EAGER: Field Computational Ecology Course

该项目将解决跨学科研究中缺失的“前沿问题解决”方面，并创建一个课程模型，由来自多个学科的专家合作完成一个复杂的项目，特别是一个实地项目。今天的科学越来越多地是一个跨学科的努力，来自几个学科的研究人员在一个项目上合作。是的，目前的研究生（和本科生）教育是以学科为中心的，很少有团队项目的机会，尤其是来自该领域以外的项目。因此，学生们对前沿研究的现实毫无准备。许多机构开始以各种方式解决这个问题。这项工作将设计一个高度整合的跨学科领域课程，以计算和领域生物学研究为中心。拟议的课程将由伊利诺伊大学芝加哥分校、普林斯顿大学和内罗毕大学提供，生物学（主要是生态学和进化生物学）和工程学（主要是计算机科学和生物信息学）的研究生将与这两个学科的教师合作，学习如何提出问题、构建假设，并理解学科和文化如何以及为什么做得不同。实地工作将在肯尼亚进行。

This project will address the "frontier problem-solving" aspect missing in interdisciplinary research, and create a model of a course where experts from several disciplines collaborate on a complex project, particularly a field project. Today's science is increasingly an interdisciplinary endeavor, with researchers from several disciplines collaborating on a project. Yes, current graduate (and undergraduate) education is discipline-centered, with few opportunities for team projects, especially from outside the field. As a result, students are unprepared for the realities of cutting edge research. This problem is starting to be addressed by many institutions in a variety of ways. This work will design a highly integrated interdisciplinary field course, centered around computational and field biology research. The proposed course will be offered by the University of Illinois - Chicago, Princeton, and University of Nairobi where graduate students in biology (primarily ecology and evolutionary biology) and engineering (primarily in computer science and bioinformatics) work with faculty in both disciplines to learn how to ask questions, frame hypotheses and understand how and why the disciplines and cultures do this differently. Fieldwork will be conducted in Kenya.