Coastal Geoscience and Engineering: Development of a Joint Degree Program Between Georgia Institute of Technology - Savannah and the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography

技术的格鲁吉亚和海洋学的斯基达韦研究所研究所正在开发一个联合GT/SkIO高级学位课程为2008年秋季学期题为海岸科学与工程。 地球科学和工程概念的整合和严谨性对于成功解决沿海人口迅速增加的后果所产生的并因天气和气候模式的变化而加剧的一系列问题至关重要。 教育沿海地质科学家和工程师在研究生阶段相互识字是至关重要的，但除了少数例外，实现这一目标的教育计划几乎是不存在的。 沿海过程和环境的复杂性要求这项工作将研究和教育结合起来;对沿海过程的教学和审查采取全面、系统的办法;确保其他基础科学的概念（例如，气象学、水文地质学、生命科学）是教学基础的一个完整组成部分;课堂教学的重点是普遍的基本概念和过程，而不是可能只适用于单一地点或过程的事实;要求工程师与地球科学家结成伙伴关系，以确保使用数学技术将概念应用于环境情况;并强调解决问题的技能，同时满足新兴的劳动力需求。 这两个伙伴机构在将代表性不足的少数民族纳入STEM教育轨道方面取得了相当大的成功。 该联合项目将提供一个变革性的沿海地球科学/工程研究生教育课程，目前在美国东南部完全没有，在美国其他地方也很少见。 预计它将成为美国其他地区的样板计划。 该计划的毕业生将有能力填充未来的劳动力，以设计和管理港口，开发和维护海洋观测传感器和网络，建模和预测入侵物种和病原体轨迹，并减轻或管理沿海居住的环境后果。

The Georgia Institute of Technology and the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography are developing a joint GT/SkIO advanced degree program for Fall semester 2008 entitled Coastal Science and Engineering. Integration of geoscience and engineering concepts and rigor is fundamental to successfully address the spectrum of issues arising from the consequences of rapidly increasing coastal populations and exacerbated by changing weather and climate patterns. Educating coastal geoscientists and engineers to be mutually literate at the graduate level is critical, but with a few exceptions, educational programs to accomplish this goal are virtually absent. The complexity of coastal processes and environments requires that this effort integrates research and education; adopts a holistic, system approach to the teaching and examination of coastal processes; ensures that concepts from other basic sciences (e.g., meteorology, hydrogeology, life sciences) are a fully integrated part of the instruction base; focuses classroom instruction on fundamental concepts and processes that are universal rather than on facts that may only apply to a single location or process; requires the partnering of engineers with geoscientists to ensure the use of mathematical techniques for applying concepts to environmental situations; and stresses problem-solving skills while meeting emerging workforce needs. Both partner institutions have considerable success in the entrainment of underrepresented minorities into STEM educational tracks. The joint program will offer a transformative coastal geoscience/engineering graduate educational curriculum currently completely absent in the US southeast and rare elsewhere in the country. It is expected to serve as a model program for other US regions. Graduates of the program will be equipped to populate the future workforce to design and manage harbors, develop and maintain ocean observatory sensors and networks, model and predict invasive species and pathogen trajectories, and mitigate or manage environmental consequences of coastal habitation.