This program is a set of six cart-based, hands-on activities that explore the technology of personal electronic devices. With real electronics and interactive models of “software” and “hardware” functions, visitors will discover how pocket-sized computers input, store, display, and communicate information to connect us to the world. These activities build understanding of everyday technology and provide insight into emerging materials science and computational research.
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- Highlights
- 2020 Highlights
- Atomic Structure of Domain Walls in a Polar Metal
- Atomic-scale measurement of polar entropy
- Simple Theory for Binding-Based Molecular Chemotaxis
- Shape-programmed 3D printed swimming microtori for the transport of passive and active agents
- Heat transport in phonetic metalattices
- Spinodal Electronic Phase Separation in VO2
- Education & Outreach: Building PREM
- 2022 Highlights
- Crossover from Ising to Rashba Superconductivity in Epitaxial Bi2Se3/Monolayer NbSe2 Heterostructures
- Electrocaloric Effect of Perovskite High Entropy Oxide Films
- Enhancing Catalytic Activity by High-Entropy Bandgap Engineering
- Inclusive Scientific Gatherings
- Mission-focused Mentoring of PREM Undergraduates
- Optical Detection of SARS-CoV-2 Protein with Machine Learning
- Penn State Sustainable Lab Program
- Proximity-Induced Superconductivity in Epitaxial Topological Insulators/Superconductor Heterostructures
- 2019 Highlights
- Electric-Field Control of Polar Vortices
- Large Property Enhancements through Minute Symmetry Breaking
- Acoustic Regulated Rheotaxis of Catalytic Micromotors
- Substrate-driven Chemotactic Assembly in Enzyme Cascade
- Nickel Magnetic Metalattices
- Functional nanostructure synthesis
- Nanowire orientation and assembly
- College Prep for Blind/Low-Vision Students
- Engaging Center Students & Postdocs
- 2018 Highlights
- — Enhanced diffusion of enzymes induced by changes in conformation fluctuations
- — Lead Zirconate Titanate MEMS Ultrasound Arrays
- — Learning from Data to Design Acentric Materials
- — Nanowire Assembly Enables Switchable Broadband Polarizers
- — Science Camps for Blind and Low-vision Students
- — Subatomic microscopy as a key to materials design
- — Well-ordered Colloid "Compounds"
- 2017 Highlights
- — All-dielectric Near-infrared Artificial Mirror
- — Controlling the 'coffee ring effect' to design coatings, cosmetics, and spray drying
- — Correlated Metals as Transparent Conductors
- — High-precision quantum anomalous Hall state
- — MRSEC Tour Guide Team
- — Polar Vortices in Oxide Superlattices
- — Single-crystal Semiconductor Core Fibers
- 2016 Highlights
- — Wafer-Scale Growth of Correlated Electronic Oxides
- — A Ferroelectric with a Metal-Insulator Transition
- — Boundaries Can Steer Active Janus Micromotors
- — A Cheap Disposable Microfluidic Device for Diagnosing Disease
- — Extreme Band-Gap Reduction in Laser-crystallized Si Fibers
- — Structural Aftershocks in VO2 Switching
- — Single Fluxon Controlled Resistance Switching
- — Integrating Diversity Across Programs
- 2014 Highlights
- — A New Family of Layered Piezoelectrics
- — Broadband and Wide Field-of-view Plasmonic Metasurface-enabled Waveplates
- — Dual-‐Plasmonic Gold–Indium Oxide Hybrid Nanoparticles
- — Extending Crystallographic Foundations of Materials
- — MRSEC-Millennium Scholar Partnership
- — NanoDays at Penn State
- — Resistance quantum oscillations in topological nanotubes
- 2005 - 2013 Highlights
- 2013 Highlights
- Layered Ferroics as Superior Microwave Dielectrics
- Biocompatible nanomotors powered by ultrasound: magnetic steering and interactions with live cells
- Bone-Crack Detection, Targeting and Repair Using Ion Gradients
- Crystalline Si p-i-n junction flexible fibers
- Enzyme Molecules as Nanomotors
- Getting to Know the Science in your Pocket$
- Institutional-Level Diversity Initiatives#
- Neal-Ideal Optical Metamaterial Absorbers with Super-Octave Bandwidth
- Non-Mechanical Pumps With a Memory of an Applied Signal
- Quantum Phase Slips and Switching Bistability in Superconducting Nanowires
- Re-imagining CVD for Nanomaterials
- Single-‐Fluxon Controlled Resistance Switching in Cen7meter Long Nanowires
- Thermotropic Phase Boundaries
- Transition between Collective Behaviors of Micromotors in Response to Different Stimuli
- Tunable Nanowire Patterning with Acoustic Tweezers
- 2012 Highlights
- Electric-Field Control of Magnetism
- Engaging Diverse High School Students
- Integrated photonic systems based on transformation optics devices
- Interplay between topological Insulator and superconductor
- Light-Emitting Triangles for Applications in Optical Technology
- Manipulating Single Cells & Organisms with Acoustic Tweezers
- Molecular sensing is greatly enhanced by doped Graphene
- Self-Powered Microscale Pumps Based on Analyte-Initiated Depolymerization Reactions
- Superconductivity in Centimeter-Long In-Ga Nanowires
- Women in STEM Mixer
- 2011 Highlights
- Autonomous Motors Powered by Ultrasound
- CdS motors are switchable by light
- Colossal negative magnetoresistance in adatom-engineered graphene
- Hidden Roto Symmetries in Nature Discovered
- Low-‐Loss Zero-‐Index Metamaterial in the Near-‐Infrared
- Materials for High Speed Fiber Optoelectronics
- Micropumps powered by analyte-initiated depolymerization
- Museum Show: Hidden Power
- Optical Switching of Liquid Crystals using Surface Acoustic Waves
- Superconductivity and Vortices in Topological Insulator Nanoribbons
- 2013 Highlights
- 2020 Highlights
- Education & Outreach
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Our eyes perceive a continuous image when we look at a screen, but in fact, images are made up of tiny points of light called pixels. Look through a lens to see the individual pixels on the screen, and then turn up the magnification to see that each pixel is composed of red, green, and blue subpixels. Play with a macro-scale model that uses a tricolor LED to represent how the color of a pixel can be tuned to any color of the rainbow.
Computers follow simple rules and inputs that build up in multiple levels to result in ultimately complex actions. Break down the process in this activity as you help a friendly character make some decisions about his day through basic truth tables and logic gates. The activity has built-in levels that can be presented as appropriate for different age and time constraints.
We communicate using complex words made up of letters, but computers only process 1s and 0s. In this activity, put simple arithmetic skills to work to translate your birthdate into binary code. Learn how this code is the basis for a complete character code used by all computers.
Turn your phone 90°, and your screen automatically rotates between portrait and landscape. In this short demonstration, zoom into the inside of your device with a macro-scale model of how an accelerometer senses the force of gravity.
Cellular phones communicate via invisible radio waves. In this demonstration, you can literally see antennas, transmitters, and receivers at work by using the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum. As you transmit sound across the mini-network, explore different factors that affect cellular signal transmission including signal strength, obstacles, and reflection.
How does your device know where your finger touched the screen? With a two-player, “Battleship”-style apparatus that uses a real Nintendo DS screen, discover the invisible grid embedded inside every touch screen that maps the coordinates of your input. Then, learn how the DS touch screen actually works through a macro-scale model and explore the pros and cons of different screen technologies.