Welcome to the SPEAKS NSF Graduate Student Research Traineeship!
Contact
Dr. Matthew Barth
SPEAKS Principal Investigator
barth@ece.ucr.edu
Melissa Jaunal
SPEAKS Program Coordinator
certtraining@ucr.edu
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Award No. DGE-2152258. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
As society looks to tackle complex challenges, researchers must not only come up with innovative solutions, but also engage with the public and policymakers to develop and implement those solutions to benefit society.
Supported by a major grant awarded to UCR from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the SPEAKS Program (Science to Policy Education: Activating Knowledge for Sustainable Transportation) takes a holistic view to science and engineering graduate education, where we also emphasize policy, responsible conduct of research, and human-technology interaction. This multi-disciplinary NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) aims to train STEM-focused doctoral students to make transportation more sustainable through the integration of engineering, social sciences, environmental sciences and public policy.
Using a novel science-to-policy (S2P) program, SPEAKS trains students in user- and stakeholder-based research, communication, integrated ethics, and career readiness. Training includes coursework, collaborative research, networking, mentoring, professional development, and student internships in legislative offices, industry, government agencies, and nongovernmental organizations. This project convenes expert practitioners from engineering, public policy, sciences, and humanities to provide Ph.D. students with skills and experience necessary to address key scientific challenges in transportation and to implement their findings in public policy.
View the full NSF Award Abstract
Through a multi-disciplinary educational approach, SPEAKS Trainees will learn to:
1) Translate Science into Policy by improving understanding of the policymaking process
2) Communicate technical information to both experts and non-experts
3) Frame research to be needs- and stakeholder-based
4) Promote broad participation in sustainable transportation education
5) Implement societally beneficial, translational research