Before we start, the purpose of me starting this thread is to get some idea on my upcoming final year project that i might carry on as research for my master. Since this subject is highly technical, i think it suits this subforum more than Education subforum. If mod thinks otherwise, please move it.



My field of study is electronics engineering, major in nano-technology. Keyword : "electronics" and "nanotechnology". I am about to propose a title for my FYP in next few weeks and as a student in local university, i faces problem that bugs almost everyone else that study in local U :

1) limited fund
2) limited equipment
3) limited time
4) limited resources

The thing i have in mind now includes :
1) Single electron transistor
2) QD LED/Laser that can be made into flexible display
3) ZnO thin-film fabrication

As i mention with the limitation, i need something that is possible to be achieve, possible to have initial results within 6 months of work and does not require a top end lab from DARPA to work things out. For example, I've proposed a FED display project before but rejected for the reason that it is impossible to fabricate a whole bunch of perfectly lined up CNT in our lab.

Now, keep your suggestions/discussion flowing. Might it be ideas on simple computer simulation of quantum science stuff, or physical fabrication project.

When your school/university reject it because it is impossible to fabricate, I think the answer is quite obvious, ain't it? Simulation is your closest approach if you seriously want to do it.

The strength of nanotube come largely from the architecture and configuration of the structure. What you can do, is to scale-up the model, using suitable material and measurable strength, flexibility, with matching property (which is properly scale) to appropriately describe your scale-up model. Then formulate the factor of the strength of your model against actual nanotube, you may need to quote from journal etc.

Do a simulation model of the original nanotube and scale up model, to verify that your emperical formula is within the tolerance.

You will also need to construct a scale model of a common molecular structure/model as your reference model when you do your testing/experiment.

I think a simulation best suit your situation since you are lacking 4 important elements.

Apparently you are still lucky because I did my undergrad FYP on nanotech with lots of problem such as:
1) almost no funding (used less than RM1000)
2) plenty of broken down equipment
3) borrowed resources
4) time wasted by the equipment operator (you take turns in analyzing samples even if you are early)

For my suggestion, you should try creating a computer simulation for the ZnO thin film growth cos there are tons of research done on it before.
Just find the right formulas and parameter to make it happen and you can suggest Excel to your supervisor.

Don't complicate yourself because its going to delay your progress.

This post has been edited by altan: Oct 6 2009, 08:24 AM

wat? your funding was only RM1000? you cant even do a basic research with that little funding!

when i did my FYP, my funding was RM3k for 2.5 months (at my uni, FYP is optional and only for one sem). for my Honours research project, we were allocated RM7k for 9 months.

That's the beauty of "collaboration" or the so called borrowing chemical reagents and analysis time off peers.
Beside, that's why scientist have to know a lot of people in order to get something done.
Here an interesting quote I heard from an interesting talk I went yesterday at Academy Science Malaysia



I didn't get the quote exactly right but close enough

I hope I'm not going off topic...

This post has been edited by altan: Oct 11 2009, 08:59 AM