The last 20 years the scientific and the business community have launched a gigantic effort towards the introduction of new materials and technologies that are envisioned to replace silicon technologies in many daily life’s applications. This global effort has been inspired by: (1) the demonstrated and recently published saturation of Moore’s law. This has set a limit in the number of transistors that can be intergraded into a single chip; as a consequence this restricts how fast electronics can be build, (2) there is a demand for new materials with superior electrical and thermal management properties than silicon, (3) there is a need for flexible, transparent, light weight and low processing cost materials compared to the respective properties of silicon. The beyond the silicon era includes a vast library of materials and technologies that satisfy some or even all the aforementioned characteristics. This library consists from inorganic, organic and hybrid materials such as: Organic semiconducting polymers, Carbon Nanotubes, Graphene & related materials, 2D new materials such as WS2, MoS2, perovskites, nitrides, metal oxides, Germanium electronics, Nanowires and hybrid organic-inorganic materials. The beyond silicon era does not only include new materials but also introduces new technologies that exploit electron properties apart its mobility under an electric field. Spintronics for example manifests the spin of the electron elevating the capacity of the modern hard discs or building low thermal consuming electronics. Surprisingly and in contrast of the volume, the intensity of the implemented research (a great part of this research takes place in Universities’ labs) and the number of publications in themes related to the beyond silcon era the Higher Education looks to be absent and distant from the recent developments. Higher Education Institutions in few cases have included some of the microelectronics developments within postgraduate’s degree curricula. A total absence even in the form of popular science module is noticed from the undergraduate studies curricula of the majority of the respective University Departments (Electronics, Electrical Engineering, Materials Science, Chemistry, Physics, Biology) curricula. TEI of Crete has identified this gap since 2010. TEI of Crete actions towards the education of mainly undergraduate students of the respective Departments included the organization of very successful (this is depicted from the participant’s feedback all these years) intensive programs in the fields of organic, transparent & flexible electronics and spintronics. The curricula of these intensive programs became by the years the core material of new undergraduate modules in many of the partner Universities and in the case of the OREA project soon will be converted in a European joint MSc degree (http//orea.chania.teicrete.gr). TEI of Crete with the proposed project makes a step further towards the modernization of the European undergraduate education regarding the technical skills in future technologies. The proposed project attempts to transfer the implemented laboratory - research outputs into the classroom. This proposal exploits TEI’s highly expertise Erasmus network in the fields of modern nano-electronics and attempts to unify its Erasmus concentrated knowledge & skills in the fields of organic, transparent, printable, graphene, spin electronics into a series of deliverables. On the frame of the proposed program we plan within a three years period to implement the following deliverables: (1) Organization of spring and autumn schools (in a form of Intensive Programs) around the consortium Universities with main themes the developments in modern new electronics & applications based on organic and post-silicon materials. These events will be accredited and may be part of the partner Universities undergraduate curricula. (2) Design, construction, run and evaluation of a semester’s module in the partner Universities. The latter could have the form of the blended course and will combine videos, web-based learning material, presentations and ‘traditional’ teaching methods. (3) A short version of the module could be developed for professionals so to be used for fast track education in the field of new electronics and nano-electronics The proposed project as a target group has the undergraduate and young graduate students of Electronic & Electrical Engineering, Physics, Materials Sciences, Chemistry, Bio-Engineering Departments. The educational material of the proposed project will be accessible from the collaborating European HEI and our colleagues in partner countries giving an European dimension.
The ELBYSIER project primary objective was to provide a deep introduction to its participants for the Electronics Beyond Silicon Era. More particular ELBYSIER reflects the scientific titanic effort to address the Moore’s law saturation with the introduction of (a) new and of lower cost solution processed materials; (b) new architectures and charge motion principles; and (c) applications of these new materials & principles in Biology, Quantum Computing, Energy Harvesting, Electronic Devices. A secondary objective is the adaption of innovative assessment schemes. The Journal Club action was introduced as the main assessment pathway for the participant students. TEI of Crete has identified this gap regarding the teaching of electronics beyond silicon since 2010. TEIoC has organized since then several Erasmus IPs in the fields of organic, transparent & flexible electronics and spintronics. The curricula of these IPs became the core material of new undergraduate modules and in the case of the Organic Electronics & Applications (OREA) project converted into a joint MSc degree between University of Crete, TEIoC and IESL-FORTH. The ELBYSIER was setup, thinking the expertise should exist in order to address the aforementioned objectives. Six HEIs participated; each one of them with a unique expertise in what we call ‘electronics beyond silicon era’. More particular: 1.Technological Educational Institute of Crete (TEIoC): Fabrication & Characterization of graphene based and 2D materials, Graphene Based Organic & Perovskite Solar Cells, Planning & Execution of the Journal Club Action, Rich experience in the Erasmus Project 2.Ecole Nationale Superieure des Mines de Saint – Etienne (EMSE): Biolectronics, Brain electrode interfaces 3.University of Crete (UoC): Transparent Conductive Electrodes (metal oxide based electronics) for light harvesting, pollutants destruction and smart window applications 4.University of Warsaw (UoW): Spintronics, Quantum Computing, Graphene & 2D materials theory 5.New University of Lisbon (NUL): Paper Electronics: From Materials to Electronic Devices (Displays, Transistors, Schottky Diodes) 6.University of Bucharest (UoB): Solar Cells, Modern Fabrication Techniques in Electronics The activities took place during the ELBYSIER can be split into the following categories: 1.Management & Administration; the objective is the implementation & reporting of the project activities according to the regulations have been set by the Greek NA 2.Dissemination Activities; the objective was to inform projects’ stakeholders about its outcomes 3.Sustainability; refers to the planning has been made to exploit the projects’ outcomes beyond its funding period 4.Academic; these actions included: (a) the production of the educational material (notes, assessment tests); (b) the organization of Intensive Courses focused in specific scientific themes The main results include: 1.The implementation of five Intensive Courses in Organic Electronics ,Transparent Electronics, Bioelectronics, Paper Electronics, Spintronics 2.The implementation of a review Intensive Course in Electronics Beyond Silicon Era 3.The participation and training of more than 300 students 4.The participation of 60 scholars as lecturers 5.The delivery of 240 hours of lecturing; that is translated to the presentation of 56 different themes 6.The production of dissemination material & tools; printed and online material, videos 7.The organization of dissemination multiplier events where staff from Industry and scholars beyond consortium participated 8.The production of assessment reports regarding the quality and impact of the implemented intensive courses in students 9.The production of a chapter book submitted in Springer Nature ("Revolution of Perovskite: Synthesis, Properties, and Applications") entitled: "2D Transition Metal Dichalcogenides for Solution-Processed" The impact attained should be reported per projects’ stakeholder: 1.The students’ informed & trained in new technologies. 2.The academics interact each other & new collaborations arose: New projects granted: a Strategic Partnership project called CRETE (TEI of Crete, University of Warsaw) (2018 – 2020); New publications (NanoBio Conference 2018) (TEI of Crete, New University of Lisbon joint oral presentation ‘Gas sensing elements based on graphene related and hybrid perovskite materials’) 3.The Universities have signed bilateral agreements for student & staff mobility The longer-term benefits are related with the sustainability of the project. The following actions have planned: 1.To further strengthen the collaboration with the partners; (a) A joint Erasmus project has been granted to UW & TEIoC; (b) TEIoC, UW & EMSE will re-submit a Capacity Building Project in Graphene; and (c) research collaboration between TEI & NUL has started in the field of paper sensors 2.TEI of Crete runs modules of the ELBYSIER into its undergraduate & postgraduate curriculum