IGERT: Graduate Training in Biologically Inspired Materials

生物启发材料和材料系统研究和教育计划中心的愿景是将传统工程映射到生物学上。通过这种方法，IGERT项目寻求为生物启发材料和材料系统的研究生教育建立一个新的课程。课程是自然科学、生命科学和工程学的综合。该计划将创建一个新的研究生培训计划，使用生物学启发的方法来弥合当前生物医学和生物工程计划的差距。该中心的愿景是将自然工程引入工程课程，将工程原理引入材料研究，彻底改变工程和生命科学在研究生阶段的教学方式。因此，这个IGERT项目将为教育和研究开发一种新的范例，将自然作为工程的例子，同时使用工程原理和严谨性来解释自然。该计划侧重于三个特定领域：(1)生物纳米科学与工程（单分子和自组装），(2)封装，涂层和表面图案（细胞尺度上的材料，其中脂质双分子层作为所有生命的定义基础），以及(3)层次系统（更大，更宏观，功能生物）。这种专注的方法将使学生和教师能够将概念映射到知识的前沿，并探索在生物学，医学，工程学和基础物理和化学科学的界面上创建新课程的智力和实践方面。这是在科学和工程教育中建立新范式的第一步，该范式在分子水平上探索生命机制，并通过结构和组织的层次尺度将这些发现向上转化，从而更好地理解生物有机体的机制，并为工程设备提供独特的设计。IGERT是一项nsf范围内的计划，旨在满足培养具有多学科背景和技术，专业和个人技能的美国博士科学家和工程师的挑战，以满足未来职业需求。该计划旨在通过建立创新的研究生教育和培训模式，在一个超越传统学科界限的合作研究的肥沃环境中，促进研究生教育的文化变革。在该计划的第五年，奖项将颁发给21个机构，这些机构的项目共同跨越了NSF支持的科学和工程领域。

The vision of the Center for Biologically Inspired Materials and Material Systems research and educational program is to map traditional engineering onto biology. Through this approach, the IGERT project seeks to establish a new curriculum for graduate education in Biologically Inspired Materials and Materials Systems. The curriculum serves as an integration of natural science, life science, and engineering. This program will create a new graduate training program that uses biologically inspired approaches to bridge a gap in current biomedical and bioengineering programs. The Center's vision is to bring nature's engineering into the engineering curriculum and engineering principles into the study of materials, revolutionizing the way engineering and life sciences are taught at the graduate student level. Thus, this IGERT project will develop a new paradigm for education and research, using nature as an example for engineering, while explaining nature using engineering principles and rigor. This program focuses on three specific areas: (1) Bio-NanoScience and Engineering (single molecules and self-assembly), (2) Encapsulation, Coatings, and Surface Patterning (materials at the cellular scale where the lipid bilayer serves as the defining basis of all life), and (3) Hierarchical Systems (larger, more macroscopic, functional organisms). This focused approach will allow students and faculty to develop mapping concepts to the leading edge of knowledge and to explore the intellectual and practical aspects of creating a new curriculum at the interfaces of biology, medicine, engineering, and basic physical and chemical sciences. This is an initial step towards establishing a new paradigm in science and engineering education that explores life's mechanisms at the molecular level and translates these findings up through hierarchical scales of structure and organization to bring greater understanding of mechanism to the biological organism and unique designs to engineered devices.IGERT is an NSF-wide program intended to meet the challenges of educating U.S. Ph.D. scientists and engineers with the multidisciplinary backgrounds and the technical, professional, and personal skills needed for the career demands of the future. The program is intended to catalyze a cultural change in graduate education by establishing innovative new models for graduate education and training in a fertile environment for collaborative research that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries. In the fifth year of the program, awards are being made to twenty-one institutions for programs that collectively span the areas of science and engineering supported by NSF.