University of the Future Colombia-Purdue Workshop Report

The University of the Future Workshop, a joint Colombia-Purdue event, was held at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, October 28-29, 2014. Participants included rectors and board members from six top universities in Colombia, along with executive directors of NGOs, government representatives from the U.S. and Colombia, and Purdue faculty and administrators. The workshop was focused on a dialog among participants on key programs and focuses that will allow universities to be responsive to the 21st century needs of the Americas. This report is a summary of the workshop and is based on the contributions of all the participants. Key themes such as transformative education, collaborative networks of excellence for research education and innovation, and innovation ecosystems are summarized. Recommendations to accelerate transformation of the universities are presented, including the development of networks of excellence in key focus areas

Informe sobre el Taller Universidad del Futuro Colombia-Purdue

El Taller Universidad del Futuro, un evento conjunto de Colombia y Purdue, se llevó a cabo en la Universidad de Purdue en West Lafayette, Indiana, el 28 y 29 de octubre de 2014. Entre sus participantes hubo rectores y consejeros de seis importantes universidades de Colombia, junto con directores ejecutivos de ONG, funcionarios públicos de Estados Unidos y Colombia, y profesores y administradores de Purdue. El taller se centró en el diálogo entre los participantes sobre los programas y áreas de investigación clave que permitirán que las universidades den respuesta a las necesidades del siglo XXI en toda América. Este informe es un resumen del taller y se basa en las contribuciones de todos los participantes. Se sintetizan temas clave como la educación transformadora, las redes de excelencia para la educación y la innovación en colaboración, y los ecosistemas de innovación. Se presentan, además, recomendaciones para acelerar la transformación de las universidades, por ejemplo, el desarrollo de redes de excelencia en áreas clave

A Concept Paper on Networks of Excellence for Research and Education

Research and education ecosystems, foundational components of knowledge-based economies, are relatively underdeveloped in Latin America. The entire ecosystem of a research university — including resources, corporate partnerships, and research — must capitalize on a symbiosis between the research, education and commercialization missions. A university cannot transform unilaterally nor can universities sustain the required transformation without government and industry participation. Initiatives to accelerate the development of research university ecosystems are critical for the realization of knowledge-based economies and resilient civil societies. To accelerate the development of research and education ecosystems across the Americas, the authors propose to establish “Networks of Excellence” in key focus areas. Each Network of Excellence will be multi-institutional, multi-sector (university, corporate, government, NGO) and multi-national. These multi-faceted networks will allow participants to define and share programs, policies, and content, significantly leverage the resources provided for related programs, and identify opportunities to leapfrog existing programs. Proposed themes for networks include regional grand challenges and cross-cutting capabilities

Fully transparent thin-film transistors based on aligned single-walled carbon nanotube arrays

The work describes the first demonstration of fully transparent thin-film-transistors (TFTs) based on well-aligned single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) arrays with indium tin oxide (ITO) source/drain/gate electrodes. The fully transparent SWNT-TFTs could be attractive candidates for future flexible/ or transparent electronics. The transistors provide suitable current levels to drive OLED pixels (e.g. for high resolution displays), and operated at relatively low gate biases (~2V). The use of aligned SWNTs allows scaling of the current levels with device width, which will be important for future circuit approaches. We propose several new approaches to overcome the limitations of conventional carbon nanotube transistors. 1. Difficulty in the separation of semiconducting and metallic SWNTs ~ Electrical burning at two terminals 2. Alignment of the nanotubes to device in a controlled fashion ~ Aligned SWNTs array on quartz substrate 3. High yield devices isolated from their environment ~ Atomic layer deposition (ALD) passivatio

Stable and reproducible electronic conduction through DNA molecular junctions

This letter presents the observation of stable and reproducible electronic conduction through double stranded (ds) DNA molecules in a nominally dry state. Stable conduction was realized by immobilizing 15 base-pair guanine:cytosine rich dsDNA within gold nanogap junctions, stabilizing the dsDNA with a polycation, and characterizing in nitrogen. In air, the current levels decrease with successive voltage scans likely due to oxidation of the guanine bases under bias. In nitrogen, reproducible current-voltage traces are observed and the current levels at specific bias points are stable with time. The stability allows comprehensive electrical studies and could enable conductance-based DNA sensors

Red-green-blue light sensitivity of oxide nanowire transistors for transparent display applications

In this study, the sensitivity of oxide nanowire transistors under red (R, 470 nm), green (G, 530 nm), and blue (B, 625 nm) light illumination was investigated. As the wavelength of light illuminating the nanowire channel region became shorter, a negative shift of threshold voltage, degradation of subthreshold slope, and increase of on-current were observed. This phenomenon can be explained in terms of photoinduced holes, creating interfacial traps between the gate dielectric and nanowire channel or reacting with oxygen ions on the surface of the nanowires. Thus, the attempt to minimize characteristic changes due to all RGB light sources was performed by employing ultraviolet-ozone treatment and passivation process. As a result, we could successfully fabricate oxide nanowire transistors providing high optical reliability which has broadened the possibilities for applying it to transparent and/or flexible pixel operation circuitry for displays with high optical reliability. Copyright 2013 Author(s). This article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4789405

Vertical Carbon Nanotube Devices With Nanoscale Lengths Controlled Without Lithography

Vertical single-walled carbon nanotubes (vSWCNTs) are synthesized within highly ordered porous anodic alumina (PAA) templates supported on Si substrates. A process for obtaining thin-film PAA with long-range ordered nanopores is presented in this paper. Each nanopore contains at most one v-SWCNT that is supported by a dielectric and addressed by electrochemically formed Pd nanowire source contacts and evaporated Pd drain contacts. Characteristics of these completely vertical, two-terminal nanotube devices are presented. Control of the v-SWCNT length is demonstrated using a straightforward etching process with lengths of less than 100 nm achieved without the need for complex/expensive lithography. This effective nanoscale length control of highly ordered v-SWCNTs provides a practical basis for the realization of CNT-based nanoelectronics

Indium selenide nanowire phase-change memory

Nonvolatile memory device using indium selenide nanowire as programmable resistive element was fabricated and its resistive switching property was studied as functions of electrical pulse width and voltage magnitude. The nanowire memory can be repeatedly switched between high-resistance (similar to 10(11) Omega) and low-resistance (similar to 6x10(5) Omega) states which are attributed to amorphous and crystalline states, respectively. Once set to a specific state, the nanowire resistance is stable as measured at voltages up to 2 V. This observation suggests that the nanowire can be programed into two distinct states with a large on-off resistance ratio of similar to 10(5) with significant potential for nonvolatile information storage

Deposition of platinum clusters on surface-modified tobacco mosaic virus

Nanoscaled Pt conductors were prepared from genetically engineered Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) templates through Pt cluster deposition on the outer surface of the TMV. Pt clusters were synthesized and deposited on the engineered TMV with surface-exposed cysteine via the in situ mineralization of hexachloroplatinate anions. This deposition was driven by the specific binding between thiols and the solid metal clusters. In addition, Pt-thiolate adducts are suggested to form on the engineered TMV in aqueous solutions that work as nucleation sites for the formation of the Pt clusters. The specific binding between Pt clusters and the engineered TMV template was investigated using UV/vis spectrophotometry and quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) analysis. The electric conductance of Pt-deposited TMV was greater than that of the uncoated TMV virion particles. This result suggests the application of metal cluster-deposited engineered TMV in future electrical devices such as rapid response sensors