IGERT: Training Program in Sustainable Energy Recovery from the Earth -- Educational Innovation at the Intersection of Geosciences and Engineering

这一综合性研究生教育和研究培训(IGERT)奖支持康奈尔大学开发一个新的博士跨学科培训项目，重点是从地球上可持续地回收能源。将向工程学和地球科学专业的学生提供跨学科科学和设计方面的共同语言，这将加速可持续开发地球能源资源的技术进步，并产生可接受的环境后果。从地热、常规和非常规化石资源中提取能源，或者安全地隔离二氧化碳等废物的新地下技术的设计，存在着复杂的智力挑战。受训者将参与研究，以增加对热能传输过程以及工程岩石系统中的流体和裂缝的基本了解。最初的跨学科培训将通过一系列课程进行，介绍自然系统现象、能源转换原理、经济、社会和伦理考虑，以及工业生态学(生命周期分析)、系统设计和模拟以及风险分析的方法。学生团队将利用这一课程基础进行分析和设计项目，以处理真实世界中的实地案例。学员将发展在考虑环境、经济、社会效益和风险的情况下设计能源选项的技能，并与必须做出明智决策的人进行沟通。通过这样做，国家获得了一支能够更好地利用地球能源资源与自然环境相平衡的劳动力。IGERT是一个NSF范围内的项目，旨在应对培养具有跨学科背景、所选学科的深厚知识以及满足未来职业需求所需的技术、专业和个人技能的美国博士科学家和工程师的挑战。该项目旨在通过建立创新的研究生教育和培训新模式，在超越传统学科界限的合作研究的肥沃环境中，催化研究生教育的文化变革。

This Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training (IGERT) award supports the development of a new Ph.D. interdisciplinary training program at Cornell University focused on sustainable energy recovery from the earth. Students in engineering and in geosciences will be provided with a common language in interdisciplinary science and design that will accelerate technological progress in the sustainable exploitation of Earth's energy resources with acceptable environmental consequences. There are complex intellectual challenges associated with the design of new subsurface technologies that extract energy from geothermal, conventional, and unconventional fossil resources, or safely sequester waste products like CO2. Trainees will participate in research that adds to fundamental understanding of transport processes for thermal energy, and of fluids and fractures in engineered rock systems. The initial interdisciplinary training will occur through a series of courses that introduce natural systems phenomena, energy conversion principles, economic, social and ethical considerations, and methods of industrial ecology (life cycle analysis), of systems design and simulation, and of risk analysis. Student teams will draw upon this coursework foundation for their analysis and design projects that deal with real world, field-based, cases. Trainees will develop skills to design energy options in consideration of environmental, economic, and social benefits and risks, and to communicate with those who must make informed decisions. In doing so, the nation gains a workforce able to utilize the Earth's energy resources in better balance with the natural environment. IGERT is an NSF-wide program intended to meet the challenges of educating U.S. Ph.D. scientists and engineers with the interdisciplinary background, deep knowledge in a chosen discipline, and the technical, professional, and personal skills needed for the career demands of the future. The program is intended to catalyze a cultural change in graduate education by establishing innovative new models for graduate education and training in a fertile environment for collaborative research that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries.