To become a WCAM lab user:

Step 1: Plan the initial work you will do at WCAM

You should have some specific work that you are ready to accomplish, such as depositing silicon nitride on samples you already have, or doing lithographic exposures using a mask owned by your group, or something similar. Please don't ask vaguely to be "trained in the cleanroom". (Why?)

The more information you can gather about what you need to do before you start, the more productive your time at WCAM will be. For example, if you are a new graduate student, other members of your group may be able to suggest details of processing parameters. WCAM staff will be happy to discuss your project with you, and recommend tools or processes that can help you get useful work done.


Step 2: Take the WCAM Safety and Orientation Course

The course is available on the Web through eCOW2, UW-Madison's implementation of the Moodle online training system. You can prepare by reading WCAM's Safety Program document.

It is your responsibility to understand and follow all the safety protocols discussed in the Safety Program and in the online course. A partial summary of WCAM Lab Rules, excerpted from the Safety Program, can serve as a handy reference to refresh your memory.

If you have already used eCOW2 for other courses:

• Contact WCAM, asking to be enrolled in the course.
• Wait for confirmation that you have been enrolled.
• Go to the eCOW2 Website.
• Select the WCAM Lab Safety Orientation course (it may be located under "Other courses").
• Log in with your UW NetID if requested.
  
• Follow the instructions in Part 1, "Introduction".

UW-Madison students, staff, and faculty need to log in to eCOW2 once, to be eligible for enrollment in the orientation course. Go to the eCOW2 home page, click on "My eCOW2 Courses/Login" in the upper right corner, and log in using your UW Net ID. Then, contact WCAM to be enrolled in the orientation course.

Users from outside the UW-Madison campus must contact WCAM staff to be given access to eCOW2 as a guest user and be enrolled in the course.

If WCAM has confirmed that you are enrolled in the online course, but the course does not appear on your list of courses in eCOW2: Be certain that you are connecting to the "new" implemenation of eCOW2. (You need to get to ecow2.engr.wisc.edu/new/course, not ecow2.engr.wisc.edu/courses.)

UW-Madison users need to include:

• Signature of the Principle Investigator
• Funding information
• The user's own signature
• A CRESS project name, chosen by the user, as a login name for lab access. Keep it simple!
• The user's UW building access code, for use by the Engineering Centers Building door system. Look on the back of your UW ID card. Your building access code is the first six digits of the string of numbers at the bottom of the card. (See example at right).

WCAM frequently receives requests from new users who don't have a specific project to accomplish, but who ask to "learn the cleanroom", or who submit a long list of equipment and ask to be trained on all of it at once. Generally, we find that it is unproductive to train a user on a tool unless he has a current need for that tool. There are several reasons for this.

First, users who train on a tool that has no connection with a project they are closely involved with, don't learn to use the tool very well. But when completion of your thesis depends upon successful use of a tool, the quality of of your learning experience sharpens considerably.

Second, if a user learns a dozen tools all at once, some of them are likely to turn out to be tools he never needs to use. Training in this case is an unproductive use of both the user's time, and the time of the staff member who does the training. Worse, it ties up a tool so that it can't be used by someone who actually needs it for real work.

Finally, unpracticed skills deteriorate quickly. So, even if a user who is trained on a tool he doesn't need right away does eventually need it later, he usually needs to be re-trained (which wastes everyone's time) or he is an underskilled user of the tool (which is bad for everyone in the lab).

Therefore, you must demstrate that you have actual work to do on a tool, before you request training on it.