ARI-R2: Renovating a Core Facility to Support Research in the Newly Funded CREST Center for Energy and Sustainability

该奖项是根据2009年《美国复苏和再投资法案》(公法111-5)提供资金的。加州州立大学洛杉矶分校(CSULA)的工程、计算机科学和技术学院(ECST)将对9500平方英尺的研究空间进行翻新、重新配置和现代化改造，以创建一个能源与可持续发展研究核心设施(CEAS)，以支持NSF支持的新的CREST能源与可持续发展中心的研究活动。能源和可持续发展研究是ECST内部一项核心的多学科、多研究者的活动，来自物理、生物、化学、计算机科学、工程和技术的教员在此进行合作。实验室将在南加州大学洛杉矶分校的工程和技术大楼内进行翻新。这座建筑建于1956年，2000年翻新，在CSULA最近专注于基础研究之前，它被设计为非研究设施，因此不足以满足目前教职员工的需求。通过这个奖项，五个互不相连的空间将被翻新，并连接成三个多用户和共享子设施，组成核心能源和可持续发展研究设施：环境、材料和先进技术。翻修将专注于为更多的项目和教职员工和学生研究人员扩大空间，并重新配置进行研究所需的空间(例如，研究长凳、通风柜、燃气管道、高压电线和网络基础设施)。智力价值：通过这次翻修将加强研究解决基本问题，这些问题有可能增加高效、非化石燃料能源的可用性，同时促进可持续发展和管理的想法。翻新后的设施将支持CSULA目前在燃料电池、先进光伏材料、生物燃料和燃烧以及碳封存方面的研究。新的核心研究设施将使CEAS的教职员工和学生能够在新装修的设施中进行创新研究，这对多学科研究非常有利。更广泛的影响：在翻修后的实验室开展的活动将有助于扩大对南加州大学洛杉矶分校校园科学和工程以及基础研究的参与。CSULA是一所综合性的非博士授予型大学，它将利用新的设施，让大部分本科生参与研究。CEAS将用于暑期研究项目，其中包括合作机构(初中、高中和社区大学)，这些机构拥有大量未被充分代表的少数民族学生。本科生的暑期研究体验和教师的研究体验也将在这个设施中进行研究。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). The College of Engineering, Computer Science, and Technology (ECST) at the California State University Los Angeles (CSULA) will renovate, reconfigure, and modernize 9,500 square feet of research space to create a Core Facility for Research in Energy and Sustainability (CEaS) to support research activities for the new NSF-supported CREST Center for Energy and Sustainability. Research in energy and sustainability is a core multi-disciplinary, multi-investigator activity within ECST, where faculty from physics, biology, chemistry, computer science, engineering, and technology collaborate. Labs will be renovated within the Engineering and Technology building on CSULA's campus. The building, constructed in 1956 and renovated in 2000, was designed as a non-research facility before CSULA's more recent focus on basic research, and therefore is inadequate to meet the needs of current faculty researchers. Through this award, five disjointed spaces will be renovated and joined into three multi-user and shared subfacilities to comprise the core energy and sustainability research facility: Environment, Materials, and Advanced Technology. The renovations will focus on expanding space for more projects and faculty and student researchers, and reconfiguring of space (e.g., research benches, fume hoods, gas lines, high voltage electrical lines, and cyberinfrastructure) needed to conduct research.Intellectual Merit: The research that will be enhanced through this renovation address fundamental questions that have the potential to increase the availability of highly efficient, non-fossil-fuel-based energy, while promoting ideas of sustainability and stewardship. The renovated facility will support current research at CSULA in fuel cells, advanced photovoltaic materials, biofuels and combustion, and carbon sequestration. The new core research facility will enable CEaS faculty and students to conduct innovative research in a newly renovated facility that is highly conducive to multidisciplinary research. Broader Impacts: Activities conducted in the renovated laboratories will contribute to broadening participation in science and engineering and basic research on the CSULA campus. CSULA is a comprehensive, non-Ph.D. granting university, which will leverage the new facility to involve mostly undergraduate students in research. The CEaS will be used for summer research programs, which include partner institutions (middle and high schools and community colleges) with a large population of underrepresented minority students. Summer Research Experiences for Undergraduates and Research Experiences for Teachers participants will also conduct research in this facility.