Catalyst Project: Integrating Water-Energy-Food-Climate Nexus into Undergraduate Engineering and Science Education

催化剂项目为历史悠久的黑人学院和大学(HBCU)提供支持，以努力建立教职员工的研究能力，以加强科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)本科教育和研究。预计该奖项将进一步提高教职员工的研究能力，改善学院的研究和教学，并让本科生参与研究经验。哥伦比亚特区大学寻求开发和实施多层次的创新模式，以吸引本科生并培训土木工程和其他STEM专业的下一代劳动力，使他们接触到关于水、能源、食品和气候关系的新课程、研究和推广活动。目标和活动的设计通过以下方式实现项目的目标：1)将与水-能源-食品-气候关系的跨学科知识、动手练习和技能整合到土木工程(CE)和其他STEM项目中；2)通过创建与水-能源-食物-气候关系相关的跨学科全年研究计划，丰富CE和其他STEM学科的本科生研究经验；以及3)通过工程设计吸引高中和社区大学生参与，增加CE和其他学科的招生和留学生。该项目将培养精通多学科的学生，为水-能源-食品-气候关系领域的21世纪挑战和职业生涯做好准备。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Catalyst Projects provide support for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) to work towards establishing research capacity of faculty to strengthen science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) undergraduate education and research. It is expected that the award will further the faculty member's research capability, improve research and teaching at the institution, and involve undergraduate students in research experiences. The University of the District of Columbia seeks to develop and implement a multi layered innovative model to engage undergraduate students and train next generational workforce in Civil Engineering and other STEM majors giving exposure to novel courses, research, and outreach activities on the water, energy, food and climate nexus.The objectives and activities have been designed to meet the goal of the project by 1) Integrating interdisciplinary knowledge, hands-on exercises, and skills related to the water-energy-food-climate nexus into Civil Engineering (CE) and other STEM programs; 2) Enriching the undergraduate research experiences of CE and additional STEM disciplines through creation of an interdisciplinary year-round research program related to the water-energy-food-climate nexus; and 3) Increasing enrollment and retention of students in CE and other disciplines by engaging high school and community college students through engineering design. This project will create well versed students with a wide variety of multidisciplinary design tools prepared for 21st-century challenges and careers in the water-energy-food-climate nexus.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.