Innovation Anthology #196:
The University of Alberta campus is home to Canada’s National Institute for Nanotechnology.
Dr. Nils Petersen is the Director General of NINT. He says the NINT building is designed to accommodate very specialized equipment. When his scientists are working at the nano or molecular scale, even slight vibrations from sound or movement can disturb their experiments.
But as Dr. Petersen explains, one of the most important aspects of the NINT building is its attention to social engineering.
DR. NILS PETERSEN: It is designed to optimize interaction of people from different disciplines. So if you look through the design of the building, we have created it so that the chemistry labs are next to the biology labs which are next to the engineering labs so that you have a natural flow of people who will interact with each other. You will also see that the seating arrangements are fairly open space so there are lots of opportunity for people to talk to each other across the different disciplines. So its almost like a social engineering environment from that point of view.
This design physically reflects what Dr. Petersen calls the “convergence” of the sciences, fostering an interdisciplinary approach that is vital to the success of nanoscience.
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I’M CHERYL CROUCHER
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Program Date: 2009-01-06