EBEE: Enhancing Bioscience and Engineering Education through Curriculum Integration and Research Experiences in Systems Biology

北卡罗来纳农业与技术州立大学(NC A&A；T)将启动一项为期五年的项目，以开发新的机构战略，通过课程整合和本科生的研究经验来加强生物科学和工程教育(EBee)。具体地说，该项目团队将在NC A&T的工程和生物项目之间建立一个整合的模型，重点放在系统生物学的跨学科领域。该项目将整合工程学院和文理学院的几个STEM学术项目，以及多个正在进行的NSF和非NSF资助的研究项目，同时利用最近补充的大学层面的倡议。为了支持该项目，教务长将在大学范围内建立一个由教员、教职员工和学生组成的跨学科集群，以扩大生物科学和工程学科之间的合作。该小组将包括项目小组成员和在生命科学、系统生物学、计算方法和工程学方面具有特定兴趣和背景的更广泛的大学社区的代表。工程和生物专业的50名本科生将获得津贴，并获得研究材料或参加当地和地区会议的旅费的补充奖励。学生将由来自不同学科和不同资助项目团队的两名教职员工共同提供建议。研究项目将在系统生物学领域进行，这是一个新兴的跨学科领域，跨越了参与项目的兴趣领域，使该大学能够探索一些STEM教员之间更大的合作。这一合作将建立在一个使用SimBiology(TM)的公共平台上，SimBiology(TM)是一种集成环境，用于对生物过程进行建模，并用模拟和实验数据分析模型。为实现这一目标，将开展两项主要的课程开发活动。其中一项涉及为所有本科生，特别是生物科学和生物工程专业的本科生扩展通识教育核心课程。另一个目标是通过加速生物工程的BS-MS项目，在工程学和生物学项目之间建立有意义的桥梁。智力价值该项目将通过参与专注于新兴的系统生物学跨学科领域的本科生研究项目，向教师和研究生介绍新的研究领域。此外，该项目将开发一种大学一级研究密集型部门整合的新模式，并为学生提供加强和综合的多学科课程选择。更广泛的影响该项目将有助于招募和留住更多合格的、代表性不足的STEM学生，他们将通过尖端研究和奖学金为科学界做出贡献。该奖项是通过机构创新方案颁发的，由人力资源开发司和工程总局多样性和外联办公室联合资助。

North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (NC A&T) will initiate a five year project to develop new institutional strategies to Enhance Bioscience and Engineering Education (EBEE) through curriculum integration and research experiences for undergraduates. Specifically, the project team will build a model of integration between the engineering and biology programs at NC A&T, focusing on the interdisciplinary field of Systems Biology. The project will integrate several STEM academic programs in the College of Engineering and College of Arts and Sciences and multiple ongoing NSF and non-NSF funded research projects, while capitalizing on recent complementing University level initiatives.To support the project, a university-wide interdisciplinary cluster of faculty, staff and students will be established by the Provost to broaden collaboration among bioscience and engineering disciplines. The cluster will include members of the project team and representatives from the wider university community with specific interests and background in the life sciences, systems biology, computational methods and engineering. Fifty (50) undergraduate students in engineering and biology will receive stipends as well as a supplemental award for research materials or for travel expenses to participate in local and regional conferences. The students will be co-advised by two faculty members from different disciplines and from different funded project teams. The research projects will be in systems biology, an emerging interdisciplinary field that spans the interest areas of the participating projects and allows the University to explore greater collaborations among a number of STEM faculty. This collaboration will be built on a common platform using SimBiology (TM), an integrated environment in MATLAB (TM) for modeling biological processes, and analyzing the models with simulation and experimental data. Two major curricular development activities will be carried out to achieve this goal. One involves the expansion of the general education core curriculum for all undergraduates, but those in biosciences and bioengineering in particular. The other is aimed at building meaningful bridges among the engineering and biology programs through an accelerated BS-MS program in bioengineering.Intellectual Merit The project will introduce new areas of research to faculty and graduate students through their involvement with undergraduate research projects that focus on the emerging interdisciplinary field of systems biology. Furthermore, the project will develop a new model of university-level integration of research-intensive departments and lead to strengthened and integrated multidisciplinary curricular options for students. Broader ImpactThe project will help to recruit and retain a larger number of qualified underrepresented STEM students who will contribute to the scientific community through cutting-edge research and scholarship. The award is being awarded through the Innovation through Institutional Innovation program and is jointly funded by the Division of Human Resource Development and the Directorate for Engineering Office for Diversity and Outreach.