NNCI: San Diego Nanotechnology Infrastructure (SDNI)

非技术描述：圣地亚哥纳米技术基础设施(SDNI)是作为国家纳米技术研究和教育基础设施而建立的，以满足国家在推进研究、促进技术商业化、支持创业、发展强大和有竞争力的劳动力、加强K-12、大学和研究生教育以及促进多样性和包容性方面的需求。通过完成其使命，SDNI将成为追求科学研究和国家健康、繁荣与安全的关键贡献者。SDNI提供独特的工具组、技能、技术支持、指导和服务，以生产无数创新的材料和设备。这些独特的能力将帮助国家在对国家经济和安全至关重要的领域获得竞争优势，包括人工智能(AI)、先进制造、量子信息科学(QIS)和5G/6G通信。SDNI还将在与NSF的未来十大理念相一致的研究追求中发挥关键作用，特别关注支持和发展融合研究，通过多样性加强科学和工程，以及播撒创新。为了培养一支更多样化和更有生产力的科学队伍，SDNI致力于制定一项系统和可执行的外展和教育计划，以促进STEM。在一个试点计划的基础上，SDNI通过来自少数族裔学生人数较多的学区的学生、教师和管理人员等所有利益相关者的非常积极的回应显示了可行性，SDNI提议的扩展努力将首先通过与NNCI网络中的其他站点的合作，将纳米技术引入南加州初中和高中的科学课程，然后在全国范围内。技术描述：作为国家纳米技术协调基础设施(NNCI)的一部分，SDNI提供纳米/介观/超材料、纳米生物医学、纳米光子学和纳米磁学领域的技术优势。SDNI的战略目标是：(1)提供基础设施，支持革命性的研究和教育，并利用圣地亚哥的创新生态系统，包括主要研究机构和2,000多家公司，雇用60,000多名科学家和工程师；(2)加速将发现和新的纳米技术转化为市场；(3)成为NNCI网络的关键贡献成员，以支持和推进国家的纳米技术基础设施，以及(4)与加州教育委员会和当地学区合作，制定教育和外联计划，以促进高中和社区大学，尤其是在少数族裔学生人数较多的学校的STEM努力。由于纳米技术是一项跨学科应用的基础性技术，SDNI将继续扩大其能力，优化其运营，并积极招募和吸引新的和非传统用户，以推动国家重点科学领域的发现。特别是，我们预计SDNI将在推进融合研究方面发挥关键作用，帮助在人机界面、宇宙探索、促进基于量子物理的革命以及通过扩大参与STEM来提高科学技术等领域取得突破。SDNI用户的发现将有可能在对人类社会和国家利益至关重要的领域产生变革性的变化。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。

Non-technical Description:The San Diego Nanotechnology Infrastructure (SDNI) is set up as a national nanotechnology research and education infrastructure to serve the country’s needs for advancing research, facilitating technology commercialization, supporting entrepreneurship, developing strong and competitive work force, enhancing K-12, college and graduate education, and promoting diversity and inclusion. By accomplishing its missions, SDNI will become a key contributor to the pursuit of scientific research and the national health, prosperity, and security. SDNI offers unique tool sets, skills, technical support, mentorship, and services to produce a myriad of innovative materials and devices. These unique capabilities will help the nation to gain competitive advantages in areas critical to the nation’s economy and security, including artificial intelligence (AI), advanced manufacturing, quantum information science (QIS), and 5G/6G communications. The SDNI will also play a pivotal role in research pursuits that align with NSF’s 10 Big Ideas for the future, with particular focus on supporting and growing convergent research, enhancing science and engineering through diversity, and seeding innovation. To develop a more diverse and productive scientific workforce, the SDNI is committed to developing a systematic and executable outreach and education program to promote STEM. Built upon a pilot program that has shown feasibility through very positive responses from all stakeholders, including students, teachers, and administrators from school districts with high minority student populations, SDNI’s proposed outreach efforts will bring nanotechnology to the science curriculum of middle and high schools in southern California first and then across the country, through collaborations with other sites in the NNCI network.Technical Description:As part of the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI), the SDNI offers technical strengths in the areas of Nano/Meso/Metamaterials, NanoBioMedicine, NanoPhotonics, and NanoMagnetics. SDNI’s strategic goals are to (1) Provide infrastructure that enables transformative research and education and leverages San Diego’s innovation ecosystem, which includes major research institutes and over 2,000 companies employing more than 60,000 scientists and engineers; (2) Accelerate the translation of discoveries and new nanotechnologies to the marketplace; (3) Become a key contributing member of the NNCI Network to support and advance the nation’s nanotechnology infrastructure, and (4) Collaborate with the California Board of Education and local school districts to develop education and outreach programs to promote STEM efforts in high school and community colleges, especially at schools with high populations of underrepresented minority (URM) students. Because nanotechnology is a foundational technology with applications across disciplines, SDNI will continue to expand its capabilities, optimize its operations, and actively recruit and engage new and nonconventional users to advance discoveries in scientific areas of national priority. In particular, we expect the SDNI will play a crucial role in the advancement of convergent research to help create breakthroughs in areas of human machine interfaces, exploration of the universe, facilitating revolutions based on quantum physics, and enhancing science and technology by broadening participation in STEM. Discoveries made by users of the SDNI will have the potential to create transformative change in fields critical to the future of human society and national interests.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.