Collaborative Research: NRT-DESE: Interdisciplinary Research Traineeships in Data-Enabled Science and Engineering of Atomic Structure

在许多重要的天然、合成和工程材料中，功能和特性出现在纳米级或以下；然而，通过时间和不同的长度尺度在三维空间中量化原子结构（即局部化学、键、原子位置、空间相关性和拓扑结构）仍然是一个挑战。这项授予北卡罗来纳州立大学和北卡罗来纳州中央大学的国家科学基金会研究培训（NRT）奖将为数据支持的原子结构科学与工程（SEAS）开发一种新的教育范式，以满足对新一代跨学科、数据驱动的科学家的需求，这些科学家可以将先进的统计方法应用于由尖端分析和计算实验产生的原子结构数据。这些学生率先开展的研究将最终导致对材料的原子结构如何控制其物理性质（例如电子，光学，机械）的更好理解。该项目预计在五年的资助期内培养至少40名硕士和博士研究生，其中包括20名受资助的学员，来自材料科学、物理学、统计学和应用数学。随着对联邦实验室和大学的国家科学基础设施的大量投资，新一代的原子敏感仪器为下一代科学开辟了新的机会。在测量科学的发展的同时，计算材料科学也取得了巨大的进步，为预测材料设计提供了前所未有的机会。SEAS的工作将开发一种新的研究生培训模式，以应对材料和数据科学界面上这一关键跨学科研究的出现和快速增长，并直接或间接地为国家材料基因组计划（MGI）做出贡献。MGI是一项由白宫牵头的多机构倡议，旨在通过更快地部署新材料来推动美国经济。SEAS培训计划将使研究生沉浸在独特的跨学科课程和研究环境中，受训者将由不同的教师团队和外部行业和国家实验室科学家进行团队指导。学生将设计专业发展组合，包括实验室轮转、跨学科研究小组活动、实习、研究培训模块、沟通培训和领导力培训活动。SEAS将促进和加强实习生和更大的专业社区的多样性，实习生的一个组成部分将成为跨合作机构的博士项目的桥梁，旨在更好地为代表性不足的学生在研究密集型博士项目中取得成功做好准备。美国国家科学基金会研究实习生（NRT）计划旨在鼓励开发和实施大胆的、具有潜在变革性的STEM研究生教育培训新模式。通过创新、循证、适应不断变化的劳动力和研究需求的综合培训模式，培训项目致力于在高优先级跨学科研究领域对STEM研究生进行有效培训。

In many important natural, synthetic and engineered materials, functionality and properties emerge at or below the nanoscale; however, quantifying atomic structure (i.e., local chemistry, bonding, atomic positions, spatial correlations and topology) in three-dimensions, through time and varying length scales, remains a challenge. This National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT) award to North Carolina State University and North Carolina Central University will develop a new educational paradigm for Data-Enabled Science and Engineering of Atomic Structure (SEAS) to address the demand for a new generation of interdisciplinary, data-driven scientists who can apply advanced statistical methods to atomic-structure data generated from cutting-edge analytical and computational experiments. The research pioneered by these students will ultimately lead to a greater understanding of how the atomic structures of materials govern their physical properties (e.g. electronic, optical, mechanical). The project anticipates training at least forty (40) MS and PhD students over the five-year grant, including twenty (20) funded trainees, from materials science, physics, statistics and applied mathematics. With large investments in our national scientific infrastructure at both Federal laboratories and universities, a new and evolving generation of atomically sensitive instruments has opened new opportunities for next-generation science. Parallel to these developments in measurement sciences, great strides have been made in computational materials science, which are providing unprecedented opportunities for predictive materials design. The SEAS effort will develop a new graduate-training model, responding to the emergence and rapid growth of this critical interdisciplinary research at the interface of materials and data science and contributing directly and indirectly to the national Materials Genome Initiative (MGI), a multi-agency initiative spearheaded by the White House that advances the U.S. economy by enabling faster deployment of new materials. The SEAS traineeship program will immerse graduate students in a unique interdisciplinary curricular and research environment in which the trainees will be team-mentored by a diverse group of faculty and external industry and national laboratory scientists. The students will design professional development portfolios that will include laboratory rotations, interdisciplinary research group activities, internships, research training modules, communication training, and leadership-training activities. SEAS will promote and enhance diversity within the traineeship and larger professional community, and an integral part of the traineeship will be a bridge-to-the-PhD program across the partnering institutions aimed at better preparing underrepresented students to succeed in a research-intensive PhD program.The NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) Program is designed to encourage the development and implementation of bold, new potentially transformative models for STEM graduate education training. The Traineeship Track is dedicated to effective training of STEM graduate students in high priority interdisciplinary research areas, through the comprehensive traineeship model that is innovative, evidence-based, and aligned with changing workforce and research needs.