NanoFlorida 2022

拟议的纳米佛罗里达会议解决了现有国际、国家和区域相关主题会议未解决的重要需求。具体来说，需要召开一次会议来有意义地吸引和支持来自不同领域和不同背景的参与纳米级研究的学生的智力和专业进步。鉴于纳米技术的科学、工程和应用的广度，有许多全球性的国际、国家和地区会议支持研究进展的传播以及活跃在这些领域的领先研究人员和公司之间的参与和技术交流。这些会议通常规模很大、令人生畏、成本高昂，并且在某些情况下很难让学生的作品被接受进行展示。这些重大障碍会极大地限制学生的参与，特别是那些参与资金不足的实验室和处于学术生涯早期阶段的学生。纳米佛罗里达会议通过以前所未有的水平吸引学生参与，不仅让他们作为技术贡献者和演讲者，而且还作为会议组织者，使自己有别于规模更大的国际、国家和地区纳米研究会议。 NanoFlorida 的规模有意设计得足够小、成本足够低，以便学生可以自己展示他们的研究成果，以便更广泛的学生和教师可以建立和加强纳米技术学者社区。智力优势：本次会议提案的目标是支持更多来自更多背景的学生扩大和包容性地参与 NanoFlorida 2022 会议。具体来说，国家科学基金会的资金将用于支持更多的学生参与这一丰富的活动，增进他们对尖端纳米技术研究的理解，促进他们的专业发展，并大大降低学生注册会议和州内旅行的成本。拟议的目标将通过报销学生注册费用以及在某些情况下提供部分全额州内旅行支持来实现。通过为 2022 年纳米佛罗里达会议提供财政支持，美国国家科学基金会将比前几年更广泛、更具包容性的学生群体促进对纳米科学、工程和技术领域最先进研究的理解。此外，参加的学生将有机会提高关键专业技能并扩大他们的技术网络。 NanoFlorida 2022 会议的成功将通过会前和会后调查进行评估。会前调查将包括有关他们的会前纳米研究概念知识/经验以及他们对会议的期望的问题。会后调查将包括以下问题：他们对纳米研究概念的进一步理解和主讲人的选择、演讲的质量、会议设施和服务、专业发展和网络活动对学生的有用性，以及会议对他们对纳米技术、学术专业和未来职业的兴趣的影响。更广泛的影响：纳米佛罗里达会议让学生了解最新的纳米技术研究及其应用。像 NanoFlorida 这样的会议是研究生和本科生磨练科学传播技能的理想场所。观众人数足够多，使演示对学生有意义，但又不会太大和太正式，以免他们在演示时感到紧张。学生将见到来自其他学校和行业的研究人员。这些专业关系将为学生在科学、技术、工程和数学领域的职业生涯带来长期利益。了解纳米技术、培养沟通技巧以及与学术界和工业界的研究人员建立联系是学生毕业后加入纳米技术队伍的重要步骤。利用 NSF 资金来消除财务障碍（过去可能阻碍了一些来自代表性不足的群体、代表性不足的佛罗里达机构和资金较少的研究团体的学生参与），可以使更多多元化的学生参加、展示他们的研究，并从会议的智力、专业和职业发展活动中受益。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The proposed NanoFlorida Conference addresses important needs that existing international, national, and regional conferences on related topics do not address. Specifically, there is a need for a conference to meaningfully engage and support the intellectual and professional advancement of students involved in nanoscale research from diverse fields and diverse backgrounds. Given the breadth of the science, engineering, and applications of nanotechnology, there are many global international, national, and regional conferences that support the dissemination of research advances and the engagement and technical exchange between leading researchers and companies active in these fields. These conferences are typically quite large, intimidating, costly, and in some cases quite difficult to get student work accepted for presentation. These significant barriers can greatly limit the participation of students, particularly those involved in less well funded labs and at the early stages of their academic career. The NanoFlorida conference sets itself apart from the larger international, national, and regional conferences for nanoscale research by engaging students at an unprecedented level and not only involving them as technical contributors and presenters but also as conference organizers. NanoFlorida is intentionally sized to be small enough and low cost enough that students can present their research themselves and so that a broader range of students and faculty can build and strengthen a nanotechnology community of scholars. Intellectual Merit:The objective of this conference proposal is to support the expanded and inclusive engagement of more students from more background in the NanoFlorida 2022 Conference. Specifically, NSF funding will be used to support the involvement of more students in this enriching event, advance their understanding of cutting-edge nanotechnology research, facilitate their professional development, and greatly lower the student cost to register for the meeting and for in-state travel. The proposed objective will be achieved by offering the reimbursement of student registration costs and in some cases partial to full in-state travel support. By providing financial support for the NanoFlorida 2022 Conference, the NSF will advance the understanding of state-of-the-art research in nanoscale science, engineering, and technology by a larger and more inclusive student population that previous years. In addition, the student attending will have opportunities to improve key professional skills and expand their technical network.The success of the NanoFlorida 2022 Conference will be evaluated by using a pre-conference and a post-conference survey. The pre-conference survey will include questions about their pre-conference knowledge of / experience with nanoscale research concepts and their expectations for the conference. The post-conference survey will include questions about their improved understanding of nanoscale research concepts and the selection of keynote speakers, quality of presentations, conference amenities and services, usefulness of professional-development and networking activities for students, and the impact of the conference on their interest in nanotechnology, academic major, and future career. Broader Impacts:NanoFlorida conferences expose students to the latest nanotechnology research and its applications. A conference like NanoFlorida is an ideal venue for graduate and undergraduate students to hone their science-communication skills. The audiences are big enough so that the presentation is meaningful to the student but not too large and formal so that they are nervous to present. Students will meet researchers from other schools and from industry. These professional relationships will provide long-term benefits to student careers in science, technology, engineering, and math fields. Learning about nanotechnology, developing communication skills, and networking with researchers from academia and industry are important steps that prepare students to join the nanotechnological workforce upon their graduation. Using NSF funds to eliminate the financial barrier, which may have prevented the participation of some students from underrepresented groups, underrepresented Florida institutions, and less well funded research groups in the past, could enable more diverse students to attend, present their research, and benefit from the conference's intellectual, professional, and career development activities.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.