Collaborative Research: NRT-INFEWS: Sustainable Food, Energy, and Water Systems (SFEWS)

在人口日益增加的地球上，需要大面积的土地来满足食物、能源和水(很少)的需求。这可能会导致具有挑战性的土地使用竞争，而目前的土地使用实践无法满足当地的一些需求。例如，在生产太阳能的地区，标准太阳能电池板可以全天在农田上投射巨大的地面阴影，这极大地阻碍了作物的生长。迫切需要为可持续的少数系统(SFEWS)开发解决方案，在这种系统中，食物、能源和水的需求可以通过合作而不是竞争的方式利用可用的土地来满足。一种方法可能是利用整个太阳光谱来最大限度地利用给定陆地区域的资源生产。实现这种解决方案需要有效的跨学科教育和培训，以产生资源和人力资本，以领导可持续的太阳能经济。这项授予普渡大学和佛罗里达农工大学的国家科学基金会研究培训(NRT)奖将形成一个跨学科的培训计划，将培训研究生所需的技能，为人口更稠密的地球生产可持续的食物、能源和水供应(少数)。该项目预计培养48名博士生，其中包括24名资助学员，来自农学、农业和生物工程、电气和计算机工程、化学工程、材料科学与工程、化学和农业经济。SFEWS项目旨在利用当地的太阳能满足当地的食品、能源和水资源管理需求。要达到这种状态，需要研究高度复杂的系统，这些系统具有以前未被认识到的相互依存关系，然后通过结合来自农业、工程和科学不同领域的基本科学和技术原理来开发创新的解决方案。在许多可能性中，将根据政府政策和社会影响，根据系统范围的简单性、经济影响和环境足迹来确定解决方案。进行这些研究的SFEWS队列将提供一支受过跨学科技能培训的劳动力队伍，以确定导致土地竞争的潜在因素，提出创新的解决方案，然后作为研究人员、商业和行业领袖、政策制定者、教师和企业家领导全球实施。通过该计划开发的新的科学和技术知识、独特的系统分析方法和工具将产生远远超出SFEWS NRT的影响。该小组将开发新的跨学科课程和培训模块，通过NanHUB.org等工具在全球传播。通过精心规划的多元化招聘和参与，SFEWS NRT将帮助代表性不足的学生和女学生帮助打造可持续的少数人经济。这一计划的成功实施将引入一种新的范式，在这种模式下，当地的少数需求可以越来越多地通过当地的太阳能来满足，以实现高度弹性的经济，而美国在可持续满足少数需求方面处于世界领先地位。NSF研究培训(NRT)计划旨在鼓励开发和实施大胆的、具有潜在变革性的STEM研究生教育培训模式。Traineesship Track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。该项目由Louis Stokes少数群体参与联盟(LSAMP)计划共同资助。LSAMP项目支持全面、循证和持续的方法，以扩大STEM中历史上代表性不足的种族和民族的学生的参与。

Large areas of land are needed to satisfy the food, energy, and water (FEW) needs of an increasingly populated earth. This can lead to challenging land use competition where local FEW needs cannot be met with current land use practice. For instance, in areas where solar energy is produced, standard solar panels can cast large ground shadows on agricultural land throughout the day, which greatly impedes crop growth. An urgent need exists to develop solutions for sustainable FEW systems (SFEWS) where food, energy, and water needs can be met using available land collaboratively rather than competitively. One approach could be to use the entire solar spectrum to maximize resource production from a given land area. Achieving such solutions requires effective interdisciplinary education and training to generate the resources and human capital for leadership for a sustainable solar economy. This National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT) award to Purdue University and Florida A&M University will form an interdisciplinary traineeship program that will train graduate students in the skills needed to produce sustainable supplies of food, energy and water (FEW) for a more heavily populated earth. The project anticipates training 48 PhD students, including 24 funded trainees, from agronomy, agricultural and biological engineering, electrical and computer engineering, chemical engineering, materials science and engineering, chemistry, and agricultural economics.The SFEWS project aims to meet food, energy and water management needs locally with local solar energy. Achieving this state requires studying highly complex systems with previously unappreciated interdependencies and then developing innovative solutions by combining basic scientific and technical principles from the diverse fields of agriculture, engineering, and science. Out of many possibilities, solutions will be identified based on their system-wide simplicity, economic impact, and environmental footprint, in light of government policy and social impact. The SFEWS cohorts performing these studies will provide a workforce trained in interdisciplinary skills to identify underlying factors leading to competition for land, to suggest innovative solutions, and then lead in global implementation as researchers, business and industry leaders, policy makers, teachers and entrepreneurs. The new scientific and technical knowledge, unique systems analysis methods, and tools developed from this program will have impact well beyond the SFEWS NRT. This team will develop new interdisciplinary courses and training modules, globally disseminated through vehicles such as nanoHUB.org. Through well-planned diversity recruiting and engagement, the SFEWS NRT will help underrepresented and women students to help forge a sustainable FEW economy. Successful execution of this program will introduce a new paradigm where local FEW needs can increasingly be met with local solar energy for a highly resilient economy, with the U.S. serving as a world leader in sustainably meeting FEW needs.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 comprehensive traineeship models that are innovative, evidence-based, and aligned with changing workforce and research needs.This project is co-funded by the Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program. The LSAMP program supports comprehensive, evidence-based, and sustained approaches to broadening participation of students from racial and ethnic groups historically underrepresented in STEM.