William Snyder - US grants

A laser doppler velocimeter will be installed in the thermo-fluids laboratory. This will enable the students to make non-invasive measurements of fluid flow in generalized test sections. Students from the fields of mechanical, electrical, civil and chemical engineering will be able to perform open ended experiments of varying degrees of complexity. Typical experiments planned are measurement of boundary layer velocity profiles in drag reduction, measurement of fluid velocities in radial and sonic flow, and measurement of velocities in a pump turbine test stand.

9451871 Snyder This project is improving undergraduate chemical engineering education by introducing the investigation of molecular dynamics for the characterization and analysis of polymers in the polymer and materials science laboratories. This enhancement is being accomplished by developing new experiments using a Tetrahedron Audrey 380A Dielectric Spectrometer System. These experiments provide students with insight into the molecular basis for polymer properties, many of which are strongly linked to chain dynamics and molecular mobility. Without this hands-on experience in polymer structure-property relations, it is extremely difficult for the students to apply classroom concepts to the design, development and fabrication of advanced materials. Using this equipment to perform experiments, the students are able to study important problems such as the fabrication of advanced composites and the recycle of plastics. An outcome of these problem- solving laboratories will be scientists and engineers with considerable experience in materials engineering.

The 2008 GALANA conference (Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition - North America) will bring together researchers, ranging from graduate students to senior scientists, who are asking biological questions about language acquisition: What exactly are the contributions of human biology to the process by which a child acquires her native language? Or to the process by which an adult acquires a foreign language? In the case of the child, the extremely high rate of success suggests that biology provides considerable guidance. Yet, languages still differ from one another in important ways. What are the choices that the child has to make?

The special theme of the 2008 meeting will be 'Language Acquisition and Cross-linguistic Variation'. The field of language acquisition is now well positioned to address a foundational question in linguistic theory: Are the points of cross-linguistic variation a "deep" domain of scientific inquiry, one where we can expect to discover richly explanatory generalizations? Language acquisition provides a valuable (and underutilized) testing ground for theories of cross-linguistic variation, because theories of grammatical variation across the worlds' languages are simultaneously theories of the "hypothesis space" for a child acquiring her native language.

Broader impact of GALANA 2008 will be felt in at least four areas. First, the conference will make a major contribution to doctoral training in linguistics and language acquisition, by providing a forum for doctoral students to present their research projects (either as papers or as posters), to receive feedback from major international scholars, and to network with one another. Second, the provision of high-quality ASL interpreting will ensure that the conference includes the contributions of Deaf students and faculty. Third, the GALANA 2008 proceedings volume is an important venue for scholarly communication about the latest research findings, and will reach a broader audience than the conference itself. Fourth, and perhaps most interestingly, the special session on Language Acquisition and Cross-linguistic Variation aims to have a significant impact on the way research, both theoretical and acquisitional, is practiced in the years to come.

This Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) award establishes a unique interdisciplinary training program that prepares Ph.D. scientists from cognitive (linguistics, psychology, communication disorders) and biological fields (molecular genetics, behavior genetics, neuroscience) to achieve a unified cognitive-biological understanding of human language development. Innovations from this approach will address societal challenges in education, technology, and health.

Intellectual Merit: A full understanding of human language ? including genetic, neural, cognitive and environmental influences that shape language development and recovery from brain injury ? requires linking a vast array of biological and cognitive sciences. Conventional approaches to graduate training produce cognitive and biological language scientists with little technical overlap ? a barrier to communication. Trainees will develop expertise in their home domains and rigorous interdisciplinary training, providing broad and deep knowledge of theories and methods of other domains to communicate, collaborate and innovate in multidisciplinary teams. The training program uses a team-based model, in an environment designed to foster creativity and innovation ? along with integrated coursework and training in how to translate that research to educational, technological, and health applications.

Broader Impacts: This IGERT award will prepare a new generation of leaders to conduct (and train others to conduct) the team-based basic and applied research needed to achieve a unified biological-cognitive science of language. Key components include: training to communicate with educators, policy makers and the public in innovative ways that address societal challenges in technology and education; comprehensive efforts to increase participation among historically underrepresented groups in science; and preparing trainees for the increasingly international scientific community through on-site and internet-based opportunities to connect with leading cognitive and biological centers of language research around the world.

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.

Learning is the basis of human mental development and the process of learning continues throughout our lives. Perhaps more than anything else, how and what we learn shapes who we are. This project has the dual aims of achieving a deeper scientific understanding of learning, and communicating a deeper understanding of the science of learning to scientists and the public. Over several decades, diverse fields including genetics, neuroscience, linguistics, education, and psychology have generated a wealth of knowledge about myriad aspects of how humans learn, but a grand challenge remains: to integrate that knowledge into a unified understanding of learning based on these diverse fields, and on scales ranging from the gene to the neuron, brain, and human behavior. This National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT) award to the University of Connecticut will help prepare the next generation of researchers to meet this challenge. The traineeship, focusing on the science of learning, will train fifty (50) PhD students, including twenty-five (25) funded trainees, from education, genetics, linguistics, psychology, neuroscience, and speech-language-hearing sciences. By emphasizing a problem-based approach (learning by doing), embracing collaboration across a broad a spectrum of disciplines, and integrating hands-on training in communication and leadership skills that enable effective multidisciplinary project design, management, and scientific discovery, this program will offer trainees unique preparation for a range of careers in academia, industry, and the public sector.

The training program has five major components: an intensive one-year seminar that surveys the science of learning across all participating fields, a hands-on practicum where trainees learn to design and implement multidisciplinary research, faculty-student research interest groups that serve as brainstorming launch pads for new scientific challenges, data stewardship modules, and integrated training in outreach and communication. The seminar provides a cross-disciplinary introduction to the science of learning and the challenge of technical communication, while the practicum emphasizes practical skills crucial in academic and nonacademic careers that graduate education too often lacks: project design and management, budgeting and resource allocation, and external communications. The research interest groups, which will evolve as promising research proposals emerge from the practicum, serve as both focal point for research and organizational structure for the participants. From their first day in the program, students face the challenge of how to clearly and effectively share ideas without assuming prior knowledge or relying on technical jargon, a skill that not only enables excellence in research, but empowers trainees to become ambassadors for their work to society as a whole. This program will also promote diversity in careers requiring advanced training through best practices in recruitment and retention.

The NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) Program is designed to encourage the development and implementation of bold, new potentially transformative models for STEM graduate education training. The Traineeship Track is dedicated to effective training of STEM graduate students in high priority interdisciplinary research areas, through comprehensive traineeship models that are innovative, evidence-based, and aligned with changing workforce and research needs.