EAGER: A New Model for Undergraduate Training: a Virtual Community of Researchers in Computational Biomolecular Structure & Design

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This EAGER award to Johns Hopkins University will test the efficacy of a distributed model of student training that uses virtual technologies for collaboration. The grant will support the training of 8 students for 10 weeks during the summers of 2015- 2016. Students will be trained in biomolecular structure and design, using the Rosetta software. Students attend a boot camp in Week 1 to learn how to use the software, including use of Python and C++ languages. Students then go to an assigned lab where they do research at the intersection of chemistry, biology, computer science and engineering. In Week 10, the students gather for presentation of their results and to exchange ideas. At the end of 10 weeks, students will have learned how research is conducted and will have presented the results of their work at a scientific conference. Upon completing the program, the students will have a greater understanding of research in the area of computational biomolecular design and structure prediction, and they will have learned the use of the Rosetta software. Assessment of the effectiveness of the training will be done thru the SALG URSSA survey instrument (available online at www.bioreu.org). Mentors come from the Rosetta Commons network, and students can choose from a variety of projects such as designing proteins that can produce fuels in microbes, writing algorithms for vaccine design, developing models of protein glycosylation in abnormal cells, and others. Students participate in virtual seminars/workshops scheduled every week, and they interact daily with students thru virtual technologies such as Skype, Google chat, etc. Training in ethics and the responsible conduct of research is included as well as exposure to various careers in STEM. Students will be tracked after the program thru an automatic email sent via the NSF reporting system. More information is available by visiting http://rosettacommons.org/intern, or by contacting the PI (Dr. Jeffrey Gray at jgray@jhu.edu) or the Program Manager (Gregg Nass at gnass@jhu.edu). This award is supported by the Division of Biological Infrastructure (DBI) in the Directorate for Biological Sciences (BIO), the Division of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (ACI) in the Directorate for Computer and Information Science & Engineering (CISE), and the Division of Chemistry (CHE) in the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS).