NRT-INFEWS: The DataFEWSion Traineeship Program for Innovations at the Nexus of Food Production, Renewable Energy and Water Quality

农业是粮食、能源和水系统相互作用的核心。它是一家能源日益密集的企业，但它也是一种日益增长的能源来源。农业对水的需求很大，而不良的做法可能会降低水质。在传感器和定性数据收集的推动下，每一种相互作用都为建模创造了机会，以改善短期内系统运行和控制以及长期投资和规划的有效性。收集的大量和复杂的数据给决策支持和利益相关者沟通带来了挑战。这项授予爱荷华州立大学的国家科学基金会研究培训(NRT)奖将建立一个研究人员社区，探索、开发和实施有效的数据驱动决策，以高效地生产食品，将一次能源转化为能源载体，并改善水质。该项目预计将培训四十八(48)名MS和博士生，其中包括二十四(24)名资助的博士生，他们来自农业和生物系统工程、农学、工业工程、机械工程和自然资源生态与管理。该项目旨在为研究科学家、生物经济企业家、农业企业领导人、政策制定者、农业分析专家或教授等多种职业道路的实习生做好准备。可持续地提供粮食、能源和清洁水需要了解系统之间的相互依存关系以及农民和农村决策者的动机和激励。这些食品、能源和水(少数)系统的有效创新需要数据丰富的系统建模，具有对不同类型数据的分析能力。实习生计划有四个关键组成部分。首先，学员将完成新的研究生证书，以培养基本理解粮食生产、水质和生物能源之间的相互作用；数据获取、可视化和分析；用于决策支持的复杂系统建模；以及少数几个联系的经济学、政策和社会学方面的能力。第二，他们将就以下问题进行跨学科研究：(A)增加农业对能源供应的贡献，同时减少其对水质和人类健康的负面影响的技术和做法；(B)在可持续集约化的约束下提高作物生产力的数据科学；或(C)在不同利益攸关方之间管理权衡和推广最佳做法的决策科学。第三，他们将参加一个新的研究生学习社区，该社区由一系列为期两年的讲习班组成，每隔一年侧重于中西部农业的联系和专业发展。第四，他们将拥有小组体验，以促进协作和同行审查。每个受训者将创建和策划一个文件夹，将课程作业和研究中的文物与对他们工作的更广泛影响的反思结合在一起。NSF研究培训(NRT)计划旨在鼓励开发和实施大胆的、具有潜在变革意义的STEM研究生教育培训模式。该计划致力于通过创新的、基于证据的、与不断变化的劳动力和研究需求保持一致的综合实习生模式，在高度优先的跨学科研究领域对STEM研究生进行有效培训。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Agriculture lies at the heart of interactions among food, energy and water systems. It is an increasingly energy-intensive enterprise, but it is also a growing source of energy. Agriculture places large demands on water supplies while poor practices can degrade water quality. Each of these interactions creates opportunities for modeling, driven by sensor-based and qualitative data collection, to improve the effectiveness of system operation and control in the short term as well as investments and planning for the long term. The large volume and complexity of the data collected creates challenges for decision support and stakeholder communication. This National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT) award to Iowa State University will build a community of researchers that explores, develops and implements effective data-driven decision-making to efficiently produce food, transform primary energy sources into energy carriers, and enhance water quality. The project anticipates training forty-eight (48) MS and PhD students, including twenty-four (24) funded PhD trainees, from agricultural and biosystems engineering, agronomy, industrial engineering, mechanical engineering and natural resources ecology and management. The project aims to prepare trainees for multiple career paths such as research scientists, bioeconomy entrepreneurs, agribusiness leaders, policy makers, agriculture analytics specialists, or professors. Sustainable provision of food, energy and clean water requires understanding the interdependencies among systems as well as the motivations and incentives of farmers and rural policy makers. Effective innovation at the nexus of these food, energy and water (FEW) systems requires data-rich system modeling with analytic capabilities for diverse types of data. The traineeship has four key components. First, trainees will complete a new graduate certificate to build competencies in fundamental understanding of interactions among food production, water quality and bioenergy; data acquisition, visualization, and analytics; complex systems modeling for decision support; and the economics, policy and sociology of the FEW nexus. Second, they will conduct interdisciplinary research on (a) technologies and practices to increase agriculture's contributions to energy supply while reducing its negative impacts on water quality and human health; (b) data science to increase crop productivity within the constraints of sustainable intensification; or (c) decision sciences to manage tradeoffs and promote best practices among diverse stakeholders. Third, they will participate in a new graduate learning community consisting of a two-year series of workshops that focus in alternate years on the context of the Midwest agricultural FEW nexus and professional development. Fourth, they will have small-group experiences to promote collaboration and peer review. Each trainee will create and curate a portfolio that combines artifacts from coursework and research with reflections on the broader impacts of their work. 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 program 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 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.