UB science and engineering “portal” makes equipment and facilities available for academics, businesses and government

BUFFALO, N.Y. – Want to perform cutting-edge research and development, but don’t have the equipment, facilities or expertise?

Well, you’re in luck.

In a continuing effort to promote interdisciplinary research, and foster relationships with government and industry to grow the Western New York economy, the University at Buffalo is making some of the region’s most advanced science and engineering equipment, and cutting edge research facilities, available for use.

The UB Science and Engineering Equipment and Instrumentation Portal (EQUIP) of Shared Facilities combines the resources of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Dental Medicine and UB’s New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences (CBLS).

It features dozens of pieces of equipment housed in four facilities: the South Campus Instrument Center at Squire Hall, the Furnas Hall Materials Characterization Laboratory, the Davis Hall Electrical Engineering Cleanroom and the CBLS Multidisciplinary Cleanroom.

Collectively, the facilities offer a wide array of fabrication and characterization tools, knowledge and experience. Some of the equipment available includes scanning electron microscopes, scanning probes microscopes, e-beam evaporators, reactive ion etchers, ellipsometers, mask aligners and X-ray diffraction systems.

The two cleanrooms offer specialized equipment for micro- and nanoscale device development and processing for applications in electronics, photonics and biomedicine and other industries. The materials characterization facilities feature instruments for liquid, powder, surface and bulk materials characterization, as well as expert analytical services for product quality assurance, failure analysis and forensic evaluation.

“Science, engineering and medicine are fields that historically evolved independent of each other, and so did the equipment each discipline used. However, that’s now changing, as techniques from one field are employed in another, and as scholars collaborate across the boundaries of materials sciences, biomedicine, life sciences and other fields,” said E. Bruce Pitman, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “This portal will give faculty from different departments, as well as researchers from other institutions and from industry, better access to the equipment they need to advance their science.”

Liesl Folks, dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, said the portal is an easy-to-use online guide that will help industry learn more about – and access – many of the specialized tools and equipment available for use at the university.

“In addition to providing students with a world class educational experience, part of UB’s mission is to partner with government agencies and industry to further research and development that will benefit the Western New York economy,” she said. “These laboratory resources can be especially helpful to companies looking to expand their research and development efforts. Our goal is to make it as simple as possible for industry participants to understand the resources that we have available here at UB, and to help them gain access to our facilities and expertise as needed.”

Equipment and lab use is charged at hourly rates. The facilities offer technical support and, in some cases, full service processing and analysis. For more information, visit: http://www.buffalo.edu/shared-facilities-equip.html.