IRES: Environmental Impact of the Panama Canal Expansion Project

巴拿马运河是世界上最重要的工程建筑物之一。巴拿马运河管理局(ACP)目前正在投资50亿美元扩建和现代化运河，以适应不断增长的贸易量。这一扩建项目侧重于可持续性，需要进行大量的科学研究，以衡量扩建努力和在运河地区部署的新技术对环境的影响。这一国际学生研究经验奖(IRES)将利用伍斯特理工学院(WPI)和ACP之间的现有关系，让本科生参与这些历史性的研究工作。每年将挑选五名学生和一名当地高中教师作为参与者，采用一种招聘程序，确保纳入比例较高的任职人数不足的个人。丰富多彩的出发前活动将为学生的研究做好准备，并作为一个平台，让更大的社区参与进来。由经验丰富的评估员进行方案评估将导致研究方案的不断改进，以及结果的广泛传播。最后，WPI的STEM教育中心将帮助高中教师根据他们的活动制定教案，并将广泛传播。扩建项目将纳入尖端技术系统，以提高可持续性和减少对环境的影响，并增加额外的锁，以补充1914年最初建造的锁。目前正在进行重要的科学研究，以开发和评估这些技术，并量化建筑活动的生态影响。IRES的学生将研究以下主题：加通湖的水质；非常规能源发电方法；优化泵送网络的效率；以及复杂气象条件下污染物的远程传输行为建模。这些研究工作的目的是全面了解巴拿马运河、扩建项目和当地环境之间的相互作用，确保经济增长和维持生态健康。

The Panama Canal is one of the most important engineering structures in the world. The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) is currently investing five billion dollars to expand and modernize the Canal in order to accommodate rising trade volumes. This expansion project focuses on sustainability and has necessitated significant scientific research to measure the environmental impact of both the expansion efforts and the new technologies being deployed in the Canal Zone. This International Research Experience for Students (IRES) award will leverage an existing relationship between Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) and ACP to involve undergraduate students in these historic research efforts. Five students and one local high school teacher will be selected as participants each year, using a recruitment process that will ensure the inclusion of a high proportion of under-represented individuals. Diverse pre-departure activities will both prepare the students for their research and serve as a platform by which the larger community can become involved. Programmatic assessment by an experienced evaluator will lead to the continuous improvement of the research program, as well as wide-spread dissemination of the results. Finally, the STEM Education Center at WPI will aid the high school teachers in developing a lesson plans based on their activities that will be widely disseminated.The expansion project will incorporate cutting-edge technological systems in order to improve sustainability and reduce environmental impact with additional locks complementing those originally constructed in 1914. Significant scientific research is being carried out to develop and evaluate these technologies as well as to quantify the ecological effects of the construction activities. The IRES students will investigate topics such as water quality at Gatún Lake; unconventional energy generation methods; optimizing the efficiency of pumping networks; and modeling the long-range transport behavior of pollutants under complex meteorological conditions. The objective of these research efforts is to provide a holistic understanding of the interactions between the Panama Canal, the expansion project, and the local environment, ensuring both economic growth and maintenance of ecological health.