Moody & Co-PIs – $1.15M for Advanced 3D Printing ECE Prof. Galan Moody and four Co-PIs step into the era thanks to a $1.15 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to purchase cutting-edge 3D printing technology From the Robert Mehrabian College of Engineering News article "Galan Moody, 4 Co-PIs Secure $1.15 Million for Advanced 3D Printing” A new age of 3D printing is here, even though the initial technology for what is also known as additive manufacturing arrived less than twenty years ago. UC Santa Barbara is stepping into the era thanks to a $1.15 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to purchase the most cutting-edge 3D printing technology available: a 3D rapid nanoprinting system based on two-photon photolithography. The equipment will enhance the capabilities of the already widely recognized UCSB Nanofabrication Facility, (aka the “Nanofab” or “Nanotech”). “The unique capabilities of this system open the door to new approaches to nano- and micro-manufacturing of complex structures and devices that are no longer constrained by geometry nor confined to two-dimensional planes,” the authors write. By securing the grant, lead PI Galan Moody, UCSB professor of electrical and computer engineering, and four co-PIs — Marley Dewey (Bioengineering), Andrew Jayich (Physics), Sumita Pennathur (Mechanical Engineering), and Andrea Young (Physics) — are ensuring that UCSB can take a leadership role in pushing the boundaries of what the new technology can do. Says Moody: “There are just a few universities in the U.S. that have tools with these capabilities.” The tools are needed, the proposal reads, “because we are at the limit of what can be achieved with existing nanofabrication tools, which have enabled wafer-scale fabrication of semiconductors, dielectrics, and metals with resolution down to approximately ten nanometers [nm], but only in a planar [essentially two-dimensional] geometry. Additional complex, time-consuming