Curriculum

As a student, you have a great deal of freedom in tailoring your Master’s in Nanotechnology to your own interests and ambitions. Whatever your field of interest, you can compose your ideal master's and, by doing so, build your own expertise.

Structure

The Master’s in Nanotechnology consists of a number of mandatory courses. In addition, you can structure your Master’s with elective courses that interest you. Your first year ends with an internship and you graduate with your final master’s project. In two years of study, you collect a total of 120 EC.

European Credit Transfer System

Student workload at Dutch universities is expressed in EC, also named ECTS (European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System), which is widely used throughout the European Union. In the Netherlands, each credit represents 28 hours of work.

Nanotechnology
Compulsory courses for the Master's	35 EC	Nano and surface Chemistry Fabrication of micro and nanodevices Characterisation of nanostructures Nanoscience Nano-Lab: Fabrication & Characterization Nanotechnology Design Project
Mandatory elective courses You select at least three out of eleven elective courses within this Master’s. These courses are categorised into three different profiles, to give you some direction. Still, you can make whichever combination of electives you want.	15 EC	(Application of) Solid State Matter Nanomaterials Nano-optics Nano-electronics AMM Inorganic Materials Science (Bio)molecular Matter Bionanotechnology Nanomedicine (Bio)molecular Chemistry & Technology Nano-Engineered Devices Lab on a Chip Nanofluidics Advanced Colloid & Interfaces Micro Electro Mechanical Systems Design Design validation of Nano-engineered devices
Elective courses You can fill up the rest of your elective space with (two) courses that match your own interests. You can choose more of the electives listed above, but there are a lot of more technical and non-technical electives you can choose from. A Capita Selecta, in which you explore a specific topic of your interest, which is not available as a regular course, is also a possibility.	10 EC	Examples of electives: Nanophysics Quantum optics Surfaces and Thin Layers Biophysical Techniques & Molecular Imaging Systems-on-chip for embedded systems Advanced Semiconductor Devices There are plenty more courses you can choose from. Ask your study adviser or meet online with a student to gain first-hand experience!
Internship & Job Orientation Project The first quartile of the second year consists of an internship as a preparation for the professional field.	20 EC
Final master’s project You spend the last three quartiles of your Master’s on graduating: your final master’s project	40 EC
Total EC	120 EC

Internship

During the first quartile of the second year, you get to do a (research) internship as a preparation for the professional field. This internship is mandatory and will be hosted by a company or research institute in the field of nanoscience or nanoengineering, either in the Netherlands or abroad.

Suitable internships are available in, e.g.:

Companies that focus on the research & development of nanotechnological innovations, such as ASML, LioniX, Micronit, Twente Solid State Technology (TSST), Solmates, LipoCoat, or High Tech XL Eindhoven.
Research institutes such as the MESA+ Institute, Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (Spain) or the DTU Nanolab in Kongens Lyngby (Denmark).
Research groups of universities, the Osaka University (Japan), the University of Basel (Switzerland) or one of the research groups at the University of Twente.

Final master's project

You end the Master’s in Nanotechnology with the final master’s project. The choice of your graduation subject is largely up to you. You will carry out your master’s project under the supervision of a professor of one of the nanotechnology research groups participating in MESA+. In recent years, students have completed their projects at for example the BIOS Lab-on-a-Chip group, the Interfaces and Correlated Electron Systems group, Inorganic Materials Science group, Nanobiophysics group, Physics of Interfaces and Nanomaterials, Integrated Devices and Systems, Physic of Fluids group, Nanobiophysics, Molecular Nanofabrication, Biomolecular Nanotechnology, Biomaterials Science and technology and the Nanoelectronics group.

Your final master’s project could involve undertaking projects such as:

Researching a nanodevice that matures testicular issue in order to enable cancer patients to still have children after anti-cancer treatments such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Researching a brain-inspired artificial device for low energy computing.
Develop surface modification technologies that create new physical and chemical properties such as hydrophobicity, which can be used to create rapidly drying windshields, for example.
Work on the state-of-the art technology for XUV lithography mirrors.