IGERT: The Dynamics of Communication in Context

这项综合研究生教育和研究培训（IGERT）奖支持宾夕法尼亚大学的一个多学科研究生培训项目，该项目旨在整合通信和通信系统的计算、认知和神经科学研究，无论这些系统是人类语言、动物还是机器。主要目的是培养一种新型的交流科学家，他们能够整合目前分布在人类学、生物学、计算机科学与工程、语言学、神经科学、哲学和心理学等研究生项目中的理论问题、方法和形式主义。智力价值由两个相互关联的研究主题组成，这两个主题将统一并指导研究生的培养。第一个主题强调交流是一个动态的过程，一个在多个时间尺度上展开的过程，从毫秒（如规划和理解言语）到几个世纪（如进化中的方言、语言和动物交流系统）。第二个主题强调沟通是一个上下文敏感的过程，其中上下文范围从特定对话的物理环境和交流历史，到社会群体的语言，社会和技术假设。受训者将由一个多学科的教师团队共同指导，并将承诺进行为期五年的研究生培训计划，包括：(1)在上述当前研究生项目之一的核心学科培训；(2)一年的跨学科培训，选择第二学科，包括完成一项可发表的研究项目；(3)在5年计划中每周参加一次跨学科研究会议；(4)完成专门为本课程设计的交流数学基础高级课程。该计划的广泛影响包括在工业、技术和临床环境中的应用。IGERT是一项nsf范围内的计划，旨在满足教育美国博士科学家和工程师的挑战，他们具有跨学科背景，所选学科的深厚知识，以及未来职业需求所需的技术，专业和个人技能。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。

This Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training (IGERT) award supports a multidisciplinary graduate training program at the University of Pennsylvania designed to integrate the computational, cognitive and neuroscientific study of communication and communication systems, be they characterized as human-linguistic, animal or machine. The primary purpose is to create a new breed of communication scientists capable of integrating theoretical issues, methods, and formalisms that are currently distributed across graduate programs as diverse as anthropology, biology, computer science and engineering, linguistics, neuroscience, philosophy, and psychology. The intellectual merit consists of the two interrelated research themes that will unite and guide graduate training. The first theme emphasizes communication as a dynamical process, one that unfolds along multiple time scales varying from milliseconds (as in planning and understanding speech) to centuries (as in evolving dialects, languages, and systems of animal communication). The second theme emphasizes communication as a context-sensitive process, where contexts range from the physical setting and communicative history of a specific conversation, to the linguistic, social and technological assumptions of social groups. Trainees will be co-advised by a multidisciplinary faculty team and will commit to a five-year graduate training program, consisting of: (1) core disciplinary training in one of the current graduate programs above; (2) one-year cross-disciplinary training in a chosen second discipline, including completion of a publishable research project; (3) participation in a weekly interdisciplinary research meeting throughout the 5-year program; and (4) completion of an advanced course in the mathematical foundations of communication specifically designed for this program. Broader impacts of this program include applications in industry, technology, and clinical settings. IGERT is an NSF-wide program intended to meet the challenges of educating U.S. Ph.D. scientists and engineers with the interdisciplinary background, deep knowledge in a chosen discipline, 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.