NRT: A Bioelectronics Incubator for Training Students (BITS) at the Cell/Material Interface

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A major technological revolution is emerging as researchers develop the ability to interface natural and synthetic cellular systems with nanoscale materials to create hybrid cells and devices that communicate electronically. This new interdisciplinary field has the potential to transform fundamental science, industry, medicine, and our way of life. To achieve these innovations, industry will require a workforce that collaborates across disciplines to develop devices that enable measurement, manipulation, control and sensing of biological processes of organisms, cells, molecules and reactions. Because this industry will change how we interact with each other, this topic will present new policy, economic, and environmental issues to solve. The National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT) award to William Marsh Rice University will address these challenges by training graduate doctoral students in the interdisciplinary field of bioelectronics. The project anticipates training thirty (30) doctoral students, including eighteen (18) funded trainees, from engineering, natural sciences, and social sciences doctoral programs. Students typically begin training in disciplinary graduate programs, and collaboration follows after investing significant time into defining the research problem, often through co-mentored apprenticeships. This educational model is thought to limit the kinds of questions that students pursue because students are not poised to effectively integrate into the type of teams required for bioelectronics innovation. To overcome these limitations, this NRT program will integrate a team-first pedagogical model for doctoral training with bioelectronics research to educate students about past interdisciplinary innovations, theoretical underpinnings of interdisciplinarity, creation of cohesive teams and community building, frameworks for achieving conceptual understanding across disciplines, and strategies to understand the needs of stakeholders. Research activities centered on bioelectronics themes encompass diverse topics, such as light-harvesting systems that enable chemical synthesis within cells, instruments that monitor complex electrical signaling in the nervous system, and living sensors that interface with handheld devices. This traineeship program will also provide training in effective communication, teaching and mentorship, conflict resolution, leadership and management, responsible conduct in research, and outreach. Students will work in interdisciplinary teams to identify bioelectronics questions, perform team-based research, and generate joint publications. Team integration will be achieved through catalysts, including the synthesis of proposals and articles, the creation of activities for educating others about interdisciplinarity, interdisciplinary workshops, peer-writing groups, cell/device fabrication and testing activities, and annual activities that refine interdisciplinary communication skills.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 program 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 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.