NRT-HDR: Transdisciplinary Graduate Training Program in Data-Driven Adaptive Systems of Brain-Body Interactions

近五分之一的美国人目前患有残疾，这影响了他们日常活动的表现。由于物质使用障碍、自闭症谱系障碍、创伤后应激障碍和创伤性脑损伤而患有复杂残疾的个人，往往会产生涉及身体和心理社会因素的多种负面健康后果。这些残疾具有普遍的社会、公共卫生和经济后果，影响到个人、家庭、支助网络，有时甚至影响整个社区。应对这一挑战需要深入了解致残条件的物理和生理基础、限制个人参与日常活动的环境因素和社会生态背景，并制定有助于克服这些障碍的技术解决方案。负责应对这一挑战的下一代STEM工作人员必须跨越传统的学术学科界限共同努力，整合工程、数据科学和社会科学知识，同时以互惠互利的方式与利益相关者社区进行有意义的接触。这项授予乔治梅森大学的国家科学基金会研究培训(NRT)奖将满足培养一支多才多艺、跨学科、社区参与的STEM员工队伍的需求，他们拥有利用数据革命创造基础研究和翻译创新的技能，旨在提高残疾人的生活质量。该项目预计将培训一百(100)名博士生，其中包括十九(19)名资助的学员，他们来自电气和生物工程、数据科学、计算机科学、神经科学和社会科学。NRT项目将把残疾学生纳入学员队列。学员将开发和使用数据收集设备和数据分析技术，以促进与具有重大社会、公共卫生和经济后果的复杂残疾相关的数据驱动的解决方案。例如，学生可以利用他们在数据分析、可穿戴传感器和成像方面的培训来设计新的技术辅助方法，以提供个性化服务，开发新的机器学习算法来支持下一代脑机接口和改进的假肢控制系统，或者推进基于虚拟现实的多感官训练的研究。这一NRT项目将交叉培训工程师、数据科学家和社会科学家使用最先进的数据分析方法和可穿戴计算技术，基于新的跨学科CAP(能力、应用和实践)课程和社区参与的设计项目。CAP课程将在数据分析、可穿戴传感器和成像方面提供身临其境的个性化培训，以应用程序(认知和行为神经科学、人类运动和功能以及神经工程)为背景，并以研究和专业技能发展的实践为基础。该设计项目将提供融合研究、跨学科边界的交流以及与广大受众交流的经验。在乔治梅森大学内部，该项目将涉及脑-体交互适应系统中心的14名核心教员，以及来自14个系和5所学校/学院的另外15名教员。通过与战略机构优先事项保持一致并吸引不同的教师导师，这个NRT项目处于有利地位，可以在资助期间保持实习生模式。NSF研究培训(NRT)计划旨在鼓励STEM研究生教育培训的大胆、新的、潜在的变革性模式的开发和实施。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或趋同研究领域对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。

Nearly one in five Americans currently live with a disability that affects performance of their daily activities. Individuals living with complex disabilities as a result of substance use disorders, autism spectrum disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury often have multiple negative health outcomes involving physical and psychosocial factors. These disabilities have pervasive societal, public health and economic consequences that impact individuals, families, support networks, and sometimes whole communities. Addressing this challenge requires an in-depth understanding of the physical and physiological underpinnings of the disabling condition, the environmental factors and social-ecological context that limits an individual's participation in daily activities, and the development of technological solutions to help overcome these barriers. The next generation STEM workforce charged with addressing this challenge must work together across traditional academic disciplinary boundaries to integrate engineering, data science and social science knowledge, while meaningfully engage with stakeholder communities in a mutually beneficial manner. This National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT) award to George Mason University will address the need to train a versatile, interdisciplinary community-engaged STEM workforce with the skills to harness the data revolution to create fundamental research and translational innovations aimed at improving the quality of life for individuals with disabilities. The project anticipates training one hundred (100) PhD students, including nineteen (19) funded trainees, from electrical and bioengineering, data science, computer science, neuroscience, and the social sciences. The NRT project will include students with disabilities in the trainee cohort.Trainees will develop and use both data-collection devices and data-analysis techniques to promote data-driven solutions associated with complex disabilities that have major social, public health and economic consequences. For example, students may utilize their training in data analytics, wearable sensors and imaging to design new technology-assisted methods for personalized service delivery, to develop new machine learning algorithms to support the next generation of brain computer interfaces and improved prosthetic control systems, or to advance research on virtual reality based multisensory training. This NRT program will cross-train engineers, data scientists and social scientists to use state-of-the-art data analytic methods and wearable computing technologies based on a novel transdisciplinary CAP (competencies, applications and practice) curriculum and a community-engaged design project. The CAP curriculum will provide immersive, individualized training in data analytics, wearable sensors and imaging, contextualized in terms of applications (cognitive and behavioral neuroscience, human movement and function and neuroengineering) and scaffolded by hands-on practice in research and professional skills development. The design project will provide experience in convergent research, communication across disciplinary boundaries, and communication to a broad audience. Within George Mason University, the project will involve 14 core faculty from the Center for Adaptive Systems of Brain-Body Interactions, and an additional 15 faculty from 14 departments and 5 schools/colleges. By aligning with strategic institutional priorities and engaging diverse faculty mentors, this NRT project is well-positioned to sustain the traineeship model beyond the funded period.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 or convergent 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.