New Congress forum to connect ASME's micro, nano experts

ASME's Nanotechnology Institute is putting together a special forum to bring together micro- and nanotechnology researchers from the Society's Knowledge & Communities and Institutes sectors.

This new event, the ASME Micro- and Nano Society-Wide Forum, will take place from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 8 at the ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition in Chicago.

The idea behind the forum is "to showcase and recognize the outstanding contributions to the micro and nano fields that are being made throughout the Society — including all ASME Divisions, Institutes and Sectors," said Raj Manchanda, director of ASME's Emerging Technologies department. "We're looking for division leadership, such as chairs and vice-chairs, to identify the best work in their divisions and then share that with the rest of the ASME micro-nano community."

There are many sessions from each division on micro/nano topics at the Congress, added Gang Chen, chair of the ASME Nanotechnology Institute Advisory Board. "However, people can only attend a few sessions."

Chen said the Institute is working with division and session chairs to ensure that micro- and nano-related paper presentations be included in the Society-Wide Forum. Chen he hopes the forum will also include a large poster session, which he believes can lead to more animated discussion. "We believe that this will significantly promote the cross-discipline interactions and bring the ASME micro/nano community together."

For this special session, the Nanotechnology Institute is asking division leaders to select the best micro- and nanotechnology challenges and opportunities in their technical areas. These examples will then be presented and discussed during the forum, which Manchanda expects to be "an outstanding knowledge exchange and networking session."

Chen added that the institute also would like to arrange some other activities during the event, such as paper introductions by session chairs and panel discussions, to make the event as informative as possible.

Details of the ASME Micro and Nano Society-Wide Forum will be announced later this month on the Congress Web site, www.asme.org/congress, and the ASME Nanotechnology Institute site, http://nano.asme.org. The session will be open to all interested Congress participants.

For more information, contact Raj Manchanda, director, Emerging Technologies, (212) 591-7789, e-mail ManchandaR@asme.org.

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