IUCRC Phase I University of Washington: Center for Soil Technologies (SoilTech)

健康的土壤是维持生命、种植粮食、提供住所、提供有弹性的基础设施和实现流动性所必需的，但目前对土壤及其动力学的许多关键方面缺乏了解，例如水分和有机质含量的变化，以及这些变化如何影响土壤健康和稳定。土壤技术中心（SoilTech）是南加州大学、爱荷华州立大学、康涅狄格大学和华盛顿大学之间的合作伙伴关系，旨在解决这一知识差距，其使命是支持与农业、国防、能源和环境相关的行业。通过召集全国各地具有互补专业领域的研究人员，并从广泛的工业、基金会和政府组织中招募行业顾问委员会成员，土壤技术将在理解土壤动力学方面取得关键进展。SoilTech将成为这些组织之间技术交流和研究的首个此类中心，提供跨学科知识综合和其研究的广泛应用。SoilTech的参与站点拥有强大的教育和外展计划，以解决STEM领域中代表性不足的人群。这些项目将在土壤测量和监测实践方面培训下一代劳动力，这将广泛造福社会。土壤技术研究团队准备通过四个研究主题在土壤动态过程的理解方面取得重大进展-土壤传感器和传感器网络；土壤建模与数据分析；土壤碳捕获与核算；土壤健康和可持续性。土壤技术支持的研究将满足若干工业部门的一些尚未解决的需求。土壤技术将提供必要的基础研究，以开发新的、更有效的、更可持续的方式来理解土壤特性和管理作为自然资源的土壤。在华盛顿大学（UW），他们的研究贡献将集中在土壤建模，无线土壤传感器网络，环境能量收集，传感器开发和基于空间的遥感，利用多个世界级设施提供支持。这些机构包括应用物理实验室、电子科学研究所、清洁能源研究所、分子工程与科学研究所、华盛顿大学+亚马逊科学中心、华盛顿纳米制造设施以及气候、海洋和生态系统研究合作研究所。该中心的研究将与多样性，公平和包容性的考虑编织到他们的工作结构进行。他们的劳动力发展计划包括创建新的课程和培训模块，体验式学习模块，以及与西澳大学NSF I-Corps项目合作，促进学生创业参与。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Healthy soils are needed to sustain life, to grow food, to provide shelter, to provide resilient infrastructure, and to enable mobility, but there is presently a lack of knowledge about many key aspects of soil and its dynamics such as variations in the moisture and organic matter content, and how these variations affect soil health and stability. The Center for Soil Technologies (SoilTech) is a partnership among the University of Southern California, Iowa State University, the University of Connecticut, and the University of Washington to address this knowledge gap with a mission to support industries related to agriculture, defense, energy, and environment. By convening researchers across the nation with complementary areas of expertise, and by recruiting Industry Advisory Board members from a broad range of industry, foundation, and government organizations, SoilTech will make crucial progress in understanding soil dynamics. SoilTech will serve as a first-of-its-kind hub for technical exchange and research among these organizations, providing inter-disciplinary knowledge synthesis and broad applications of its research. SoilTech’s participating sites have strong education and outreach programs addressing underrepresented populations in STEM fields. These programs will train the next generation of workforce in soil measurement and monitoring practices that will broadly benefit society.The SoilTech research teams are poised to make significant advances in the understanding of dynamic processes in soils through four research themes – Soil Sensors and Sensor Networks; Soil Modeling and Data Analytics; Soil Carbon Capture and Accounting; and Soil Health and Sustainability. SoilTech-enabled research will meet a number of as-yet unaddressed needs in several industry sectors. SoilTech will provide the underlying research necessary to develop new, more efficient, and more sustainable ways of understanding soil properties and managing soils as a natural resource. At the University Washington (UW), their research contributions will focus on soil modeling, wireless soil sensor networks, ambient energy harvesting, sensor development, and space-based remote sensing, leveraging multiple world-class facilities for support. These include the Applied Physics Laboratory, the eScience Institute, the Clean Energy Institute, the Molecular Engineering & Sciences Institute, UW + Amazon Science Hub, the Washington Nanofabrication Facility, and the Cooperative Institute for Climate, Ocean, and Ecosystem Studies. The center's research will be conducted with considerations of diversity, equity, and inclusion woven into the fabric of their work. Their workforce development plan includes creation of new courses and training modules, experiential learning modules, and collaboration with the UW NSF I-Corps Program for student entrepreneurial engagement.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.