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UCLA announced this week that it has received an $18 million grant from the National Science Foundation to establish a new Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center.

A new building will not be constructed for the new center, as the center will be located in the school of engineering. The schools’ labs and offices will be used for the activities of the center.

“The grant money will be utilized for outreach to high schools and to the community, to support graduate students, and to buy equipment to make all the research possible,” said electrical engineering Professor Eli Yablonovitch.

The grant will also support the California NanoSystems Institute in developing techniques to manufacture items at the nanoscale level.

Nanoscience is the study of objects smaller than 100 nanometers, one billionth of a meter, and larger than one nanometer.

“It will revolutionize technology in this (science) area because now we can manufacture things at the nano level, one atom at a time,” said Vijay Dhir, dean of the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science.

One goal in nanoengineering is the invention of a 3-D memory chip, rather than the 2-D ones that are available, because it would hold more memory with the same surface area as the 2-D chip.

“We’re basically increasing the technological boundaries and making it possible to have new devices for the information industry, for biomedical engineering, and for saving lives,” Yablonovitch said.

The funding for the new center became active Oct 1. In the first year, UCLA will receive $2.8 million, and over the next four years the university will receive the remaining $17.7 million.

The grant could also be extended five more years for an additional $40 million, according to the university.

“We have to show what we can accomplish, what we propose to accomplish and show the future potential of the work,” Dhir said.

“We have a lot to contribute here at UCLA, and if we fulfill all our goals, we will have helped the nanoscience field a lot,” Yablonovitch said.

“There are going to be benefits in medicine and biology, new sensors for what goes on in the human body, and smaller machines that could benefit humanity in general,” he said.