NRT: Sustainable Water Innovations in Materials: Mentoring, Education, and Research (SWIMMER)

NRT：可持续水材料创新：指导、教育和研究 (SWIMMER)

• 批准号: 2125727
• 负责人: Margaret SobkowiczKline
• 金额: $ 299.89万
• 依托单位: University of Massachusetts Lowell
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-09-01 至 2026-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2125727&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NRT; Sustainable; Water; Innovations; Materials

Water resources are in a state of crisis both in the U.S. and globally. Water management requires treating and delivering water from limited, often declining resources to meet the needs of a growing global population. So-called ‘forever chemicals’ are now found to contaminate drinking water supplies, and toxic products are commonly discharged into waterways. The Sustainable Water Innovations in Materials – Mentoring, Education, and Research (SWIMMER) program will produce trainees who will research, innovate, manufacture, and manage sustainable materials and chemicals aimed at protecting water resources over their entire life cycle. This National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT) award to the University of Massachusetts Lowell will harness and hone the talent of young scientists and engineers from multiple disciplines to transform the lifecycle of materials and their interaction with water ecosystems. The project will train 60 master’s and Ph.D. students, including 25 funded trainees, from the fields of Plastics, Mechanical, Chemical and Civil/Environmental Engineering, Chemistry, Earth Science, Biology, Public Health, and Economics. The SWIMMER trainees will engage in deep and meaningful interactions across various disciplines. This interdisciplinary training will result in graduates equipped to address multi-faceted challenges requiring STEM innovations, understanding their socio-economic and political foundations, and responsive to societal needs for environmental justice and inclusive decision-making. The program leaders will also make a strategic commitment to broadening participation of the SWIMMER cohorts by recruiting students from underrepresented groups to pursue a STEM graduate degree.SWIMMER trainees will conduct convergent research across three transformative themes: Watersheds as Living Labs, Circular Materials Design for Pollution Prevention and Remediation, and Sustainable Product Design and Toxics Use Reduction. The program features bias and inclusion training for a diverse and supportive community, communication skills training, immersion in industrial history, a two-semester core course preceded by a preparatory boot camp to establish a common convergent knowledge baseline, and team capstone projects closely linked to academic research and the needs of industry and society. Combined with the recruitment of diverse trainees from partner institutions and in collaboration with industrial and community stakeholders, this program will prepare the large share of graduate students seeking industry positions upon graduation as well as the next generation of faculty.The NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) Program is designed to encourage the development and implementation of bold, new potentially transformative models for STEM graduate education training. The program is dedicated to effective training of STEM graduate students in high priority interdisciplinary or convergent research areas through comprehensive traineeship models that are innovative, evidence-based, and aligned with changing workforce and research needs.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

在美国和全球，水资源处于危机状态。水管理需要从有限的资源中处理和输送水，以满足不断增长的全球人口的需求。现在发现所谓的“永远的化学物质”会污染饮用水供应，并且有毒产品通常被排放到水道中。材料的可持续水创新 - 指导，教育和研究（游泳者）计划将生产火车，这些火车将研究，创新，制造和管理旨在保护整个生命周期中水资源的可持续材料和化学物质。这项国家科学基金会研究实习生（NRT）授予马萨诸塞大学洛厄尔大学将利用并尊重来自多个学科的年轻科学家和工程师的才华，以改变材料的生命周期及其与水生态系统的互动。该项目将培训60 Master's和Ph.D.来自塑料，机械，化学和民用/环境工程，化学，地球科学，生物学，公共卫生和经济学领域的学生，包括25名资助的学员。游泳者的学员将在各个学科之间进行深入而有意义的互动。这种跨学科的培训将导致毕业生能够应对需要STEM创新的多方面挑战，了解其社会经济和政治基础，并对社会需求响应环境正义和包容性决策。该计划的领导者还将通过招募来自代表性不足的小组的学生来攻读STEM研究生学位，以致力于扩大游泳者队列的参与。Swimmer训练者将在三个变革性主题上进行融合研究：流域作为生活实验室，作为循环材料，预防污染和补救以及可持续产品以及可持续的产品设计和toxics和Toxics和Toxics的循环材料设计。该计划的偏见和包容性培训针对潜水员和支持性社区，沟通技巧培训，沉浸在工业历史上，在两学期的核心课程之前，先于准备训练营，以建立一个共同的融合知识基准，以及与工业和社会的需求密切相关的团队顶峰项目。加上合作伙伴机构的潜水员学员的招募以及与工业和社区利益相关者合作的招聘，该计划将为寻求行业职位的大量研究生和下一代教职员工做好准备。NSF研究受训者（NRT）计划旨在鼓励大胆的，新的潜在的变革性的变革型培训，以鼓励开发和实施新的潜在的变革性培训。该计划致力于通过全面的跨学科或收敛性研究领域的STEM研究生进行有效培训，通过全面的培训模型，这些模型具有创新，基于循证的，并且与不断变化的劳动力和研究需求保持一致。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识优点和广泛的影响来评估NSF的法定任务，并被认为是宝贵的支持。