Ilulian Gherasoiu was amazed when he first saw the 1966 science fiction film “Fantastic Voyage” in which a submarine is shrunk to microscopic size and travels through a human body. And the idea of technology becoming increasingly smaller has stayed with him. Now, as assistant professor of electrical engineering at SUNY Poly, Gherasoiu is fascinated by ideas that were once science fiction becoming science fact. Before coming to SUNY Poly in 2014, Gherasoiu worked with Element Blue Technology, Sumika Electronic Materials and RoseStreet Labs Energy, expanding his hands-on experience in the professional world of semiconductor equipment and constructing semi-conductor devices.
“As a kid, I was very interested in how things sparked. Since I came to the United States in my adult years, I’ve had an interest in semiconductors. Before that, my line of work was more oriented toward manufacturing of equipment, but that equipment used semiconductors,” he said. “I think those experiences really should help in conveying more clearly to students the theoretical knowledge and associating that theoretical knowledge with practical knowledge.”
While the academic and professional worlds can be quite different, the opportunity to share the practical knowledge he has accumulated over the years goes way back for Gherasoiu—to college and high school.
“I have really great memories of my high school years and college years. I see an interest in sharing knowledge that I’ve accumulated as a sort of tribute to those former teachers I enjoyed. It’s something that at some point in your life you want to emulate if you can.”
He’s finding that students are becoming increasingly interested in the material as the field of nanotechnology continues to grow and the technology is introduced into more facets of everyday lives. It’s an important field not just for the students studying and entering it, but for our culture as well.
“If you look back over the past hundred years, there was a big concern and focus on making the biggest things, be they buildings, ships, bridges, etc. Now the focus is on the opposite side, making everything smaller,” he said. “When you want to save space and energy, you need things to be smaller. And you also discover new applications along the way.”
For Gherasoiu, it all harkens back to “Fantastic Voyage,” on-screen fantasy that depicted technologies that now don’t seem all that far-fetched.
“Things we were only able to dream about or watch in movies now become reality. That was a movie that, at its time, some people found silly, but all these types of things are now or are becoming more and more possible.”