TEAM

LEGO MINDSTORMS SCANNING PROBE MICROSCOPE

The LEGO-based Scanning Probe Microscope (SPM) is being designed and built by the students in Nanotech Innovations. The LEGO-based SPM model is an engineering design project that involves interdisciplinary students in order to research and build both the hardware and software design. The microscope consists of three parts: a flat surface on which LEGO bricks or other objects are placed, a tip equipped with sensors to read the surface, and a set of motors powered by a LEGO NXT brick that move the tip. The brick also processed scanned data, and transmits it to a connected laptop in order to display a dynamically-rendered model of the scanned surface. Once the LEGO SPM design is completed and tested, the model will be used as part of the outreach material to introduce high school students and teachers to nanotechnology. The team will demonstrate the operation of the SPM to high school students, and involve high school students in a learning activity where they will learn the basic operation of the SPM and have the opportunity to build and experiment with the LEGO SPM. Our team is also working on packaging a number of these microscopes so that they can be used in high school enterprises, which will allow us to work closely with school teachers to integrate nanotechnology into the classroom.