UBM-Institutional-Collaborative Research: Four College Biomath Consortium

这项提议建立了四所大学生物数学联盟：四所本科机构(史密斯学院、曼荷莲学院、阿默斯特学院和汉普郡学院)之间的合作，具有悠久的卓越传统和致力于以研究为中心的教育。其中有两所是女子高校--S学院。这四个国家都表现出了为女性、代表性不足的群体和第一代学生在科学领域扩大机会的承诺。该联盟将帮助培训下一代生物数学家。将开发一个为期两年的研究密集型项目，以现有的强大基础设施为基础进行跨校园合作，在该项目中，学生团队将通过一系列课程提供和指导研究机会。贯穿始终的重点是：a)一系列适合发展的课程和研究机会；b)以团队为中心的方法，在几个多年的研究合作中联合学生团队和指导团队；以及c)在培训的不同阶段创建一个多层次的生物数学学生队列。在由生命科学家和数学家组成的指导团队的带领下，学生们将探索生物组织的所有规模的问题，从错综复杂的蛋白质折叠到森林生态系统中水和物质流动的复杂性。这些项目有一个共同的主题，即考虑潜在的和已实现的形状空间，并强调探索生物学问题的几何方法。该计划通过对50名本科生进行生物数学培训，并通过生成可供更广泛社区使用的在线教学材料(课程、练习和培训模块)来推进国家STEM议程。该计划还将成为生物数学和其他新兴科学领域本科生培训中多机构合作的潜在可输出模式。

This proposal establishes the Four College Biomathematics Consortium: a collaboration among four undergraduate institutions (Smith College, Mount Holyoke College, Amherst College, and Hampshire College) with a long tradition of excellence and a commitment to research-centered education. Two of these institutions are women?s colleges. All four have a demonstrated commitment to expanding opportunities for women, underrepresented groups and first-generation students in scientific fields. The Consortium will help train the next generation of biomathematicians. A two-year research-intensive program will be developed, building on a strong existing infrastructure for cross-campus collaborations, in which student teams move through a series of curricular offerings and mentored research opportunities. The emphasis throughout is on: a) a succession of developmentally appropriate courses and research opportunities; b) a team-centered approach that unites student teams and mentoring teams in several multi-year research collaborations; and c) the creation of a multi-layered cohort of biomathematics students at various stages of training. Led by mentoring teams composed of both life scientists and mathematicians, the students will explore problems at all scales of biological organization, ranging from the intricacies of protein folding to the complexities of water and material flows in forest ecosystems. These projects share a unifying theme,the consideration of potential and realized shape spaces, and emphasize geometric approaches to the exploration of biological problems. The program advances the national STEM agenda by training 50 undergraduates in biomathematics and by generating online pedagogical materials (curricula, exercises and training modules) that can be exploited by the broader community. The program will also serve as a potential exportable model for multi-institutional collaboration in the training of undergraduates in biomathematics and other emerging scientific fields.