Given the impending global energy/climate crisis, engineering practice must undergo a paradigm shift from a traditional design process that had little regard to energy and/or environmental costs to a new process that must address a broader set of parameters that include the ultimate sustainability of the design alternatives. This Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) program will provide the resources for the University of Tennessee to become a national curriculum and research leader in sustainable energy technologies by developing the technological, scientific, and engineering expertise required. The training of scientists and engineers must now change in two important ways. First, engineers must now learn to work within the context of sustainable production processes. Second, engineers must now learn to work regularly on complex innovative production processes that require advanced interdisciplinary expertise and collaboration of materials, computational and biological sciences and engineering. This IGERT provides a highly integrated engineering curriculum and training program with a coherent sequence of steps toward the proficiency required to work effectively in the sustainable energy arena. The program fosters the development of technological, scientific, and engineering expertise required in exploring new, sustainable energy technologies. The diverse trainees will have expertise in either biomolecular engineering or materials science and engineering relevant to sustainable production of energy; breadth in both the biomolecular and materials disciplines; pervasive exposure to research performed within the context of sustainability; and a commitment to outreach through workshops at the American Museum of Science and Energy in Oak Ridge and Knoxville ASM Summer Materials Camp. 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.
", (08/01/08-07/31/14, award # DGE-0801470), generated important significant outcomes in terms of both intellectual merit and broader impact. Intellectual Merit: The IGERT supported more than 20 PhD students from five departments (Biochemical, Cellular and Molecular Biology, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Chemistry, Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Materials Science and Engineering). These students engaged in interdisciplinary research involving all aspects of the hydrogen fuel cycle, including fuel generation via microbial pathways, fuel storage in nanostructured adsorbents and fuel conversion in proton exchange membrane fuel cells. At the end of five years, a total of 40 publications in archival journals and 119 presentations at professional conferences had been made by STAIR students. Broader Impact: These students were well-prepared to make significant contributions to the United States workforce because they emerged not only with technical proficiency in their particular area of expertise but also with a broad exposure to the science and engineering issues associated with all aspects of a sustainable energy fuel cycle. These students developed interdisciplinary communication skills through the regular interaction with faculty and peers in other departments engaged in disparate research projects. Many students had the opportunity to engage in more than one type of research, such as synthesis, modeling and characterization of a given material. These students had access to world class facilities including the high-performance supercomputers and the Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Furthermore, these students were routinely exposed through seminars and classes to the three elements of sustainable development—economic, environmental and societal sustainability—by speakers and lecturers from academia, industry and government. With an awareness of these broader issues of sustainability, the STAIR graduates can incorporate such considerations into their future research. These graduates possess the ability to communicate the purpose and nature of their research to lay audiences because they had multiple outreach opportunities, including creating exhibits presented at the American Museum of Science & Energy in Oak Ridge, TN, the development and staffing of a sustainability booth at a local Earth Day Festival, and direct interaction with K-12 students at local schools. In terms of a lasting impact at the University of Tennessee, the STAIR program was the first graduate interdisciplinary research program in sustainable energy at UT. PIs from the STAIR IGERT worked with the UT administration to create an interdisciplinary PhD in Energy Science and Engineering, which now houses 80 PhD students with 25 more entering in Fall, 2014.
