IGERT: Training Innovative Leaders in Biofabrication

这一综合性研究生教育和研究培训(IGERT)奖项在WPI为生物工程领域的博士生建立了一个独特的培训计划，特别是生物制造领域。该计划将培养学生的创业思维，为毕业生提供为创新经济做出贡献所需的技能，同时也满足重要的医疗需求。智力优势：该培训计划的目标是培养未来将成为学术界和工业创新者的工程师，导致生物工程和生物制造技术的转化和商业化。如今，S医疗器械的缺点是材料对人体来说是外来的，容易被排斥。日益增长的生物制造领域使用生物物质作为基本构建块来组装先进的生物组织，用于治疗和筛选。受训者将参与有指导的实验室研究、其学科的正式课程作业以及国际研究合作。此外，学员将通过集成创业培训模块和沉浸式创新文化发展创业思维，并在S生命科学与生物工程中心，一个混合使用的研究/工业设施。最后，实操行业培训将使IGERT学员接触到消费者的需求和使用。广泛影响：该项目将通过培养博士生成为未来生物制造领域的领导者，帮助维持美国？S创新经济。忠于WPI？S的教育和培训理念？莱尔和昆斯特？(理论和实践)，拟议的研究目标侧重于开发商业上可行的使能技术以满足生物制造中尚未满足的关键需求的实用方法。将与意大利米兰理工大学和中国清华大学合作提供国际研究经验。IGERT经验的结果预计还将延伸到项目之外，并可能随着新公司的成立、就业机会的创造、专利申请和产品进入临床试验而进行衡量。IGERT是一个NSF范围的项目，旨在应对培养具有跨学科背景、选定学科的深厚知识以及未来职业需求所需的技术、专业和个人技能的美国博士科学家和工程师的挑战。该项目旨在建立新的研究生教育和培训模式，为超越传统学科界限的合作研究创造一个肥沃的环境，并让学生了解将研究转化为创新以造福社会的过程。

This Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) award establishes a unique training program at WPI for Ph.D. students in the field of bioengineering, and specifically biofabrication. The program will train students in the entrepreneurial mindset, providing graduates with skills necessary to contribute to the innovation economy while also addressing important medical needs.Intellectual Merit: The goal of this training program is to produce engineers who will be future innovators in academia and industry, leading to the translation and commercialization of bioengineering and biofabrication technologies. Today?s medical devices suffer from the drawback that their materials are foreign to the human body and prone to rejection. The growing field of biofabrication uses biological matter as the basic building blocks to assemble advanced biological tissues for treatments and screenings. Trainees will participate in mentored lab research, formal coursework in their discipline, and international research collaborations. In addition, trainees will develop an entrepreneurial mindset through integrated entrepreneurship training modules, and an immersive innovation culture at WPI?s Life Science and Bioengineering Center, a mixed-use research/industrial facility. Finally, hands-on industry training will expose the IGERT trainees to the needs and use of consumers.Broader Impacts: This program will help sustain America?s innovation economy by training Ph.D. students to be future leaders in biofabrication. True to WPI?s educational and training philosophy, ?Lehr und Kunst? (Theory and Practice), the proposed research aims are focused on practical approaches to developing commercially viable enabling technologies to fulfill critical unmet needs in biofabrication. International research experiences will be provided in collaboration with Politecnico di Milano in Italy and Tsinghua University in China. Outcomes of the IGERT experience are also anticipated to extend beyond the program and may be measured as new companies launched, jobs created, patents filed, and products reaching clinical trials.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 establish new models for graduate education and training in a fertile environment for collaborative research that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries, and to engage students in understanding the processes by which research is translated to innovations for societal benefit.