EPSCoR Workshop: A 2014 Workshop on Engineered Crops

爱荷华州立大学(ISU)正在组织一次研讨会，重点是设计在不断变化的气候下茁壮成长的农产品所需的知识、技术和教育。最终目标是制定工程作物的研究和教育路线图，这是EPSCoR社区感兴趣的，因为许多司法管辖区都是农村地区，有着深厚的农业传统。研讨会汇集了在改善作物性能方面具有专业知识的植物科学家，以及拥有运输现象、热力学和建模知识的工程师，以揭示优良植物品种的潜在结构和生理特性。植物体内运输现象的工程学和物理学模拟仍处于初级阶段，但已经建立了描述植物中水分和糖运输的近似模型，并通过实验进行了验证。该研讨会为植物科学家和工程师提供了为工程作物开发共同语言的机会，分享正在进行的研究，形成新的合作伙伴关系，并设计“植物工程”学科--一个支持以期望的最佳性能加速作物设计的网络框架。智力价值粮食安全是人类面临的首要挑战之一。气候变化造成的环境压力正在加速对植物进行自然或基因工程改造的需要。作为应对这些挑战的一个步骤，执行支助股的讲习班侧重于出现植根于植物生理和运输现象的工程设计方法，以开发产量更高和/或对气候变化造成的非生物胁迫有更好耐受性的改良作物。这些技术已经达到了一个阶段，可以回答关于最佳作物表型的基本问题，并将答案有效地转化为作物改良。利用工程技术和基因工程相结合来裁剪作物的目标是新颖、有希望和具有挑战性的。研讨会的产品包括一份书面路线图，概述了推进转基因作物所需的教育、研究和开发，以及出版物，以及一个展示成果的网站。广泛的影响为了增加粮食供应，不断需要提高全球农业作物生产的效率和产量。ISU的这一讲习班将为EPSCoR辖区的科学家和工程师提供机会，为工程作物的设计和研究开发跨学科的方法。研讨会的活动将突出EPSCoR辖区的农业企业和研究人员对工程植物发展的贡献，以及对能够在这一领域工作的未来研究人员的教育。研讨会的招聘工作重点是来自EPSCoR司法管辖区的初级教师和学生，包括来自附近社区学院和学校的教师和学生，这些学校的少数民族科学、技术、工程和数学入学率很低。

Iowa State University (ISU) is organizing a workshop focused on the knowledge, technology, and education needed to engineer agricultural products that are robust under changing climate. The ultimate goal is to develop a research and educational roadmap for engineered crops, of interest to the EPSCoR community because many jurisdictions are rural and have a strong agricultural heritage. The workshop is bringing together plant scientists, with expertise in improving crop performance, and engineers with knowledge of transport phenomena, thermodynamics, and modeling, to unlock the underlying structural and physiological properties of superior plant varieties. Engineering- and physics-based modeling of transport phenomena in plants is still in its infancy, but approximate models have been made and verified experimentally to describe the transport of water and sugar in plants. This workshop provides opportunities for plant scientists and engineers to develop a common language for engineered crops, share ongoing research, form new partnerships, and design the discipline of "plant engineering" - a cyber-enabled framework that will support accelerated crop design with desired optimal performance.Intellectual MeritFood security is among the top challenges facing humanity. Environmental stresses due to climate change are accelerating the need for plant modifications, either naturally or through genetic engineering. As a step towards addressing these challenges, ISU's workshop focuses on the emergence of engineering design methods rooted in plant physiology and transport phenomena, to develop improved crops with increased yield and/or better tolerance to abiotic stresses caused by climate change. These technologies have reached a stage where fundamental questions about optimal crop phenotypes can be answered, and the answers efficiently translated into crop improvement. The goal of tailoring crops using engineering know-how coupled with genetic engineering is novel, promising, and challenging. Workshop products include a written roadmap summarizing the necessary education, research and development to advance engineered crops, as well as publications, and a website for displaying outcomes.Broader ImpactsThere is a constant need to improve the efficiency and yield of global agricultural crop production in order to increase food supply. This workshop at ISU will offer opportunities to scientists and engineers from EPSCoR jurisdictions to develop an interdisciplinary approach towards the design and study of engineered crops. Activities in the workshop will highlight the contributions of agricultural businesses and researchers in EPSCoR jurisdictions to the development of engineered plants, and the education of future researchers able to work in this field. Workshop recruitment efforts focus on junior faculty and students from EPSCoR jurisdictions, including from community colleges and schools in the nearby locale that have high underrepresented minority science, technology, engineering, and mathematics enrollments.