This award provides the University of California-San Diego (UCSD) with a three-year renewal of Pacific Rim Experiences for Undergraduates PRIME NSF #0407508 which is built on a collaborative framework in grid applications previously supported by NSF, Pacific Rim Applications Grid and Middleware Assembly (PRAGMA NSF #0314015 and NSF #0627026)". The overarching goal of PRIME is to prepare students to work in the global market place by providing them with a research apprenticeship coupled with a culturally immersive experience at a PRAGMA host site. The initial award developed a prototype for such research and cultural experiences for undergraduates. The current award will explore how to create a sustainable model for international undergraduate research. Two key objectives with this award are to integrate and sustain the PRIME program within a specific disciplinary framework, the bioengineering department at UCSD's Jacobs School of Engineering, to understand the role of a department in creating a sustainable model. In addition, this project also plans to deepen the quality of the student experience through web-based, cultural awareness curriculum, and developing tools to evaluate the impact of that curriculum. Consistent with the existing PRIME model, the research themes of the projects involve the use or development of cyberinfrastructure tools, specifically grid-computing. The project will disseminate its findings to help inform other programs that focus on international research and cultural experiences for undergraduate and graduate students.
