Low-Cost Haptics and Visualization to Learn the Atomic Force Microscope Force-Distance Curve.

Acquiring competency in nanotechnology requires understanding of phenomena that are inaccessible to the everyday macro-world experience of the student. Significant capital requirements for nanoengineering laboratory equipment and small student cohort sizes limit student opportunities for hands-on learning. These factors may present barriers to entry for introductory students to pursue a career in nanotechnology. Haptics and interactive visualization afford students the opportunity to gain intuition through active learning and engaging different senses; however, commercial haptics setups are often prohibitively expensive for the average lab. We explore the feasibility of teaching non-intuitive nanotechnology concepts by designing, developing, implementing, and assessing a low-cost haptics and visualization activity for the teaching of the force-distance curve concept and its connection to the Atomic Force Microscope (AFM). Forces and length scales relevant to AFM measurements are well below what we experience in our everyday lives, making the study and understanding of this topic difficult for students to intuitively understand. The haptic feedback controller and accompanying computer application enable students to "feel and see" the forces an AFM tip experiences as it approaches the surface of a measured sample. This instructional activity has now been implemented in an undergraduate-level class ("Micro/Nano Engineering Laboratory") at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in which mechanical engineering students obtain their first experience with nanotechnology. Students were split into two groups for instruction and assessment; students in Group 1 (N=7) received traditional lab instruction and students in Group 2 (N=4) received the same activity with haptic and visualization as a medium for relaying information. Post-instruction assessment reveals promising learning outcomes. Group 1 students scored an average of 55% and Group 2 students scored an average of 96%. The software is scalable, and the developed controller costs ~$150 -- as opposed to thousands of dollars for a traditional haptics controller -- making the activity feasible for a range of teaching labs. The work presented in this paper suggests that haptics and visualization can serve as useful tools to teach challenging nanotechnology concepts, thereby making the field accessible and attractive to a broader range of students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]