REU Site: Interactive Biomaterials

该网站由国防部与NSF REU项目合作支持。非技术描述：本科生互动生物材料研究体验网站（REU网站）培训来自全国各地的学生进行最先进的生物材料研究，为他们未来在生物材料科学和工程领域的职业生涯做准备。该REU网站（1）让学生参与在多学科和协作实验室环境中进行的独立，前沿的生物材料研究项目;（2）提供指导机会和网络建设经验，以激发参与者对研究生教育后职业生涯的社会影响;（3）培养学生成为公众和科学观众的有效沟通者，（4）创造一个欢迎和多样化的培训环境，促进所有参与者的包容性。作为对前沿研究技术培训的补充，学生将接受教师顾问和研究生导师的一对一指导，并参加技术写作研讨会和团队建设活动。REU网站的一个标志性元素是其针对博士级工业和学术职业道路的职业指导计划，进一步强调了STEM学科研究生教育的重要性和益处。学生还定期介绍他们的研究，并在一个高潮，全校范围内的研究研讨会上发表正式演讲。REU网站的领导特别鼓励学生参与有限的研究机会，妇女，代表性不足的少数民族和残疾人，以扩大他们获得这些职业发展的机会。在教师和研究生导师及其同行的支持下，学生发展和提高他们在网络，研究团队工作以及以各种形式进行口头和技术交流等重要领域的技能。从这个REU网站出现的最佳实践是通过网络和教育出版物广泛传播，使复制在其他未来的REU sites.Technical problems：生物材料越来越多地被设计为刺激响应，在那里他们的属性可以改变在一个控制的方式响应热，化学或机械刺激在他们的环境。材料与生物环境之间的这些相互作用发生在原子、分子、细胞、微观和宏观水平上，决定了生物材料在体外和体内的性能。可供学生使用的研究项目推进了这些基本相互作用领域的知识，包括：形状记忆和刺激响应聚合物，纳米颗粒药物递送，细菌生物膜的集体行为，细胞-生物材料相互作用，干细胞研究，生物相容性软机器人，微流体设备的3D打印和生物材料的计算建模。这些假设驱动的多学科研究项目利用教师的集体专业知识，在许多情况下，促进跨教师实验室，学术部门和机构的合作研究。教师导师是高素质的指导本科生在他们的实验室;每个人都有大量的现代化设施，设备和计算资源在他们的处置培训这些学生在尖端研究使用分析和计算技术。学生发展技术技能和专业知识，以了解这些相互作用的生物材料的复杂性，并了解如何利用这些材料的先进技术，为他们在各个部门和环境中从事职业做好准备。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

This site is supported by the Department of Defense in partnership with the NSF REU program.NON-TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION: The Interactive Biomaterials Research Experiences for Undergraduates site (REU Site) trains cohorts of students from across the country in state-of-the-art biomaterials research to prepare them for future careers in biomaterials science and engineering. This REU Site (1) engages students in independent, leading-edge biomaterials research projects conducted in multidisciplinary and collaborative laboratory environments; (2) provides mentoring opportunities and network-building experiences to excite participants about the societal impacts of careers available to them following graduate education; (3) prepares students to be effective communicators to public and scientific audiences, and (4) creates a welcoming and diverse training environment that promotes the inclusion of all participants. Complementing training in cutting-edge research techniques, students receive one-on-one mentoring from faculty advisors and graduate student mentors and participate in technical writing workshops and team-building activities. A signature element of the REU Site is its career mentoring initiative for doctoral-level industrial and academic career paths, further emphasizing the importance and benefits of graduate education in STEM disciplines. Students also give regular presentations about their research and deliver a formal presentation at a culminating, university-wide research symposium. The REU Site leadership especially encourages the participation of students with limited research opportunities, women, underrepresented minorities, and disabilities to expand their access to these career-enhancing opportunities. With the support of faculty and graduate student mentors and their peers, students develop and enhance their skills in essential areas such as networking, working in research teams, and communicating orally and technically in various formats. Best practices emerging from this REU Site are broadly disseminated via the web and educational publications to enable replication at other future REU sites.TECHNICAL DETAILS: Biomaterials are increasingly designed to be stimulus-responsive, where their properties can change in a controlled way in response to thermal, chemical, or mechanical stimuli in their environment. These interactions between materials and the biological environment, which occur at atomic, molecular, cellular, microscopic, and macroscopic levels, dictate biomaterials’ performance both in vitro and in vivo. The research projects available to students advance knowledge of these fundamental interactions in areas that include: shape memory and stimulus-responsive polymers, nanoparticle drug delivery, the collective behavior of bacterial biofilms, cell-biomaterial interactions, stem-cell research, biocompatible soft robots, 3D printing of microfluidic devices, and computational modeling of biomaterials. These hypothesis-driven, multidisciplinary research projects draw upon the collective expertise of faculty, and in many cases, foster collaborative research across faculty laboratories, academic departments, and institutions. Faculty mentors are highly qualified to mentor undergraduate students in their laboratories; each has a vast array of modern facilities, equipment, and computational resources at their disposal for training these students in cutting-edge research using analytical and computational techniques. Students develop technical skills and expertise to appreciate the complexity of these interactive biomaterials and understand how to harness these materials for advanced technologies, preparing them to pursue advanced study for careers in various sectors and settings.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.