Building Capacity: Institute for Interdisciplinary Science: Preparing Students for the 4th Industrial Revolution

改善本科STEM教育：西班牙裔服务机构计划（HSI计划）旨在加强本科STEM教育并建立HSI的能力。HSI计划支持的项目也将产生关于如何实现这些目标的新知识。这个项目在德克萨斯州奥斯汀的圣爱德华大学进行，旨在创建跨学科科学研究所。该研究所将支持学生劳动力培训、跨部门合作和跨学科活动，帮助教师和学生为第四次工业革命中的机遇做好准备。预计这场革命将产生一个虚拟连接的世界，在这个世界中，数字、物理和生物领域相互交织。这是一个智能家居、云计算、大数据分析、电子商务、机器人和人工智能的世界。随着第四次工业革命的展开，工业和高等教育之间的合作变得至关重要，以确保毕业生拥有在新工作场所取得成功的知识和技能。研究院将通过发展互利的产学研伙伴关系、提供专业发展和研究机会，以及促进新方向和新思想的交流，促进这些合作。该研究所与公司的合作伙伴关系将提供暑期实习机会，这可以为攻读STEM学位的学生提供经济支持和鼓励，并为最终进入STEM职业提供支持。反过来，学生将为数字时代的研究和开发做出贡献，进一步推动他们所在公司的目标。该项目有可能成为其他机构，特别是hsi和其他少数族裔服务机构（msi）的典范，以制定具有类似目标的计划，从而扩大STEM劳动力的参与度和多样性。该项目将支持圣爱德华大学自然科学学院在跨学科科学、信息学和新兴技术方面的能力建设，并帮助学生为第四次工业革命做好准备。该研究所旨在建立一个教育和专业框架，以促进跨部门伙伴关系和跨学科合作。该研究所将：(i)协调校内跨学科研讨会和体验式学习活动，挑战教师和学生用跨学科方法探索复杂问题；（ii）与德克萨斯州奥斯汀地区及其他地区的公共和私营实体组织跨部门合作协议；（iii）通过保证实习，将STEM专业学生与雇主和研究生项目联系起来，为他们提供研究生机会；（iv）通过向教师提供奖励和向学生提供小额证书奖学金，促进教师和学生的专业发展；(5)通过提供研究机会奖来促进教师进步、跨学科合作和创新研究。该项目的研究问题将集中在干预措施对学生持久性的影响，以及教师专业发展补助金和研究机会奖是否是提高学生成功的一种手段。总之，这些活动旨在改善学生在新兴的第四次工业革命中的机会和成功。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions Program (HSI Program) aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education and build capacity at HSIs. Projects supported by the HSI program will also generate new knowledge about how to achieve these aims. This project at St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas aims to create the Institute for Interdisciplinary Science. The Institute will support student workforce training, cross-sector cooperation, and interdisciplinary activities that can prepare faculty and students for opportunities in the 4th Industrial Revolution. This revolution is predicted to produce a virtually-connected world in which digital, physical, and biological domains are intertwined. It is a world of smart homes, cloud computing, big data analytics, e-commerce, robotics, and artificial intelligence. As the 4th Industrial Revolution unfolds, collaborations between industry and higher education become critical to ensure that graduates have the knowledge and skills to be successful in the new workplace. The Institute will facilitate these collaborations by developing mutually beneficial industry-academia partnerships, providing professional development and research opportunities, and facilitating networking for exchange of new directions and ideas. The Institute's partnerships with companies will offer summer internships, which can provide economic support and encouragement to students pursuing STEM degrees, and support eventual entry into STEM careers. In turn, students will contribute to research and development in the digital era, furthering the objectives of the companies where they work. This project has the potential to serve as a model for other institutions, especially HSIs and other Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs), to develop programs with similar goals, thus broadening participation and increasing diversity in the STEM workforce.This project will support efforts of the School of Natural Sciences at St. Edward's University to build capacity in interdisciplinary sciences, informatics, and emerging technologies and to increase students' readiness for the 4th Industrial Revolution. The Institute aims to establish an educational and professional framework that will facilitate cross-sector partnerships and interdisciplinary collaborations. The Institute will: (i) coordinate on-campus interdisciplinary seminars and experiential learning events that will challenge faculty and students to explore complicated problems with cross-disciplinary approaches; (ii) organize cross-sector cooperative agreements with public and private entities around the Austin, Texas area and beyond; (iii) expose STEM majors to postgraduate opportunities by connecting them with employers and graduate programs through guaranteed internships; (iv) finance faculty and student professional development by offering awards to faculty and micro-credentialing scholarships to students; and (v) catalyze faculty advancement, interdisciplinary collaborations, and innovative research by offering research opportunity awards. The project's research questions will focus on effects of the interventions on student persistence and on whether faculty professional development grants and research opportunity awards are a means to enhance student success. Together, these activities are designed to improve student access and success in the emerging 4th Industrial Revolution.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.