Collaborative Research: NRT-INFEWS: Sustainable Food, Energy, and Water Systems (SFEWS)

为了满足日益增长的人口对食物、能源和水的需求，需要大片的土地。这可能导致具有挑战性的土地使用竞争，因为目前的土地使用做法无法满足当地的少数资源需求。例如，在生产太阳能的地区，标准的太阳能电池板全天都会在农田上投下巨大的地面阴影，这极大地阻碍了作物的生长。迫切需要为可持续的FEW系统（SFEWS）开发解决方案，在这个系统中，粮食、能源和水的需求可以通过协作而不是竞争的方式利用可用的土地来满足。一种方法可能是利用整个太阳光谱来最大限度地从给定的土地上生产资源。实现这些解决方案需要有效的跨学科教育和培训，为可持续太阳能经济的领导创造资源和人力资本。这项授予普渡大学和佛罗里达农工大学的国家科学基金会研究培训计划（NRT）将形成一个跨学科的培训计划，该计划将培训研究生在为人口更稠密的地球生产可持续食物、能源和水（FEW）供应所需的技能。该项目预计将培养48名博士生，其中包括24名资助学员，来自农学、农业与生物工程、电气与计算机工程、化学工程、材料科学与工程、化学和农业经济学。SFEWS项目旨在利用当地太阳能满足当地的粮食、能源和水管理需求。要实现这一目标，需要研究高度复杂的系统，这些系统具有以前未被认识到的相互依赖性，然后通过结合农业、工程和科学等不同领域的基本科学和技术原理，开发出创新的解决方案。在许多可能性中，解决方案将根据其在系统范围内的简单性、经济影响和环境足迹，以及政府政策和社会影响来确定。进行这些研究的SFEWS团队将提供一支受过跨学科技能培训的劳动力队伍，以确定导致土地竞争的潜在因素，提出创新的解决方案，然后作为研究人员、商业和行业领袖、政策制定者、教师和企业家引领全球实施。新的科学技术知识，独特的系统分析方法，以及从这个项目中开发出来的工具将产生远远超出SFEWS NRT的影响。该团队将开发新的跨学科课程和培训模块，通过nanoHUB.org等工具在全球传播。通过精心策划的多元化招聘和参与，SFEWS NRT将帮助代表性不足的女性学生帮助打造可持续的少数族裔经济。该项目的成功实施将引入一种新的模式，即当地的少数能源需求可以越来越多地通过当地的太阳能来满足高度弹性的经济，美国在可持续地满足少数能源需求方面处于世界领先地位。美国国家科学基金会研究实习生（NRT）计划旨在鼓励开发和实施大胆的、具有潜在变革性的STEM研究生教育培训新模式。通过创新的、基于证据的、与不断变化的劳动力和研究需求相一致的综合培训模式，培训项目致力于在高优先级跨学科研究领域对STEM研究生进行有效培训。该项目由路易斯·斯托克斯少数民族参与联盟（LSAMP）项目共同资助。LSAMP项目支持全面、循证和持续的方法，以扩大历史上在STEM中代表性不足的种族和族裔学生的参与。

Large areas of land are needed to satisfy the food, energy, and water (FEW) needs of an increasingly populated earth. This can lead to challenging land use competition where local FEW needs cannot be met with current land use practice. For instance, in areas where solar energy is produced, standard solar panels can cast large ground shadows on agricultural land throughout the day, which greatly impedes crop growth. An urgent need exists to develop solutions for sustainable FEW systems (SFEWS) where food, energy, and water needs can be met using available land collaboratively rather than competitively. One approach could be to use the entire solar spectrum to maximize resource production from a given land area. Achieving such solutions requires effective interdisciplinary education and training to generate the resources and human capital for leadership for a sustainable solar economy. This National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT) award to Purdue University and Florida A&M University will form an interdisciplinary traineeship program that will train graduate students in the skills needed to produce sustainable supplies of food, energy and water (FEW) for a more heavily populated earth. The project anticipates training 48 PhD students, including 24 funded trainees, from agronomy, agricultural and biological engineering, electrical and computer engineering, chemical engineering, materials science and engineering, chemistry, and agricultural economics.The SFEWS project aims to meet food, energy and water management needs locally with local solar energy. Achieving this state requires studying highly complex systems with previously unappreciated interdependencies and then developing innovative solutions by combining basic scientific and technical principles from the diverse fields of agriculture, engineering, and science. Out of many possibilities, solutions will be identified based on their system-wide simplicity, economic impact, and environmental footprint, in light of government policy and social impact. The SFEWS cohorts performing these studies will provide a workforce trained in interdisciplinary skills to identify underlying factors leading to competition for land, to suggest innovative solutions, and then lead in global implementation as researchers, business and industry leaders, policy makers, teachers and entrepreneurs. The new scientific and technical knowledge, unique systems analysis methods, and tools developed from this program will have impact well beyond the SFEWS NRT. This team will develop new interdisciplinary courses and training modules, globally disseminated through vehicles such as nanoHUB.org. Through well-planned diversity recruiting and engagement, the SFEWS NRT will help underrepresented and women students to help forge a sustainable FEW economy. Successful execution of this program will introduce a new paradigm where local FEW needs can increasingly be met with local solar energy for a highly resilient economy, with the U.S. serving as a world leader in sustainably meeting FEW needs.The NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) Program is designed to encourage the development and implementation of bold, new potentially transformative models for STEM graduate education training. The Traineeship Track is dedicated to effective training of STEM graduate students in high priority interdisciplinary research areas, through comprehensive traineeship models that are innovative, evidence-based, and aligned with changing workforce and research needs.This project is co-funded by the Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program. The LSAMP program supports comprehensive, evidence-based, and sustained approaches to broadening participation of students from racial and ethnic groups historically underrepresented in STEM.