la Física universitaria, podrían adaptarse a distintas situaciones didácticas y niveles educativos.This paper presents the development of educational resources to the study a physical model, beginning with a video and using two software from Web. One of them is a freeware on line, wich allows design lessons, adapting the content to the students answers. The other one is a free open source, wich allows processing encoded videos. This paper shows an application to the university physics, but both tools can be used into differents teaching situations and differents educational levels.ES

Methodology modeling of MaE-fabricated Porous Silicon Nanowires

Porous Silicon Nanowires (PS-NWs) represent very promising electronic devices with a wide range of applications, all taking advantage of the irregular microscopic structure of PS. The strong variability of the electrical properties of the material with technological process makes computer simulation of PS-nanowires a cumbersome task. Here we present a simple model of PS-NWs which can be implemented for simulations in physics-based software TCAD Atlas thus giving a contribution to the investigation of the effects of the peculiar structure on the material resistivity. Extensive simulations have been performed on PS-Nws with microscopic characteristics deduced from our experimental fabricated devices. We investigated the dependence of current from applied voltage and channel doping also in relation with the electrical field inside the device and with the carriers' mobility. Finally we suggest an electrical model for PS-NWs easily implemented in commercial circuit simulators (Eldo in this case). It will allow to exploit the actual simulation tools also for the analysis and design of circuits where PS-based devices are presen

Using GNG to improve 3D feature extraction—Application to 6DoF egomotion

Several recent works deal with 3D data in mobile robotic problems, e.g. mapping or egomotion. Data comes from any kind of sensor such as stereo vision systems, time of flight cameras or 3D lasers, providing a huge amount of unorganized 3D data. In this paper, we describe an efficient method to build complete 3D models from a Growing Neural Gas (GNG). The GNG is applied to the 3D raw data and it reduces both the subjacent error and the number of points, keeping the topology of the 3D data. The GNG output is then used in a 3D feature extraction method. We have performed a deep study in which we quantitatively show that the use of GNG improves the 3D feature extraction method. We also show that our method can be applied to any kind of 3D data. The 3D features obtained are used as input in an Iterative Closest Point (ICP)-like method to compute the 6DoF movement performed by a mobile robot. A comparison with standard ICP is performed, showing that the use of GNG improves the results. Final results of 3D mapping from the egomotion calculated are also shown.This work has been partially supported by grant DPI2009-07144 from Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion of the Spanish Government and by the University of Alicante projects GRE09-16 and GRE10-35, and Valencia’s Government project GV/2011/034