IMUA 2: NSF Hawaii EPSCoR

夏威夷EPSCoR研究基础设施改进奖将建立在第一个EPSCoR RII项目的成功基础上，以推进生态、进化和网络基础设施方面的具体研究机会，这些都是该州和UH系统的高优先级。具体而言，夏威夷2005年RII计划提出了一项研究议程，旨在促进对夏威夷生态系统的负责任管理，同时使其人民能够在21世纪的劳动力中承担起技术素养和批判性思维公民的角色。在与州商务、经济发展和旅游部（DBEDT）的合作下，犹他大学将利用IMUA II来促进林格尔州长所强调的“将环境责任转化为经济力量的机会”。该奖项的总体主题是“岛屿生态、进化和网络基础设施的研究合作”。夏威夷群岛以进化和物种形成研究的理想环境而闻名，为研究物种形成和适应不同自然和改变的栖息地的生态和遗传因素提供了一个特殊的自然实验室。此外，由于主要岛屿的地质演化有很好的记录，因此可以根据已知的地质事件准确地确定遗传分化的时间。世界上没有其他地方能像这里这样容易和全面地做到这一点。在不同的尺度上，了解生态系统的功能，物种之间的相互作用，以及完整和改变的生态系统中陆地、水生和海洋系统之间的联系，对于维持夏威夷环境的长期健康至关重要。夏威夷为陆地、水生和海洋系统在许多干扰和人类活动水平上的比较生态学研究提供了前所未有的机会。该奖项将在第一个RII奖项的基础上进行扩展，将网络基础设施和环境传感器技术与进化遗传学和生态系统研究相结合。来自夏威夷大学、大陆大学和夏威夷商界领袖的区域合作伙伴关系将发展基础设施和适当的研究项目，范围从分析不同栖息地和夏威夷群岛的进化和生态过程，到入侵物种的多学科问题，以及城市和农村环境的生态和环境扰动。其他合作伙伴关系将与国家卓越中心（国家生态分析与综合中心，国家进化综合中心和嵌入式网络传感中心）发展。网络基础设施重点领域将为环境研究和教育开发一个创新网络，作为EPSCoR计划的集成商。这是基于a)无线传感器网络和环境监测的交互式数据系统和存储库，以及2)夏威夷社会生态系统研究站点和合作。网络基础设施项目将与InteleSense技术公司、斯坦福大学国家生物计算中心、毛伊岛高性能计算中心和加州大学洛杉矶分校嵌入式网络传感器中心合作。从种族、文化、语言和社会经济的角度来看，夏威夷的人口基础是美国最多样化的。该奖项开发了一个基于当前RII奖项实施的最有前途的招聘和保留活动的计划，以开发结构化的跨学科课程，作为将跨学科环境研究整合到课程中的一种手段，并提高STEM学生的表现，特别是对于代表性不足的群体。一个主要目标是通过让社区学院的教师成为研究小组的成员，并促进将研究项目纳入社区学院的课程，从而将社区学院纳入该项目。

The Hawaii EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement award will build on the success of the first EPSCoR RII program to advance specific research opportunities in ecology, evolution and Cyberinfrastructure that are of high priority to the State and the UH System. Specifically, Hawaii's 2005 RII Plan presents a research agenda that promotes responsible stewardship of Hawaii's ecosystems while enabling its people to assume their roles as technologically literate, critically thinking citizens in a 21st century workforce. In partnership with the State Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism (DBEDT), UH will leverage IMUA II to promote what Governor Lingle has emphasized as an "opportunity for environmental responsibility to be an economic force" for the State. The overarching theme of this award is "Research Collaborations in Island Ecology, Evolution and Cyberinfrastructure".The Hawaiian Islands are renowned as ideal settings for evolution and speciation studies and provides an exceptional natural laboratory for investigating the ecological and genetic factors underlying speciation and adaptation to diverse natural and altered habitats. Moreover, becausethe geological evolution of the main islands is well documented, is possible to accurately date genetic divergence times with known geologic events. There is no other place on earth where this can be done as easily or comprehensively. On a different scale, understanding the functioning of ecosystems, interactions of species within them, and the links among terrestrial, aquatic, and marine systems in both intact and altered ecosystems is critical for sustaining the long-term health of Hawaii's environment. Hawaii offers unprecedented opportunities for comparative ecological studies in terrestrial, aquatic, and marine systems at many levels of disturbance and human activities.This award will expand on the base created by the first RII award by combining Cyberinfrastructure and environmental sensor technology with evolutionary genetics and ecosystem research. Regional partnerships of scientists from Hawaii universities, mainland universities and business leaders in Hawaii will develop infrastructure and appropriate research programs ranging from analyses of evolutionary and ecological processes in diverse habitats and across the Hawaiian archipelago to the multidisciplinary problems of invasive species and ecological and environmental perturbations on urban and rural environments. Other partnerships will be developed with national centers of excellence (National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center and the Center for Embedded Networked Sensoring). The Cyberinfrastructure focus area will develop an innovative network for environmental research and education that serves as an integrator of the EPSCoR program. This is based on a) wireless sensor networks and interactive data systems & repositories for environmental monitoring, and 2) Hawaiian socioecological systems research sites and collaboration. The Cyberinfrastructure program will collaborate with InteleSense Technologies, the National Biocomputation Center at Stanford University, the Maui High Performance Computing Center, and UCLA's Center for Embedded Networked Sensors.From an ethnic, cultural, linguistic, and socioeconomic perspective, Hawaii's population base is among the most diverse in the nation. The award develops a program that builds on the most promising recruitment and retention activities implemented under the current RII award to develop structured interdisciplinary courses as a means of integrating interdisciplinary environmentally-focused research into the curriculum and to increase STEM student performance, especially for underrepresented groups. A major goal is to embrace the community colleges in the program by making community college faculty members of the research teams and to facilitate incorporation of research programs into the community college curricula.