This year, Nanowire Week 2023 took place at Georgia Tech’s Global Learning Center from October 9-13, 2023. The event, which kicked off on National Nanotechnology Day, brought together attendees and speakers for four and a half days of talks, poster sessions, and panel discussions covering all aspects of nanowire research and development – from fabrication and fundamental properties to applications.

“Hosting Nanowire Week 2023 at Georgia Tech’s Global Learning Center has been an extraordinary experience,” said Michael Filler, interim executive director for the Institute of Electronics and Nanotechnology. “This conference has highlighted the interdisciplinary nature of nanowire research, bringing together scientists and engineers from around the globe. Their shared insights and discoveries are not just academic achievements; they are the building blocks for technological innovations that could transform industries and improve everyday life." Filler served as conference chair and worked with an international steering committee to plan the event.

With more than 115 speakers and poster presenters representing more than 20 countries, the agenda reflected the diverse and evolving landscape of nanowire research. Topics included nanowire growth and manufacturing, electron transport and doping in nanowires, quantum behavior and devices, energy conversion and storage, and more.

Nanowires are 1D nanostructures with a wide range of potential uses. The ability of bottom-up growth methods to ‘program’ nanowire structure and composition with nanoscale precision opens the door to novel materials properties and functionality.

Nanowire Week takes place every 18 months and brings together leading experts in the world of nanowires. Past locations include Lund, Sweden; Hamilton, Canada; Pisa, Italy; and Chamonix, France.

The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering of the National Institutes of Health has awarded $7.8 million over the next five years to the Atlanta Center for Microsystems Engineered Point-of-Care Technologies (ACME POCT) to support inventors across the country in developing, translating and testing microsystems-based point-of-care technologies to help improve patient care.

Point-of-care technologies are medical diagnostic tests performed outside the laboratory in close proximity to where a patient is receiving care. This allows health care providers to make clinical decisions more rapidly, conveniently and efficiently.

AMCE POCT, which is one of six sites in the U.S. selected by NIH as part of the NIH Point-of-Care Technologies Research Network, was originally established in 2018 to foster the development and commercialization of microsystems (microchip-enabled, biosensor-based, microfluidic) diagnostic tests that can be used in places such as the home, community or doctor’s office. The center played a pivotal role during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic as the national test verification center to rapidly evaluate COVID-19 tests and help make them widely available.

Read the full announcement

Researchers at Georgia Tech will work to develop new controllable materials for 3D printing, electronics made from plastics, and semiconductors that convert infrared light into electrical signals as part of the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) efforts to create advanced materials.

Altogether, the agency is investing $3 million in the three projects led by faculty members in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering (ME) and the School of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE). Georgia Tech is a contributing partner on a fourth project led by Notre Dame researchers to explore materials that can be switched from an insulator to a metal with an external trigger.

The new awards are part of NSF’s Designing Materials to Revolutionize and Engineer our Future (DMREF) program, which is intended to discover and create advanced materials twice as fast and at a fraction of the cost of traditional research methods.

Read more about the researchers' plans on the College of Engineering website.