IRES Track I: US-Brazil Integrating Engineering and Anthropology Research to Expand Perspectives on Water and Sustainability

该项目将使来自工程学、人类学和其他可持续发展相关学科的学生能够合作研究卫生和废水处理技术的功效，以及文化和当地观念在从人类排泄物和废水中安全回收能源、营养物质和清洁水方面的作用。在三年的时间里，共有18名美国学生将获得支持，在巴西贝洛奥里藏特的卫生研究和培训中心（CePTS）学习不同技术的性能。该设施由米纳斯吉拉斯的联邦大学和米纳斯吉拉斯的国家废水公司共同管理，其中包括处理贝洛奥里藏特市真实的废水的中试规模反应器。它被认为是美洲最重要的研究和专业培训中心之一，被用作评估新技术有效性和培训废水系统操作员的试验场。除了拓宽学生对卫生，资源回收和跨学科团队环境中的风险的观点，该项目还将使学生提高他们的跨文化能力。研究人员将寻求招募学生，反映我们的人口作为标题V西班牙裔服务机构，特别关注在科学和工程中代表性不足的群体。学生将参加为期五天的巴西文化和葡萄牙语强化速成班，由圣地亚哥州立大学巴西项目领导，在那里他们将学习表达来自不同文化和背景的人的意见和观点。他们将了解国际、跨学科和社区对工程和技术在水、能源和食品系统管理中的作用的看法。在参与研究体验后，学生将通过在南加州的K-12学校参与当地的外展活动来分享他们的经验。将水的再利用和资源回收纳入废水处理和卫生系统为同时实现多个联合国可持续发展目标提供了机会。然而，选择适当和可持续技术的挑战既是技术挑战，也是社会挑战。对当地态度和技术在发展中的作用的假设不足，可能导致系统失灵。因此，有必要将关于环境卫生和资源回收技术功效的研究与影响对这些技术的看法的社会和文化因素的评估以及从废水和排泄物中回收资源的价值和风险的评估结合起来。这个为期三年的国际学生研究经验（IRES）项目将每年派遣六名学生（来自工程学，人类学和跨学科的可持续发展计划）到巴西贝洛奥里藏特，参加米纳斯吉拉斯的联邦大学（UFMG）的外国导师的研究经验。学生将研究新兴污染物的去除，并描述与卫生研究和培训中心（CePTS）的试点规模的现有和新兴废水处理技术的资源回收相关的风险，该中心由UFMG和米纳斯吉拉斯州废水公司共同管理。学生还将通过与社区成员和当地利益相关者在水和废水部门的民族志研究调查感知的价值和风险。这项研究的成果将支持一个新的和不断增长的领域的跨学科科学文献的主题水，文化和可持续性。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得支持的评估使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。

This project will enable cohorts of students from engineering, anthropology, and other sustainability-related disciplines to collaborate and study the efficacy of sanitation and wastewater treatment technologies as well as the role of culture and local perceptions on the safe recovery of energy, nutrients, and clean water from human excreta and wastewater. Over the course of three years, a total of 18 US students will be supported to study the performance of different technologies at the Center for Research and Training in Sanitation (CePTS) in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. This facility, which is co-managed by the Federal University of Minas Gerais and the State Wastewater Company of Minas Gerais, contains pilot-scale reactors that treat real wastewater from the city of Belo Horizonte. Considered one of the most important research and professional training centers of its kind in the Americas, it is used as a test site to evaluate the effectiveness of new technologies and train wastewater system operators. In addition to broadening students' perspectives about sanitation, resource recovery, and risk within an interdisciplinary team setting, this project will also allow students to improve their intercultural abilities. The researchers will seek to recruit students that reflect our demographics as Title V Hispanic Serving Institutions, with a particular focus on underrepresented groups in the sciences and engineering. Students will participate in a five-day intensive crash course on Brazilian culture and Portuguese language, led by the San Diego State University Program on Brazil, where they will learn to articulate the opinions and perspectives of people from different cultures and backgrounds. They will gain an awareness of international, interdisciplinary, and community perspectives on the role of engineering and technology in the management of water, energy, and food systems. After participating in the research experience, students will share their experiences by engaging in local outreach activities at K-12 schools in Southern California.The integration of water reuse and resource recovery into wastewater treatment and sanitation systems provides opportunities to simultaneously meet several of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. However, the challenges of choosing appropriate and sustainable technologies are just as much social as they are technical. Inadequate assumptions about local attitudes and the role of technology in development can lead to the failure of systems. Thus, there is a need to integrate studies of the efficacy of sanitation and resource recovery technologies with assessments of social and cultural factors that influence perceptions about these technologies, as well as the perceived value and risk of recovering resources from wastewater and excreta. This three-year International Research Experience for Students (IRES) project will send interdisciplinary cohorts of six students each year (from Engineering, Anthropology and an interdisciplinary Sustainability Program) to Belo Horizonte, Brazil, to participate in a research experience with foreign mentorship at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). Students will study the removal of emerging contaminants and characterize the risks associated with resource recovery from pilot-scale established and emerging wastewater treatment technologies at the Center for Research and Training in Sanitation (CePTS), which is co-managed by UFMG and the State Wastewater Company of Minas Gerais. Students will also investigate perceived values and risks through ethnographic research with community members and local stakeholders in the water and wastewater sector. The results of this research will support a new and growing field of interdisciplinary scientific literature on the topic of water, culture, and sustainability.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.