Drexel University hosted over 200 outside guests plus several hundred faculty, staff and students on October 25, 2006 as the College of Engineering celebrated the official opening of the Materials Characterization Facility (MCF).

The full day of events started with technical workshops in four different areas: electron microscopy, Raman and Infrared spectroscopy, microfabrication, and post-processing of electron micrographs with Adobe Photoshop. Nearly 150 people from Drexel and Temple Universities, as well as other universities and local companies attended the workshops.

Tours of the MCF and a meeting of the Materials and Nanotechnology Consortium filled the afternoon, leading to a poster session and reception for participants in the NSF-sponsored Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) programs at Drexel and the University of Pennsylvania. Thirty middle school, high school and community college teachers who participated in the RET programs in summers 2004-2006 attended the session, and several of them invited their students. About 130 high school students attended.

The highlight of the evening was a ribbon cutting ceremony at the MCF. The MCF offers state-of-the-art characterization instruments that are used to teach undergraduate and graduate courses for the CoE and School of Biomedical Engineering, thus allowing students to directly benefit from the availability of top-notch research tools. Such tools include three advanced scanning electron microscopes, a Nano Indenter, Raman and infrared spectrometers and other instruments for nanoscale and microscale characterization of materials. In particular, a new Zeiss scanning electron microscope provides extremely high spatial resolution and microanalysis capabilities. The facility also includes a Zyvex L100 nanomanipulator.

The MCF serves faculty and students of Drexel University and other area schools; as well as industry partners through the Materials and Nanotechnology Consortium.