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IGERT Trainees Receive Multiple Experiences with Interdisciplinary Collaboration
Achievement/Results
Trainees and affiliates of the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) program in Indoor Environmental Science and Engineering at The University of Texas (UT) work on interdisciplinary teams in all of their required courses. For example, in their required two-semester IGERT Technical Exchange course they have numerous group assignments. This past year students were required to work on interdisciplinary teams to (1) develop an unsolicited workshop proposal to the NSF on a topic of their choice, (2) work with a local school to develop an indoor air quality management plan, (3) develop two-minute educational videos on a relevant indoor environmental topic of their choice, (4) develop indoor air quality pamphlets that will ultimately be disseminated during weatherization of affordable homes in Texas, and (5) assist the Children’s Environmental Health Institute with information needed to survey and rank hotel chains with respect to minimizing children’s exposure to toxic chemicals. Students from different disciplines also make presentations on their interests and expertise as related to indoor environmental science and engineering, and receive feedback ideas from others with different skill sets.
In several of our IGERT courses (e.g., Indoor Air Quality I and II, Exposure Analysis, Flow and Pollutant Transport in Buildings, Energy Efficient and Healthy Buildings) student teams work on relatively rigorous term projects. Teams are arranged to make use of interdisciplinary collaboration, e.g, students from community and regional planning or advertising working with students in environmental or architectural engineering. These semester-long projects are designed to be the “next step” beyond the interdisciplinary exercises required in the IGERT Technical Exchange course. For example, one project involved 16 students who used carbon dioxide measurements to estimate re-breathed fraction (fraction of every breath inhaled that came from another person’s exhaled breath in a building). Data were used with a state-of-the-art airborne infectious disease transmission model to estimate and map probabilistic risks of influenza transmission in buildings on campus. The students then met in a “workshop” to combine results and develop a strategy for conveying information to the campus community. Other projects have ranged from chemical emissions from wall insulation materials and possible health effects to building occupants, to the design of a novel portable air cleaning device for polar volatile organic compounds.
Address Goals
The interdisciplinary research activities described here often involve discovery based on previously unreported research findings. Several of these projects have been presented, or will soon be presented, at national and international conferences, or have evolved into thesis or dissertation research. However, since each IGERT student has an opportunity to work on an approximate 6 to 8 interdisciplinary teams in their IGERT courses, there is a substantial learning experience associated with both the obstacles and benefits of successful interdisciplinary collaboration.
