Research on protein structure, function and assembly is an inherently multidisciplinary enterprise that is also driving rapid change and growth across many types of companies. The goal of this IGERT program is to create a new model for graduate education to prepare students for this evolving world. In this new model, students will learn how to pool the knowledge of different scientific, engineering and business disciplines, and different socially diverse groups to achieve creative and productive research collaborations. Students will understand their research in a larger perspective to include its impact on academic, industrial, and social environments. The program will include science and engineering doctoral students and MBA students of twenty-four University of Delaware faculty from four Colleges and seven Departments. The program is supported by a diverse local biotechnology industry from incubating start-ups to large global companies. It links these research groups to form a network of university and industrial collaborators having complementary expertise. The research projects are collaborative across disciplines and are synergistic, spanning topics that include living cells, new tools, and synthetic materials. The educational program augments a strong academic experience by incorporating the additional features of workforce skills, career guidance, and collaboration between business and technical students. A new course, "Multidisciplinary Teamwork in Research", is introduced that includes scientists, engineers, and MBA students. This course brings industrial speakers into the classroom to discuss unmet challenges that need to be addressed by research, and brings in social scientists to train students in teamwork and diversity. The course includes training in writing and oral presentations, and experience in working creatively on problems in teams that include science, engineering and business students. The educational program also features laboratory experience in other departments, industrial internships, attending conferences, presenting posters, an industrial mentoring program, participation of minority undergraduate researchers, and lectures and seminars on ethics. The IGERT program will be the subject of a doctoral dissertation by a social scientist to provide detailed assessment and dissemination.
IGERT is an NSF-wide program intended to meet the challenges of educating U.S. Ph.D. scientists and engineers with the multidisciplinary backgrounds and the technical, professional, and personal skills needed for the career demands of the future. The program is intended to catalyze a cultural change in graduate education by establishing innovative new models for graduate education and training in a fertile environment for collaborative research that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries. In the fifth year of the program, awards are being made to twenty-one institutions for programs that collectively span the areas of science and engineering supported
