Every minute a person just sitting or standing without moving sheds 100000 particles that are 500 nanometers or larger. Is that person exercising? Now its 10 million particles per minute says Jorg Scholvin assistant director of user services for Fab.nano.
Thats why users of the MIT.nano cleanroom — which is controlled to have fewer than 100 such particles per cubic foot of air — wear full-body ’bunnysuits’ and other specialized garments to maintain the pristine environment required for nanoscale research.
Scholvin shared this lesson on gowning up during a virtual series of tours of the facility that was one of five courses highlighting the breadth of MIT.nanos capabilities initiated during MITs Independent Activities Period (IAP). The courses several of which will be offered again this semester also included a live nanofabrication demo and virtual classes on 360-degree photography biomechanics in everyday life and storytelling for science and engineering communication.
A glimpse at the guts of MIT.nano
The three-part series of virtual tours brought 56 attendees inside MIT.nanos facilities. With a camera on a rolling tripod and a little ingenuity Scholvin led the Zoom attendees through the cleanroom comparing the layout to that of a grocery store: the bays where researchers work are like the aisles where customers shop and the chases with the back ends of the equipment like the product shelves.
On the second day Scholvin was joined by Anna Osherov assistant director for user services at Characterization.nano for a tour of the nanoscale imaging suites located in MIT.nanos basement level. Attendees learned about the planning that went into creating an ultra-quiet environment for the nano-characterization tools including a vibration demo showing the importance of the plinth — a 50000-pound slab of concrete balanced on a set of springs four feet above the ground to create a quiet stable island for the ultrasensitive microscopes that sit on top.
The final tour in the series led by MIT.nano Assistant Director for Infrastructure Nick Menounos took virtual attendees on a walkthrough of the non-public spaces that keep MIT.nano running. Attendees rolled through the mechanical penthouse basement water preparation space centralized gas delivery system and a freight elevator big enough to carry equipment the size of 14000 large pizzas.
Following this series Scholvin led a separate class on thin-film deposition lithography and etching processes at the micro- and nanoscale. Attendees followed along with Scholvin as he worked in the cleanroom to expose develop and etch screenshots of the Zoom workshop attendees — and ’secret’ messages from the class etched in letters less than one millimeter high — into a 100-nanometer thin gold film on a silicon wafer. ’Seeing the actual fabrication processes really made the technology accessible” said one attendee. “Getting this type of access to the lab and process has been a truly unique experience.”
Melding the physical with the digital
MIT.nanos Immersion Lab found a different way to engage with the students in its courses — by sending the hands-on experience to them through the mail. For Creating Editing and Distributing 360 Photography — a course facilitated by Rus Gant director of the Harvard Visualization Research and Teaching Laboratory and Samantha Farrell MIT.nano senior administrative assistant — MIT.nano loaned each participant a 360-degree camera a Quest 2 virtual reality (VR) headset and a monopod.
The course began with an overview of virtual reality theory and technologies along with a history lesson on immersive art and panoramic photography spanning from pre-Civil War era to present day. The class then transitioned to workshop-style with students creating content in their own environments from 360-degree nature photography to videos that place viewers into the film via VR headsets.
’Having experience using tools including a 360 camera Photoshop/Premiere Pro and a VR headset has empowered me to pursue 360 projects on my own in the future’ said one participant. For example virtual reality developer Luis Zanforlin part of a team that received an MIT.nano Immersion Lab Gaming Program seed grant in 2020 created a film of himself hanging out with all his friends during Covid-19. Zanforlin used a Ricoh Theta V 360 camera and a monopod along with editing software from Adobe Premiere to create the video best viewed using an Oculus Quest headset.
