EAGER HBCU: Feasibility Study for International Research, Education and Workforce Development on Sustainable Bio-materials Using NSF I-Corps Framework

1743679 （Parast）该项目的目标是通过将创新和新颖的国际I-Corps （I2-Corps）项目整合到研究生的研究和教育中，提高北卡罗来纳理工大学在生物基材料领域的研究和教育能力，1)通过国际合作伙伴关系加速生物基材料的研究和发现，2)确保研究与工业应用的相关性，3)通过同步的科学研究、客户发现和市场分析，增强学生的全球意识。这项工作的重点是通过在北卡罗来纳州a&t州立大学开发一个研究利基来解决2030年生物经济的需求，从而在研究和教育方面建立一种潜在的变革性方法。这将通过在国际背景下利用美国国家科学基金会I-Corps模式整合技术创新，加强北卡罗来纳州立大学在可持续生物材料研究方面的核心竞争力来实现。生物基材料将通过实验和建模的综合方法进行研究、开发和部署。建模将使用分子动力学模拟和密度泛函理论。国际合作是以整体方式实现这一愿景的关键，因为可持续资源是因地制宜的，它们在当地的可及性和丰富程度促进了各自区域或国家特定的生物质转化专业知识和生物材料知识的发展。例如，美国团队有从动物粪便中提取分子物种的经验，法国的合作伙伴有处理藻类的经验，丹麦和巴西的合作伙伴分别有处理荷荷巴油和蓖麻油的经验。国际合作将汇集必要的互补专业知识，以应对从生物废物中提取工程生物材料的挑战。

1743679 (Parast)The objective of this project is to enhance NC A&T's research and educational capability in the area of bio-based materials through integrating an innovative and novel International I-Corps (I2-Corps) program into graduate students' research and education to 1) accelerate research and discovery in bio-based materials via international partnerships, 2) ensure relevance of research to industry applications, and 3) enhance student's global awareness via synchronized scientific research, customer discovery, and market analysis. The effort is centered on a potentially transformative approach to capacity building in research and education through developing a research niche at NC A&T State University that addresses the needs of the bio-economy of 2030. This is to be achieved through strengthening the core competency of NC A&T State University in research in Sustainable Bio-materials through integrating technological innovation utilizing the NSF I-Corps model in an international context.Bio-based materials are to be investigated, developed, and deployed through an integrated approach utilizing experiments and modeling. The modeling will use molecular dynamics simulations and density functional theory. International collaboration is a key for realization of the vision in a holistic manner, because sustainable resources are location-specific, and their localized accessibility and abundance promotes specific bio-mass conversion expertise and bio-materials knowledge development in the respective region or country. For instance, while the U.S. team has experience in extracting molecular species from animal manure, the partners in France have experience working with algae, and the Danish and Brazilian partners have worked with jojoba oil and castor oil, respectively. international collaboration will bring together the complementary expertise necessary to address the challenge of engineering bio-material from bio-waste.