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，功能和性质在纳米尺度或以下出现；然而，通过时间和不同长度尺度在三维中量化原子结构(即局部化学、成键、原子位置、空间相关性和拓扑)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中央大学的国家科学基金会研究培训(NRT)奖将为原子结构数据启用科学与工程(SEA)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从尖端分析和计算实验产生的原子结构数据。这些学生开创的研究最终将使人们更好地理解材料的原子结构如何控制其物理性质(例如，电子、光学、机械)。该项目预计将在五年内培训至少40名MS和博士生，其中包括20名资助的实习生，他们来自材料科学、物理、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，新一代不断发展的原子敏感仪器为下一代科学打开了新的机遇。在这些测量科学发展的同时，计算材料科学也取得了长足的进步，这为预测材料设计提供了前所未有的机会。SEA的努力将开发一种新的研究生培养模式，以应对材料和数据科学之间这一关键跨学科研究的出现和快速增长，并直接和间接地为国家材料基因组倡议(MGI)做出贡献，这是一个由白宫带头的多机构倡议，通过加快新材料的部署来促进美国经济的发展。SEA实习生计划将使研究生沉浸在一个独特的跨学科课程和研究环境中，在这个环境中，实习生将由不同的教职员工以及外部行业和国家实验室科学家进行团队指导。学生将设计职业发展组合，包括实验室轮换、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。SEA将促进和增强实习生和更大专业群体的多样性，实习生计划的一个组成部分将是跨合作机构的博士学位桥梁计划，旨在更好地为代表不足的学生在研究密集型博士计划中取得成功做好准备。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。

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.