Education
The NRT program focuses on creating an innovative traineeship environment to prepare the trainees to solve real-world problems in discovering, manufacturing and deploying advanced materials through utilizing state-of-the-art techniques in AI and ML. Upon graduation, the trainees will become versatile STEM professionals prepared for a full range of career pathways interfacing several disciplines. The trainees will attain significant in-depth training in at least two research areas by completing his/her dissertation on an interdisciplinary research project while building up their data-analytical techniques in AI and ML. In addition, the training breadth will be achieved through summer internships and lab rotations. Furthermore, the trainees will obtain other transferable professional skills, including communication, adaptability, management, and leadership under the guidance of faculty and internship mentors.
Such in-depth and broad interdisciplinary graduate training without increasing the time-to-degree is novel and vital to prepare the next generation of material scientists and engineers to handle large, heterogeneous, and complex datasets generated from digital transformation and automation in materials research and manufacturing. The program at UA will be the first such pilot program in North East Ohio to break away from the conventional materials science curriculum system. Published reports have emphasized the lack of preparation for today’s workforce, both within and outside academia, particularly in the areas of communication skills, the ability to work effectively in teams, business acumen, and leadership competencies. The survey conducted by UARF of close to 50 employers located in North East Ohio also produced employer impressions that graduates from conventional traineeship programs show similar skill gaps. These gaps will be mitigated in the NRT program by designing the pathways in interdisciplinary coursework and research topics and training modules.
