NRT: Boston UniverCity - Partnering Graduate Students and Cities to Tackle Urban Environmental Challenges

世界上一半以上的人口生活在城市，向城市人口中心的转移预计将继续增长。城市经常面临环境挑战，如空气和水污染、极端天气事件或风暴潮。在城市环境中解决这些问题是复杂的，需要不同领域的专业知识，包括跨学科的技术知识和与所有利益攸关方有效沟通的能力。这项授予波士顿大学的国家科学基金会研究培训奖将使研究生做好准备，使用融合生物地球科学和环境健康的跨学科方法来解决城市面临的主要环境问题，重点是与政策制定者、私营部门和更广泛的社区接触和沟通。该项目预计将培训60名博士生，其中包括20名由NRT资助的实习生，他们来自生物地质科学、环境健康和统计学。毕业生将有能力解决有关物理环境的基本问题，并减少环境对生态系统功能和人类健康的影响。培训模式有三个相互关联的要素，包括(I)在波士顿大学提供的生物地球科学、环境健康、数据分析、实地研究方法和城市治理方面的跨学科课程；(Ii)与城市和私营部门的讲习班和实习；(Iii)通过混合媒体向公众宣传城市环境问题、科学和解决方案。学生研究课题将通过学生、教师、政策制定者、私营部门成员和外部咨询委员会的合作过程来制定。这一培训计划(I)将通过在招收、指导、培训和留住博士生方面使用基于证据的方法，促进STEM劳动力的多样化和全球竞争力，重点是未被充分代表的少数族裔学生；(Ii)将传播一种可供美国其他大学采用的新培训模式；以及(Iii)将导致向多层决策的政策制定者翻译和交流研究成果。该计划将通过对学员学习和沟通能力的定期评估以及对学员的评估进行评估。这些努力已经影响了波士顿市政府和其他利益相关者所做的决定。NSF研究培训(NRT)计划旨在鼓励开发和实施大胆的、新的、潜在的变革性STEM研究生教育培训模式。研究生教育创新轨道专门致力于试验、测试和评估研究生教育的新颖、创新和潜在的变革性方法。

More than half of the world's population lives in cities, and the shift to urban population centers is anticipated to continue growing. Cities often face environmental challenges such as air and water pollution, extreme weather events, or storm surges. Addressing these issues in urban environments is complex and requires diverse areas of expertise, including interdisciplinary technical knowledge and the ability to communicate effectively with all stakeholders. This National Science Foundation Research Traineeship award to Boston University will prepare graduate students to tackle the major environmental problems confronting cities using an interdisciplinary approach that fuses biogeoscience and environmental health, with an emphasis on engagement and communication with policy makers, the private sector, and the broader community. This project anticipates training 60 Ph.D. students, including 20 NRT-funded trainees, from biogeoscience, environmental health, and statistics. Graduates will be equipped to address foundational questions about the physical environment and to reduce the impacts of the environment on both ecosystem function and human health. The training model has three linked elements, including (i) interdisciplinary coursework in biogeoscience, environmental health, data analysis, field research methods, and city governance offered at Boston University; (ii) workshops and internships with cities and the private sector; and (iii) outreach through mixed media to communicate urban environmental questions, science, and solutions to the public. Student research topics will be formulated using a collaborative process that involves students, faculty, policy-makers, members of the private sector, and an external advisory council. This training program (i) will contribute to a diverse and globally competitive STEM workforce through use of evidence-based approaches in recruitment, mentorship, training, and retention of Ph.D. students, with an emphasis on underrepresented minority students; (ii) will lead to dissemination of a new training model that can be adopted by other universities around the U.S.; and (iii) will result in translation and communication of research results to policy-makers at multiple levels of decision-making. The program will be evaluated through regular assessments of trainee learning and communication skills and by assessments of how trainees? efforts have affected decisions made by the city of Boston and other stakeholders. 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 Innovations in Graduate Education Track is dedicated solely to piloting, testing, and evaluating novel, innovative, and potentially transformative approaches to graduate education.