NRT- HDR: Computing and Data Science Training for Materials Innovation, Discovery, Analytics

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Polymers are used in everyday products (e.g., food packaging, paints, pipes) and advanced technologies (e.g., microelectronics, drug delivery). Requirements for polymer properties are ever-changing, driven by socio-economic, environmental, and functional issues. Industry and academia need to find new ways to accelerate the design of polymers with optimal properties that address these issues. As a result, there is a demand for a professional workforce with advanced interdisciplinary training in chemistry, materials science, engineering, computer science, and data science. This National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT) award to the University of Delaware (UD) will provide such a training platform at UD and a local minority-serving institution, Delaware State University (DSU). This platform will impart the necessary professional training and cross-disciplinary technical knowledge in high-performance computing (HPC), data science, materials science, and engineering. The project anticipates training 50-60 Ph.D. students at UD and DSU, including 23 funded-trainees, from the core disciplines of materials science, chemical engineering, chemistry, computer science/engineering, and data science. Successful training of the next generation of a diverse workforce across these disciplines will support the increasing shift in research and development from traditional trial-and-error materials experimentation to computing and data-driven fast materials innovation. NRT trainees will build their disciplinary strengths through their degree program-based core courses and receive interdisciplinary training in the secondary disciplines through newly developed courses. The progression of training elements is designed to increasingly infuse interdisciplinary technical knowledge and professional skills into the trainees’ doctoral research projects. Trainees will be co-advised by academic mentors with different disciplinary expertise and have regular interactions with mentors from industry and national laboratories. Further, trainees aiming at industry and national lab careers will participate in summer internships with committed industry/national lab partners. Trainees pursuing academic careers will participate in a two-part teaching certificate program (summer workshop followed by a semester-long teaching fellowship). Every training element is designed to blend technical with professional skills development in ethics, inclusion, collaboration, team science, adaptive communication, and interpersonal negotiation. This approach will ensure trainees from across disciplines overcome barriers involving discipline-specific communication and cultural differences. By the end of their NRT training, these trainees will serve as cross-functional connections between HPC, data science, materials science, and engineering disciplines pushing polymer research forward with their gained knowledge of Materials Innovation, Discovery, and AnalyticS—their ‘MIDAS’ touch.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 or convergent 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.