This Integrative Graduate Education and Research (IGERT) award supports a Ph.D. training program at the Colorado School of Mines to pursue integrative research and education in Intelligent Geosystems. Graduate students will be trained to add real time, adaptive, sensing capabilities to the monitoring of natural or engineered earth structures, e.g., an earth dam, a ground water system, or a geoconstruction site (tunneling, urban excavation, highway); the sensor networks employed will allow a geosystem to sense its environment, diagnose its condition, and make decisions to improve the management, operation, or objective of the geosystem. The goals are to advance the development of the "intelligent" geosystems while educating and training a new generation of leaders who are able to operate effectively in this emerging interdisciplinary area. The proposed IGERT program will institute an interdisciplinary and holistic approach to trainees. Key components of this IGERT award include: (1) a multi-disciplinary collaborative research team framework to foster team development and interdisciplinary innovation in intelligent geosystem concepts; (2) a leadership and teamwork development program to train the next generation of geosystem leaders for industry, academia and government; (3) a PhD minor in social/environmental ethics & policy to broaden trainee understanding beyond the technical challenges to the social, environmental and political aspects of intelligent geosystems; (4) a self-paced cross-disciplinary technical course using modules in intelligent geosystems; and (5) an internship with a government laboratory or industry in intelligent geosystems. These five components of this IGERT program will produce diverse, highly skilled leaders with the strong social and environmental awareness required in multidisciplinary environments. IGERT is an NSF-wide program intended to meet the challenges of educating U.S. Ph.D. scientists and engineers with the interdisciplinary background, deep knowledge in a chosen discipline, 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.
