REU Site: An Interdisciplinary Research Experience for Undergraduates in Food Safety, Food Engineering, and Nutrition

伊利诺伊理工学院（IIT）的REU网站将专注于培训食品安全，食品工程和营养学的本科生。这一领域具有国家重要性，对我们的粮食供应的安全和营养有直接影响。因此，学生解决的问题将对社会产生重大影响。该计划提供的密集研究经验可以极大地影响年轻工程师和科学家的未来。通过执行与食品安全，工程和营养相关的研究项目，影响到美国的整个人口，我们有潜力推动这一学科的发展，同时影响年轻工程师的职业生涯。该计划将针对有或没有以前的研究经验的学生。这一重点与社区大学课程的支持相结合，将在关键的职业过渡点影响学生。除了有针对性的研究经验，学生将提供食品科学领域的更广泛的理解（强调食品安全，食品工程和营养），这可以帮助他们了解在这一领域提供的机会。学生将接受严格的指导和专业发展培训，这将帮助他们微调成为成功的科学家，工程师和企业家所需的技能。食品科学是一个STEM领域，其毕业生远远少于现有的就业机会。这个REU计划将激励学生在食品科学领域工作，并准备&激励下一代劳动力，以保持我们的食品供应安全和营养。拟议的NSF REU网站的主要目标是：1）为食品安全，食品工程和营养学的本科生提供实践研究经验，2）提供这些领域的接触，第三章系统地培养学生将基础研究思想转化为实际应用，旨在解决真实的世界问题，通过互动研讨会和讨论，我们的食品供应的安全和营养，4）系统地指导本科生通过指导研讨会，学生演示/讨论，与研究生的互动，以及K-12外展，磨练他们的研究和专业技能，5）让学生接触更广泛的食品科学领域，以提高他们在这一领域的知识（特别强调食品安全，食品工程和营养）通过研讨会和图尔斯，和6）培训学生的研究和职业道德。项目提供广泛的主题，包括新型食品加工工程技术（高压加工，脉冲光加工和冷等离子体）的应用，以确保食品安全和营养质量，解决食品安全中的特殊问题，如低水分食品，了解人体植物生物活性物质的生理化学，&食品加工技术的建模模拟，通过动力水培法开发可负担的营养，并重新利用食品成分控制致病生物膜。来自伊利诺伊理工学院和美国食品和药物管理局的八位导师将在夏季指导十名本科生，为期十周。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This REU Site at Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) will focus on training undergraduate students in food safety, food engineering, and nutrition. This area is of national importance and has direct implications on the safety and nutrition of our food supply. Therefore, the problems solved by the students would have a significant impact on the society. The intensive research experience provided by this program can greatly influence the future of young engineers and scientists. By performing research projects related to food safety, engineering, and nutrition, which affects the entire population of the U.S., we have the potential to advance the discipline while influencing young engineers in their career. The program will target both students with or without previous research experience. This focus combined with support from community college programs will impact students at critical career transition points. In addition to targeted research experience, students will be provided with a broader understanding of the field of food science (emphasis on food safety, food engineering, and nutrition), which can help them understand the opportunities available in this field. The students will undergo rigorous mentoring and professional development training which will help them in fine-tuning the skill sets required to become successful scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs. Food science is a STEM area which produces far fewer graduates than the available job opportunities. This REU program will inspire students to work in the food science area and prepare & inspire the next generation workforce to keep our food supply safe and nutritious.The primary goals of the proposed NSF REU site are: 1) to provide hands on research experiences to undergraduate students in food safety, food engineering, and nutrition, 2) to provide exposure to these fields, 3) to systematically train the students in transforming basic research ideas into practical applications aimed at solving real world problems for improving the safety and nutrition of our food supply through interactive seminars and discussions, 4) to systematically mentor the undergraduate students to hone their research and professional skills through mentoring workshops, student presentations/discussions, interaction with graduate students, and K-12 outreach, 5) to expose the students to broader fields of food science to enhance their knowledge in this field (with special emphasis on food safety, food engineering, and nutrition) through seminars and tours, and 6) to train the students on research and professional ethics. Projects are offered in a broad range of topics including applications of novel food process engineering technologies (high pressure processing, pulsed light processing, and cold plasma) for ensuring food safety and nutritional quality, addressing special issues in food safety such as with low moisture foods, understanding physiological chemistry of plant bioactives in humans, modeling & simulation of food processing technologies, developing affordable nutrition through kinetic hydroponics, and repurposing of food ingredients for controlling pathogenic biofilms. Eight mentors from Illinois Institute of Technology and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will be mentoring ten undergraduate students for a ten week period during the summer.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.