This paper reviews our recent development of the use of the large-scale pseudopotential method to calculate the electronic structure of semiconductor nanocrystals, such as quantum dots and wires, which often contain tens of thousands of atoms. The calculated size-dependent exciton energies and absorption spectra of quantum dots and wires are in good agreement with experiments. We show that the electronic structure of a nanocrystal can be tuned not only by its size,but also by its shape. Finally,we show that defect properties in quantum dots can be significantly different from those in bulk semiconductors.