Engineering Workforce Development
PreMiEr’s overarching engineering workforce development goal is to recruit, inspire and educate a diverse group of scientists and engineering faculty and students who will lead future advancement in convergent approaches to engineering the microbiome for solutions at the interface of health and the built environment.
Educational goals within PreMiEr result from engagement with a wide variety of stakeholders. These include not just the students directly involved with PreMiEr research, but also teachers, undergraduate students, community college students, K-12 students, industry partners, and the general public through outreach at museums and Do-It-Yourself (DIY) community science labs.
Much the basis for graduate training in PreMiEr was derived from the interdisciplinary NSF-funded Research Training Grant for Integrative Bioinformatics for Investigating and Engineering Microbiomes (IBIEM). This partnership between Duke University and North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University brought together students with diverse backgrounds and training to learn processes for investigating microbiomes, interact with industry partners, and develop professional skills. PreMiEr is proud to carry the lessons learned through IBIEM into its new center, and furthermore to expand those training opportunities to students at three more research institutions. We welcome the specialized faculty knowledge of new university and industry partners to help train the next generation of microbiome engineers.
