EAGER Germination Renewal: Cultivating Creativity in STEM Research through Mindfulness Training

非技术描述：来自威斯康星大学(UW)-麦迪逊分校和弗吉尼亚大学（UVa）的多学科合作团队正在进行一项更新项目，以进一步调查、完善和评估最近在威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校为工程研究生试点的新学习框架的机构间实施情况。该框架基于正念训练，即冥想和其他沉思练习的指导。潜在的假设是双重的：1)正念训练将培养创造力，创新，智力冒险，利他主义和整体福祉；2)这些特征将增强受训者构思和追求解决社会挑战的新颖研究理念的能力。重要的是，因为工程和计算机科学研究生经常在学术界、工业界和国家实验室从事研究工作，在那里他们将成为各自领域的下一代创新者，提高他们的创造能力将通过他们在短期和职业生涯中产生的创新来造福社会。正念训练也有可能有益于参与者的整体健康和情感健康。技术描述：威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校的工程学院和健康思想中心正与弗吉尼亚大学工程与应用科学学院和冥想科学中心合作，扩大最近由美国国家科学基金会资助的一项针对工程研究生的新的正念训练学习框架的试点研究。该框架旨在培养创造力、创新精神、智力冒险精神和利他主义——所有这些都是构思和开展专注于社会重大挑战的变革性工程研究的核心。向研究生介绍冥想练习的基本原理有两个方面。首先，最近的研究表明，正念冥想可以提高解决问题的洞察力，减少认知僵化，并对创造力产生积极影响，同时增加同理心和同情心。关于正念的神经科学机制的基础理论进一步支持了这些联系。此外，正念冥想已被证明对身体和情绪健康都有很多好处，包括减轻压力，因此有可能全面提高一个人的创造力和社会创新能力。这个更新项目的具体目标是根据试点研究的数据，完善“通过正念培养变革性研究”培训计划，调查其对威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校研究生更大群体的影响，并评估学习框架对弗吉尼亚大学的可转移性。该项目预计将产生广泛的证据，证明正念训练作为一种固有的可扩展和可适应的学习框架，可用于培训工程和计算机科学研究生，提高他们进行创新的社会变革研究的能力和兴趣。

Non-Technical Description: A multidisciplinary collaborative team from the University of Wisconsin (UW)-Madison and the University of Virginia (UVa) is pursuing a renewal project to further investigate, refine, and evaluate inter-institutional implementation of a new learning framework recently piloted at UW-Madison for engineering graduate students. The framework is based on mindfulness training, i.e. instruction in meditation and other contemplative practices. The underlying hypothesis is two-fold: 1) mindfulness training will cultivate creativity, innovation, intellectual risk-taking, altruism, and overall well-being, and 2) these characteristics will enhance trainees' ability to conceive of and pursue novel research ideas that address societal challenges. Importantly, because engineering and computer science graduate students frequently transition to research careers in academia, industry and national laboratories where they will become the next generation of innovators in their field, enhancing their creative capacity will benefit society through the innovations they produce both in the short term and over the course of their careers. Mindfulness training also has the potential to benefit the participants' overall health and emotional well-being.Technical Description: The College of Engineering and the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin (UW)-Madison are partnering with the School of Engineering and Applied Science and the Contemplative Sciences Center at the University of Virginia (UVa) to pursue an expansion of a recently conducted, NSF-funded, pilot study of a new mindfulness-training learning framework for engineering graduate students. The framework is intended to cultivate creativity, innovation, intellectual risk-taking, and altruism -- all of which are at the heart of conceiving and conducting transformative engineering research that focuses on societal grand challenges. The rationale for introducing graduate students to contemplative practices is two-fold. First, recent studies suggest that mindfulness meditation improves insight problem solving, reduces cognitive rigidity, and positively impacts creativity outcomes, as well as increasing empathy and compassion. These links are further supported by underlying theories about the neuroscientific mechanisms of mindfulness. Additionally, mindfulness meditation has been shown to have numerous health benefits, both emotional and physical, including reduced stress, and thus has the potential to holistically increase one's capacity for creativity and societally-focused innovation. The specific objective of this renewal project is to refine the "Cultivating Transformative Research Through Mindfulness" training program based on data from the pilot study, investigate its impact with a larger cohort of graduate students at UW-Madison, and assess transferability of the learning framework to UVa. The project is expected to yield extensive evidence of the efficacy of mindfulness training as an inherently scalable and adaptable learning framework for training engineering and computer science graduate students, enhancing their ability and interest to conduct innovative societally-focused transformative research.