9870676 Johnson This Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training (IGERT) award will support the establishment of a broadly- based graduate training program in mathematical, cognitive and computational approaches to understanding how diverse cognitive processes, including language, movement and reasoning, are learned. The basic phenomena to be addressed are of significant commercial as well as scientific importance because, for example, they form the basis for design of speech and pattern recognition software, and for the design of robotic systems. The program is a joint effort of 13 faculty from the Departments of Applied Mathematics, Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences, and Computer Science. In combination with institutional resources, NSF funds will provide stipends for 12 graduate students, 2 postdoctoral students and 9 undergraduate students each year, as well as for related costs of student research training. Graduate students will be required to satisfy existing coursework requirements of their home departments and to take at least three new IGERT advanced topics courses meant to span the three participating disciplines. During the first two years of graduate school, each student will complete an interdisciplinary research project before beginning thesis research. All IGERT graduate trainees and faculty will also participate in a weekly research seminar, biannual retreats, a yearly week-long mini- course lead by a visiting researcher and a national conference to be organized during the second year of the project. Postdoctoral fellows will jointly organize one of the advanced topics courses and will themselves receive additional training to complement that received during their own graduate studies. Undergraduate students will become involved through active involvement in summer research projects in the groups of participating faculty. IGERT is a new, NSF-wide program whose goal is to sponsor the establishment of innovative, researc h-based graduate programs that will train a diverse group of new scientists and engineers to be well-prepared for varied careers in the private and public sectors. IGERT provides an opportunity for the development of new, well-focused multidisciplinary programs that bridge traditional organizational barriers, uniting faculty from several departments or institutions to establish a highly-interactive collaborative environment for both training and research. In its first year, the program will provide support to 17 institutions for new or nascent programs that collectively span all areas of science, engineering and mathematics eligible for support by the NSF.
