So you’ve decided to come to the University of Waterloo to study Nanotechnology Engineering. Like most young, intrepid frosh, you probably have a lot of questions floating around in your mind. Questions like, “what exactly is nanotechnology?”, and “what kind of sick people would spend their free time stuffing poor innocent kitty cats into unobservable boxes?” Some of you might even be a little uncertain about choosing to enroll in this program. My advice: don’t worry. According to the laws of quantum mechanics, we can never, ever be totally certain about anything whatsoever in the entire universe, so you might as well get used to the feeling and enjoy the ride!

Now that you’ve been exposed to your first nano-related pun, I can move on to describing the finer points of your nanotechnology futures. In 1A, (your first term), you’ll have a pretty standard engineering mix of classes; you’ve got your calculus, a little bit of linear algebra, and you’ll learn how to use MATLAB, the most awesome programming language in the world. You’ll also have your first nano-specific course, NE100, which, among other things, teaches you how to do cool quantum-y stuff, like how to solve the Schrodinger equation. The best part about this is that it’s always a huge hit at parties. Trust me; nothing impresses the ladies like a man who knows how to normalize a wavefunction. You’ll also spend the first week of classes learning the three central tenets of nano, which are:

1. That “nano” comes from the Greek word for “dwarf”, and is a prefix meaning “10-9”.

2. That the number of transistors that can be inexpensively placed on an integrated circuit is increasing exponentially, doubling approximately every two years, and

3. That Richard Feynman is awesome.

Things will start to get a little more intense in 1B, where the men are separated from the boys and the women from the girls. “Buckling down”, “busting your ass” and “putting your nose to the grindstone” are all highly recommended activities. You’ll be learning just about all of the core chemistry and physics skills that you need to have mastered by the time the more nano-focused curriculum content rolls around in 2B. 2B is when the program starts to get substantially different from everyone else’s, and for me, at least, it was when nano really started to get to be a lot of fun. It’s definitely worth the wait; hang in there, focus on the long-term goals, and I can assure you with reasonable probability that nano will be a very rewarding experience.

Copyright � 2008 The Iron Warrior