Abstract: The talk will discuss our recent efforts in engineering nanostructured materials from building blocks that range in size, dimensionality and properties. The idea of engineering nanostructures to build functional materials captures the essence of nanotechnology and the challenges and opportunities in this area will be discussed. One dimensional nanostructures such as carbon nanotubes and the emerging two-dimensional atomic layers as novel building blocks will be considered. The creation of three-dimensional architectures from nanoscale building blocks will lead to new opportunities and the challenges involved in this approach will be highlighted. The talk will focus on engineered nanomaterials as a platform for several applications that include nanocomposites, energy storage, low dimensional devices etc.