What is Computer-Aided Nanodesign?

As the name suggests, Computer-aided Nanodesign™ (CAN) is the use of computational techniques to facilitate the research, manufacture, and development of nanotechnology and nanoscale materials, building bridges between chemistry and engineering workflow by scaling up precise nanoscale methods. It gathers together:

Nanotechnological techniques, many of which are in turn adopted and adapted from academic physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, and materials science research
Computers to model what is happening at the nanoscale, simulating what might happen if alterations to a system or materials were made
Powerful analytical tools that can use comprehensive algorithms to interpret data from simulation and modeling, spot patterns, extrapolate trends, and generally greatly increase the power to interpret the results of other techniques.

You can find out more about some of the actual computational techniques used in CAN in our Technologies section, which deals with informatics, modeling, simulation, interpretation, statistical analysis, and more.

A recent ROI (return on investment) study by IDC concluded that for each dollar invested in modeling and simulation software and its support infrastructure, $3 to $9 was returned to the company in incremental revenue and costs savings. Thus, it is clear that CAN will drive the design and development of industry's products based on nanoscale materials and phenomena.

Molecular Modeling and Simulation

At the core of CAN is molecular modeling. This uses a computer to model a structure such as a polymer, nanotube, or atomic group, and develops a model of likely behaviors based on what is known about the behaviors of the component parts of the structure. This model is then used to predict properties, activities and behaviors for the structure - a sort of CAD for molecules. This type of modeling is used extensively already in many industries such as drug discovery. Here the computer generated model of behaviors can make a good prediction of the properties of a novel drug-like molecule, including how likely the body is to absorb it, how well it will mix with an inert polymer filler to form pills, or how toxic the drug might be in overdose.

To learn more about the use of computational modeling in nanotechnology, have a look in our Technologies section.

If you go to our Gallery section, you will be able to see some of the generated images of nano-sized materials and structures that are the result of this type of modeling.

Bringing People Together, Joining Processes Up

Of necessity, nanotechnology brings together all sorts of people to make combined use of their skills, knowledge and experience. In order to understand the fundamental processes involved in even the simplest problem, a team may have to consist of someone with detailed knowledge of quantum physics, a computer expert who can tweak and modify any computational power involved, an engineer to add input from the manufacturing side of the equation at an early stage — and that is before you get to chemists, biologists, and other specialists who may be brought in for specific issues or for the benefit of their specific talents.

CAN copes well with this. Once you start with an approach of using computation to help crack a problem, it becomes increasingly easy to extend that approach beyond the initial problem. The use of informatics, for example, means that gathering data, analyzing it and passing it along through these large, multi-disciplinary (and often geographically spread-out) teams becomes not just easy, but brings positive benefits. Joining people together, assembling their collective knowledge and storing all of the results from a project, workflow software has grown out of simple informatics packages joined together - and can speed up and smooth out the long process of getting from one person with an idea to the factory that eventually manufactures the result.