Nanostructured materials and devices made from those are expected to become the essential building blocks of future technology. New developments in this area will impact a vast range of technologies ranging from electronics to pharmaceutical and bio-technology, within the next few decades. Research into carbon nanotubes, photonic crystals, and biomedical materials is leading lead to innovations in molecular-scale electronics, motors, and sensors.
Computational Biophysics and Systems Biology aim at unveiling the fundamental mechanisms in living organisms through modeling these molecules and their interaction and regulation. This allows an analysis and interpretation of genome and experimental data through modeling of molecular networks and simulation of cellular biophysics.
Computing and Information Science: Integral Part of all Curricula
Advances in computing drive advances in most other fields. These in turn require further advances in computing as larger and more complex problems are attempted. New domain-based computational fields continue to emerge as the interplay of computing and specific disciplines require depth of knowledge in both a given discipline and computation.
Similar to Cornell's virtual college-level structure of a Faculty of Computing and Information Science (CIS) Michigan Technological University will form a Faculty of Computing and Information Science, Engineering, and Technology (CISET) that engages with every college and school at Michigan Tech and shares the information revolution with every Michigan Tech student to create the future.
CISET will capitalize on interdisciplinary collaboration to accelerate knowledge creation and discovery. CISET bridges new knowledge and innovation in science, engineering and technology and applies it to sustainable economic developments.
Michigan Tech grants M.S. and Ph.D.s in Computer Science, Computational Science and Engineering, and Electrical Engineering. Undergraduates at Michigan Tech can major in Bioinformatics, Cheminformatics, Computer Engineering, Computer Network & System Administration, Computer Science, Computer Systems Science, Electrical Engineering, Management Information Systems, Software Engineering, and Scientific & Technical Communication. Students can pursue a minor in Computer Science. Programs in the digital arts are being developed. Interdisciplinary research is affecting academic disciplines and stimulating a new level of student interest in computing. Just as the needs of computational science and engineering have led to dramatic advances in high-performance computing, other areas such as biology, business, communication, and the social sciences are calling for new software methods, tools, and products that serve a broad spectrum of commercial and individual users.
Technology is built for, and exists to be used by people. Only by understanding human behavior, human needs and wants, and what they are able and unable to do, technologists will often design unusable, confusing, and unappealing technologies. Human Factors is the science of human-centered technology; it is the science of how humans interact with technology and built environments. Human Factors is interdisciplinary, integrating psychology with engineering, technology, and computer science. It is focused on the primary goal of making humans and things work better together. Technologies are often inherently unsafe by design. Although major hazards and disasters are often attributed to human operator error, the true culprit often turns out to be design error, e.g. a failure to take into consideration how humans actually operate when designing technologies. Human-centered design is safe and profitable design. Unusable and confusing products will eventually be abandoned by consumers, in favor of usable and understandable products. Finally, working settings with poor ergonomics tend to be wasteful work settings, causing more materials to be used than necessary. Human-centered design is environmentally benign design. It will be essential to develop additional faculty lines, including an endowed chair, in Human Factors Psychology in order to position the university to support and sustain research projects that explore the interface of human and technological systems.
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All emergent sciences and technologies pose potentially challenging questions about ethical, legal, and societal implications - questions posed and delibrated especially in the humanities and social sciences . Our teaching program of courses and a minor in nanotechnology places special attention upon ethics, risk communication, and study of the social interactions surrounding emerging technologies.
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