REU Site: Multi-Scale Systems Bioengineering and Biomedical Data Sciences

预计2019年至2024年期间，生物医学工程师的就业人数将增长23%，这将创造对能够支持医疗保健中使用的新设备、系统和软件的设计、开发和生产的迫切需求。生物医学科学和医学的进步将越来越依赖于应用基于严格和定量工程的方法来表征和询问生物系统，以及应用数据科学工具来挖掘和分析未来诊断和治疗疾病所需的大量临床和生物数据。为了满足日益增长的劳动力需求，特别是在系统生物工程和生物医学数据科学领域，弗吉尼亚大学多尺度系统生物工程和生物医学数据科学的REU站点将在每年夏天招聘和培训10名最先进的系统生物工程和生物医学数据科学研究的本科生。虽然REU网站向全国STEM顶尖学生开放，但它将专门针对该领域研究机会有限的机构中STEM专业的有才华的本科生，重点是从代表性不足的群体中招收学生。研究经验和指导将帮助这些REU学生为在这个快速增长和开创性的领域工作做好准备，否则他们在本国机构无法获得这些工作。完成项目后，教师导师将与学员保持持续的关系，帮助提高学生留在STEM的可能性。REU的首要目标是培养一支由来自各种STEM背景的年轻工程师和科学家组成的多样化团队，并为他们提供在激动人心的系统生物工程和生物医学数据科学领域取得成功所需的技能、信心和指导。学生将与教师导师配合进行为期10周的暑期研究项目，最终将举行一场抽象的公开研讨会，大多数学生还有机会在全国会议上发表演讲。学生将参与协作、实践和密切指导的项目，这些项目将使他们沉浸在实验、计算和数据科学的组合中。学生将获得实践技能、知识、伦理基础和沟通技能，这些技能是在研究生深造中取得成效并成功应用于现代生物技术行业所必需的。该计划还将为学生提供职业建议、研究伦理基础、科学交流培训，以及完成计划后的持续指导。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。

The employment of biomedical engineers is projected to grow 23% over the period from 2019-2024, creating a critical need for those who can support the design, development and production of new devices, systems, and software used in healthcare. Advances in the biomedical sciences and medicine will increasingly depend upon the application of rigorous and quantitative engineering-based approaches to characterize and interrogate biological systems, as well as tools of data science for mining and analyzing the massive amounts of clinical and biological data needed to diagnose and treat disease going forward. To meet the growing need for workforce pipeline development specifically in the areas of systems bioengineering and biomedical data sciences, the REU Site in Multi-Scale Systems Bioengineering and Biomedical Data Sciences at the University of Virginia will recruit and train ten undergraduate participants per summer in state-of-the-art systems bioengineering and biomedical data sciences research. While open to a broad national pool of top students in STEM, the REU Site will specifically target talented undergraduates majoring in STEM fields at institutions with limited research opportunities in the field, with an emphasis on recruiting students from underrepresented groups. The research experience and mentorship will help prepare these REU students for work in this fast-growing and pioneering field that would otherwise be unavailable to them at their home institutions. Faculty mentors will maintain continuing relationships with the participants after completing the program, helping to improve the likelihood that the students will remain in STEM.The overarching goal of the REU is to train a diverse corps of young engineers and scientists from a variety of STEM backgrounds and provide them with the skills, confidence, and mentorship necessary for successful careers in the exciting—and growing—area of systems bioengineering and biomedical data sciences. Students will be matched with faculty mentors for a 10-week summer research project, culminating in an abstract and public symposium, and with most students also having the opportunity to present at a national conference. The students will participate in collaborative, hands-on, and closely mentored projects that will immerse them in a combination of experimentation, computation, and data science. Students will acquire the practical skills, knowledge, ethical grounding, and communication skills necessary to be productive in advanced graduate study and be successfully employed in the modern biotechnology industry. The program will also provide students with career advising, grounding in research ethics, training in scientific communication, and ongoing mentorship after completion of the program.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.