IGERT: Sustainable Energy from Solar Hydrogen

可持续能源系统的发展是一个影响环境、政治、经济和安全的关键全球问题。太阳能氢气(从可持续的太阳能发电产生的氢气，如光伏或生物质)为这一问题提供了潜在的解决方案。然而，环境和经济上可持续的太阳能氢气系统需要政策、经济、系统和部件的整合，以及转换和存储设备本身的多学科方法。授予特拉华大学的综合性教育与研究培训(IGERT)奖有助于开发一个新的太阳能氢可持续能源研究生项目，该项目将整合科学、工程、经济和社会科学的相关概念。该项目旨在为学生提供多学科背景，以实现推动能源转换和储存技术进步的科学和技术突破，并提供确保适当使用该技术的领导力。IGERT项目使用已被证明可以提高学习效率的教学工具，通过外展计划和指导强调科学家和工程师的社会责任，并通过专注于解决问题、沟通、团队合作和合作为学生提供成为领导者所需的技能。该计划还制定了招募和留住代表性不足群体成员的模式，明确解决了阻碍毕业的因素，如适应教育计划的多种背景，及早融入研究计划的所有成员，指导，以及培训研究和更广泛成功所需的技能。研究生模式具有广泛适用性的潜力，因为类似的教育挑战存在于当今许多复杂的问题中，在这些问题中，科学和技术处于传统上不相关的学科的交叉点，技术的应用与社会、政治和经济因素交叉。IGERT是一个NSF范围内的项目，旨在应对培养具有跨学科背景、所选学科的深厚知识以及满足未来职业需求所需的技术、专业和个人技能的美国博士科学家和工程师的挑战。该项目旨在通过建立创新的研究生教育和培训新模式，在超越传统学科界限的合作研究的肥沃环境中，催化研究生教育的文化变革。

The development of a sustainable energy system is a critical global problem that impacts the environment, politics, economics, and security. Solar hydrogen (hydrogen generated from sustainable solar-derived power such as photovoltaics or biomass) offers a potential solution to this problem. However, an environmentally and economically sustainable solar hydrogen system requires integration of policy, economics, systems, and components, as well as multidisciplinary approaches to the conversion and storage devices themselves. The Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training (IGERT) award to the University of Delaware enables development of a new graduate program in Sustainable Energy from Solar Hydrogen that will integrate relevant concepts from science, engineering, economics, and social sciences. The program is aimed at providing students with the multidisciplinary background both to make the scientific and technical breakthroughs that will drive advances in energy conversion and storage and to provide the leadership that will ensure appropriate use of the technology. The IGERT program uses pedagogical tools that have been shown to increase learning effectiveness, emphasizes the societal responsibility of scientists and engineers through outreach programs and mentoring, and provides students with the skills needed to become leaders by focusing on problem solving, communication, teamwork, and collaboration. The program also develops a model for recruiting and retaining members of underrepresented groups by explicitly addressing factors that hinder graduation, such as accommodation of multiple backgrounds in the educational program, early integration with all members of the research program, mentoring, and training in the skills needed for both research and broader success. The graduate model has the potential for broad applicability because similar educational challenges exist in many complex problems today, where the science and technology lie at the intersection of traditionally unrelated disciplines and where application of the technology intersects with social, political, and economic factors. 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.