IGE Hub Idea Lab 3: Building Approaches to Interdisciplinary Training

In March, CGS hosted Idea Lab 3, a virtual gathering designed to help IGE Hub grantees network and learn from one another about their projects.

CGS hosts the IGE Hub, an NSF funded network that supports communication and collaboration across NSF’s Innovations in Graduate Education (IGE) grants. The project also seeks to build bridges between this group and the broader STEM graduate education community.

Idea Lab 3 featured two projects focused on expanding and improving interdisciplinary research for graduate students. Diana Nicholas, co-PI on the project Creative Interdisciplinary Research in Graduate Education (CIRGE) at Drexel University, discussed how CIRGE developed evidence-based pedagogies to train students via a new team-based interdisciplinary minor.

Eric Vance, PI, on the project Transforming the Education and Training of Interdisciplinary Data Scientists (TETRIDS) at the University of Colorado Boulder, described how his project evaluates the effectiveness of the Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Statistical Analysis (LISA) program. The LISA program trains graduate students from diverse backgrounds to become data scientists.

CGS members, regardless of whether they have IGE funding, can learn more about these programs by watching the CIRGE and the TETRIDS presentations on how these researchers are overcoming obstacles to interdisciplinary training.