Convergent Graduate Training in Engineering, Physics and Biology

 描述（由申请人提供）：该计划，“工程，物理和生物学融合研究生培训”，将培养学生应用工程和物理的实验，计算和理论方法，以应对生命科学的重大挑战。学员将通过8个参与部门/计划（生物医学工程;化学与环境工程;机械工程与材料科学;应用物理;物理学;分子生物物理学与生物化学;分子，细胞和发育生物学，以及计算生物学与生物信息学）进入。我们寻求每年6个学生名额的资金，我们将用于每年资助3名学生，在他们的第二和第三年。这是大学的政策，以支持所有学生在他们的第一年。我们将招收同等数量的工程/物理和生物实习生。学员将发展学科和跨学科的专业知识，并与来自不同学科的同事合作和沟通的能力。为了使所有学生迅速达到基础知识的共同水平，我们将提供生物学，数学和计算方面的初级课程，新生将根据需要学习。学员将学习一门创新的通用课程，该课程由具有不同但互补背景的教师共同教授，其中许多人都有研究合作。该课程包括生物成像，系统生物学和生物物理学，强调实验，计算和理论的相互关联的作用-在所有长度尺度。所有课程都促进学生的合作和同伴学习。例如，在综合研讨会课程中，具有工程或物理学背景的学生与具有生物学背景的学生一起学习旨在要求他们综合技能的模块。该计划的课程是精心制作的，使学员完成培训计划和家庭部门的课程要求之前，他们的第二年结束，使时间博士不增加。我们提出的培训计划的一个显着优势是，它将受益于大学的支持，部门买入;招聘，招生和职业服务基础设施;和新的跨学科课程到位的五年试点计划，综合研究生课程在物理和工程生物学，在2009年发起的主任和共同董事。我们有吸引强大的申请人池的历史证明，与45名学生目前在该计划（2009-2014年; 2009年学生的3/4已经毕业;第四名学生定于2015年8月毕业），其中28人是培训补助金资格（其中2人是URM）。我们提出的计划采用了增强的策略，以进一步增加我们申请人的数量，质量和多样性。我们还制定了一些衡量标准和方法来评估我们的计划的有效性。总之，该培训计划旨在确保完成培训的学员能够出色地领导生物医学研究工作，以提高美国的公共卫生。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The program, "Convergent Graduate Training in Engineering, Physics and Biology", will train students to apply experimental, computational and theoretical approaches from engineering and physics to address grand challenges in the life sciences. Trainees will enter through 8 participating departments/programs (Biomedical Engineering; Chemical and Environmental Engineering; Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science; Applied Physics; Physics; Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry; Molecular, Cellular, and Development Biology, and Computational Biology & Bioinformatics). We seek funding for 6 student slots per year, which we will use to fund 3 students per year, in their 2nd and 3rd years. It is University policy to support all students in their first year. We will recruit equal numbers f engineering/physics and biology trainees. Trainees will develop both disciplinary and interdisciplinary expertise and the ability to collaborate and communicate with colleagues from a variety of disciplines. To rapidly bring all students to common level of basic knowledge, we will offer primers in biology and in mathematics and computation, which incoming students will take as needed. Trainees will study an innovative, common curriculum that is co-taught by faculty with diverse but complementary backgrounds, many of whom have research collaborations. The curriculum encompasses biological imaging, systems biology, and biological physics, emphasizing the interconnected roles of experiment, computation, and theory - across all length scales. All courses promote student collaboration and peer learning. In the Integrated Workshop course, for example, students with an engineering or physics background work with students with a biology background on modules that have been designed to require their combined skills. The program curriculum is crafted so that trainees complete both the training program and home department course requirements before the end of their second year, so that time to PhD is not increased. A significant advantage of our proposed training program is that it will benefit from the university support, departmental buy-in; recruiting, admissions and career services infrastructures; and new interdisciplinary courses put in place for the five year pilot program, Integrated Graduate Program in Physical and Engineering Biology, initiated in 2009 by the Director and co-Directors. We have a proven history of attracting a strong applicant pool, with 45 students currently in the program (2009-2014; 3/4 of 2009 students have graduated; fourth student is scheduled to graduate Aug 2015), 28 of whom are training grant eligible (2 of these are URM). The program we propose incorporates enhanced strategies by which to further increase the number, quality and diversity of our applicant pool. We have also put in place a number of metrics and methodologies for assessing our program's effectiveness. In summary, the training program has been crafted to ensure that trainees who complete it will be superbly equipped to lead biomedical research endeavors to the enhancement of public health in the USA.