RUI: Unsolicited WPMS: Enhancing Career Opportunities - Integrative Mathematical Program for Analyzing Coastal Systems (ECO-IMPACS)

提高就业机会-分析海岸系统综合数学项目(ECO-IMPACS)是山姆休斯顿州立大学(SHSU)和德克萨斯环境研究所(TRIES)在环境数学方面的一个劳动力项目。ECO-IMPACS项目将为数学和生物科学专业的学生提供在前沿研究项目上合作的机会，该项目旨在研究最近的环境波动如何影响阿兰萨斯国家野生动物保护区(ANWR)的沿海湿地生态系统。具体地说，学生将研究水文、营养和物理驱动因素如何影响濒危的百日鹤(Grus Americana)的关键食物资源。ECO-IMPACS的学生将学习ANWR的生物学知识，前往ANWR收集现场数据，并在TRIES实验室分析他们的数据。ECO-IMPACS学生将学习环境科学中动力学模型建立的基础知识和应用数学的基本理论。通过课堂、野外和实验室工作，ECO-IMPACS学生将创建和分析水文通量、藻类种群动态和水生植物生长的数学模型。学生将研究基于智能体的非线性微分差分方程模型，并利用无量纲化、计算稳态的局部和全局稳定性、探索周期解的存在性、摄动方法、分叉分析、解的模拟和数值计算以及参数敏感性分析等技术来分析模型的行为。研究生不仅将促进学习过程的每个阶段，还将融入更高级的数学，如随机建模。社区合作伙伴将传达他们的研究目标，学生将在整个建模过程中将重点放在这些目标上。ECO-IMPACS学生将被要求向社区合作伙伴清楚而实用地展示他们的结果，并证明他们的数学模型可以用作指导社区合作伙伴研究和更好地了解ANWR生态系统的有效工具。生物科学中综合建模和计算解决方案的重要性促使许多大学创建和支持环境数学课程。ECO-IMPACS计划是一项合作和教育计划，植根于对阿兰萨斯国家野生动物保护区沿海沼泽生态系统动力学的持续研究。ANWR生态系统的异质性，以及该系统中广泛的自然和人为影响，为数学和生物科学学生之间的合作提供了多种机会。在ECO-IMPACS项目中，学生将根据在野外和实验室收集的数据构建数学模型，对这些模型进行理论和数值分析，并以立即适用于我们社区合作伙伴(例如德克萨斯公园和野生动植物部门和国际鹤基金会)目标的方式报告他们的结果。数学和生物学生参与科学方法的所有阶段，将产生一个关于在综合环境中使用建模、模拟、实验室程序和现场方法的更统一的观点。ECO-IMPACS的主要目标是为本科生和研究生提供暑期实习，培养他们成功整合数学和生物学的能力，以完成环境数学领域的入门级作业。学生将在接受教职员工和社区合作伙伴的反馈和指导时，培养美国雇主希望员工具备的关键技能(例如，环境采样技术、数学建模、口头和书面交流、团队合作、批判性思维和解决问题)。因此，ECO-IMPACS的参与者将为在绿色经济中从事数学和环境导向的职业做好更好的准备。该奖项由数学科学部内的劳动力和数学生物学项目共同支持。

Enhancing Career Opportunities - Integrative Mathematical Program for Analyzing Coastal Systems (ECO-IMPACS) is a workforce program in environmental mathematics at Sam Houston State University (SHSU) and the Texas Research Institute for Environmental Studies (TRIES). The ECO-IMPACS program will provide students from mathematical and biological sciences the opportunity to collaborate on a cutting edge research program to study how recent environmental fluctuations have impacted coastal marsh ecosystems at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Specifically, students will examine how hydrologic, nutrient and physical drivers affect key food resources of the endangered whooping crane (Grus americana). ECO-IMPACS students will learn about the biology of ANWR, travel to ANWR to collect field data, and analyze their data in a TRIES laboratory. ECO-IMPACS students will be instructed on the fundamentals of dynamical model building in the environmental sciences and basic theories of applied mathematics. Informed by their classroom, field, and laboratory work, ECO-IMPACS students will create and analyze mathematical models of hydrologic fluxes, algae population dynamics, and aquatic vegetation growth. Students will investigate agent based and nonlinear differential and difference equation models and analyze model behavior utilizing techniques such as non-dimensionalization, computation of the local and global stability of steady-states, exploration of the existence of periodic solutions, perturbation methods, bifurcation analysis, simulation and numerical computation of solutions, and parameter sensitivity analysis. Graduate students will not only facilitate each stage of the learning process, but also incorporate more advanced mathematics such as stochastic modeling. Community partners will communicate their research objectives and student efforts will be focused on these objectives throughout the modeling process. ECO-IMPACS students will be asked to clearly and practically present their results to community partners and demonstrate that their mathematical models can be used as effective tools to guide community partner research and better understand the ANWR ecosystem. The importance of integrative modeling and computational solutions within the biological sciences has motivated many universities to create and support programs in environmental mathematics. The ECO-IMPACS program is a collaborative and educational program that is rooted in ongoing research on ecosystem dynamics of coastal marshes in the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. The heterogeneous nature of the ANWR ecosystem and wide range of both natural and anthropogenic influences in the system provide multiple opportunities for collaboration between students in mathematical and biological sciences. In the ECO-IMPACS program, students will construct mathematical models based on data collected in the field and in the laboratory, perform theoretical and numerical analyses of these models, and report their results in terms that are immediately applicable to the objectives of our community partners (e.g., Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the International Crane Foundation). The involvement of mathematics and biology students in all phases of the scientific method will produce a more unified perspective about the use of modeling, simulation, laboratory procedures, and field methods in an integrative setting. The primary goals for ECO-IMPACS are to provide undergraduate and graduate students with a summer internship that develops their ability to successfully integrate mathematics and biology to complete entry level assignments in the field of environmental mathematics. Students will develop critical skills that U.S. employers desire of their employees (e.g., environmental sampling techniques, mathematical modeling, oral and written communications, teamwork, critical thinking, and problem solving) as they receive feedback and guidance from faculty members and community partners. Thus, ECO-IMPACS participants will be better prepared for both mathematical and environmentally oriented careers in a green economy. This award is jointly supported by the Workforce and Mathematical Biology programs within the Division of Mathematical Sciences.