NRT-DESE: Interdisciplinary Graduate Training to Understand and Inform Decision Processes Using Advanced Spatial Data Analysis and Visualization

这项授予纽约州立大学石溪分校的国家科学基金会研究培训(NRT)奖将为理工科研究生提供独特的跨学科技能，帮助并最终领导将复杂的数据支持的研究转化为明智的决策和合理的政策。在工业和政府的所有部门中，有效的决策取决于科学家以支持决策过程的方式解释数据和交流结果的能力。这一新的培训计划通过一套跨学科的新课程和一系列活动来应对这一挑战，这些课程和活动的主题是“科学培训和研究为决策提供信息”(STRIDE)。它将具体包括很少明确教授的决策支持技能，如理解利益相关者的观点、科学交流和转化科学不确定性。该项目预计将培训90名博士生，其中包括至少20名资助的博士生，以及类似数量的非实习生MS和博士生，他们将参加来自大气和海洋科学、生态与进化、计算机科学、生物医学信息学、应用数学和统计学、新闻以及高级计算科学系的项目组成部分。STRIDE最初将以环境可持续性(包括气候变化、海洋生态和自然资源管理以及非法砍伐森林)和能源可持续性为目标，并将在第三年增加人口健康。支持决策的高级可视化数据分析研究将在所有领域无处不在。专注于决策的学科之间的交叉培养将为学生在领域科学中做出发现做好准备，并将导致视觉数据分析方面的创新。为了在新的背景下培养研究技能并使职业前景多样化，受训人员将在非学术合作伙伴，如IBM研究、布鲁克海文国家实验室和国家海洋渔业服务局进行暑期外部培训，每年都会增加新的合作伙伴。该计划包括三个主要部分：1)一套专门设计的关于决策支持、空间数据分析、可视化和通信的课程，所有学生都需要；2)STEM领域学科的培训；以及3)一套所有学生都将参与的非基于课程的计划要素，包括招聘、技能发展、专业发展和个人发展。除了所在领域科学学科的学位外，学生在完成三门拟议的课程和计划活动后，还将获得STRIDE颁发的研究生证书。将接受严格评估的具体创新包括科学决策支持研讨会课程，许多政府/行业科学家、决策者和记者将远程领导有关各自领域决策支持的科学、社会和其他挑战的讨论。新闻学院的艾伦·阿尔达科学传播中心将为决策者提供另一门专注于科学传播的新课程。NSF研究培训计划(NRT)旨在鼓励为STEM研究生教育培训开发和实施大胆的、具有潜在变革性的新模式。培训路径致力于通过创新的、基于证据的、与不断变化的劳动力和研究需求保持一致的综合培训模式，在高度优先的跨学科研究领域对STEM研究生进行有效培训。

This National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT) award to SUNY at Stony Brook will provide science and engineering graduate students with unique interdisciplinary skills to assist and eventually lead in the translation of complex data-enabled research into informed decisions and sound policies. Within all sectors of industry and government, effective decision making depends on the ability of scientists to interpret data and communicate results in a way that supports the decision-making process. This new training program responds to this challenge with an interdisciplinary set of new courses and a suite of activities united by the theme of "Scientific Training and Research to Inform DEcisions" (STRIDE). It specifically will include the rarely explicitly taught skills of decision support, such as understanding the perspectives of stakeholders, science communication, and translating scientific uncertainty. The project anticipates training 90 PhD students, including at least 20 funded doctoral trainees, and a similar number of non-trainee MS and PhD students that will participate in program components from the departments of atmospheric and marine sciences, ecology and evolution, computer science, biomedical informatics, applied mathematics and statistics, journalism, and advanced computational science. STRIDE will initially target environmental sustainability (including climate change, marine ecology and natural resource management, and illegal deforestation) and energy sustainability, and will add population health in the third year. Research in advanced visual data analytics to support decisions will be pervasive in all areas. The cross fertilization between disciplines focused on decision making will prepare students to make discoveries in the domain sciences and will lead to innovations in visual data analytics. To develop research skills in new contexts and to diversify career perspectives, trainees will have summer externships at non-academic partners such as IBM Research, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and the National Marine Fisheries Service, with new partners being added each year. The program comprises three major components: 1) a set of specially designed courses on decision support, spatial data analysis, visualization, and communication required for all students; 2) training in a STEM domain discipline; and 3) a set of non-course-based program elements in which all students will participate, including recruitment, skill development, professional development, and personal development. In addition to degrees in their domain-science disciplines, students will receive a graduate certificate from STRIDE after completing the three proposed courses and program activities. Specific innovations to be tested by rigorous evaluation include the seminar course in scientific decision support that will feature many government/industry scientists, decision makers, and journalists remotely leading discussions on the science, societal, and other challenges associated with decision support in their respective fields. Another new course focusing on science communication for decision makers will be provided by the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science in the School of Journalism.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.