This Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) award creates an interdisciplinary graduate program to develop advances in the field of soft robotics. These machines, inspired by animals, will be capable of complex tasks that are difficult to achieve with conventional robots, suitable for close interactions with humans, and able to work in environmentally sensitive locations. The research will cross traditional disciplinary boundaries, employing novel biomaterials, exploiting cellular processes and tissue engineering methods, and using control strategies derived from evolutionary principles ? approaches that are comparatively rare in conventional robotics.
Broader Impacts: The development of this new technology provides an exciting opportunity to train inventive and entrepreneurial future science and engineering leaders. IGERT trainees will train in multiple disciplines, including materials science, neuromechanics, mechanical control systems, computer science, artificial intelligence and product design. Novel collaborative training approaches include the formation of mentorship teams and an innovative problem solving-based model of education. IGERT trainees will exploit bioengineering approaches to machine design, fabricate and control new robotic devices to address a wide range of current medical, social and environmental challenges. For example, soft robots could be developed for internal medical diagnosis and delivery of therapeutics, or for search and rescue operations and bioremediation. The international partners, leaders in the emerging field of soft robots, will help trainees form collaborations and affiliations across the world. These students will bridge emerging areas of biology and engineering to create revolutionary new technologies including robots for human assistance and environmentally-friendly biodegradable robots.
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 establish new models for graduate education and training in a fertile environment for collaborative research that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries, and to engage students in understanding the processes by which research is translated to innovations for societal benefit.
