SOUTH BEND – The University of Notre Dame has been awarded a $3.55 million research grant for nanotechnology that will be used in the next generation of high-speed computers.

The amount is the total of two grants awarded to Notre Dame from the Semiconductor Research Corp.’s Nanoelectronics Research Initiative and the National Science Foundation.

Professor Wolfgang Porod will use $1.8 million to explore new computational thinking based on physics and brain-like wave activity. Professor Craig lent will use $1.75 million to use the grant to explore Quantum-dot Cellular Automata which is exploring replacement of silicon-based transistors with single molecules that interact with other molecules through changes in charge.