Hi everyone,

On Thursday, April 10, 2008 the 3rd Annual Arizona Nanotechnology Cluster Symposium was held in Scottsdale Arizona on the grounds of the Scottsdale Community College.
This year’s event was sold out with over three hundred and twenty-five participants. The one-day symposium drew speakers from international, national, and local companies and educational institutions to present on topics surrounding our symposium theme of “Live Small.”

Keynote Speaker was Brad Buswell, Deputy Under Secretary for Science and Technology, Department of Homeland Security. His presentation center on “Nanotech Solutions for Homeland Security Challenges. In his presentation he pointed out areas where nanotechnology could be deployed using carbon nanotube sensors to probe for hazards in the air, water, or even our food. Another area was using nanofilms made from carbon nano structures to enhance the strengths for fabrics making them stronger and able to resist toxic chemicals or even make the fabrics capable of stopping projectiles such as bullets, while still being lite to wear.

One area that will surely come along very soon is the implementation of nano size gas sensors that can be placed inside your cell phone to monitor for toxic gases and upload the data continuously to Homeland Security. When more than x number of phones from the same location, such as a shopping mall upload data that indicates a potential threat, the local authorities can be notified and respond before anyone is injured. It sounds like Big Brother is watching, but I think I like the idea of something monitoring the environment I am wandering in that could potentially save my life if is threaten. There are already four of the major cell phone manufacturers working with Homeland Security on this implementation. How about you?

The symposium day of activities were broken into the following four sessions:

Session 1. The Nanotechnology of Low Dimensional Structures.

Session 2.Regional Nanotechnology Initiatives

Session 3. Technology of Nano

Session 4. International Views of Nanotechnology

The last part of the Symposium was a panel on SBIR Funding; the pitfalls, the process, and the rewards. How to get your nano ideas added to larger projects. The presentations from this Symposium will be hosted online via AZ Nanotechnology Clusters’ web site www.aznano.org and will also be linked to www.matecnetwoks.org for your viewing.

Do you use nano-derived products today? If so, please tell me more about them by posting your comments.

Tom McGlew