Beginnings: Partnership-Enabled Experiential Learning in Biomanufacturing and Bioprocessing within the U.S. Intermountain West

This project aims to serve the national interest by meeting industry demand for engineering bioprocessing workers to fill a significant gap in the biotechnology workforce across eight intermountain states. The Biotechnology companies in this region could benefit from a well-trained and abundant workforce that can contribute to process and production goals without the need for extensive in-house training. In this ExLENT project, Utah State University (USU) aims to leverage its decade of experience in synthetic biomanufacturing and its partnership with three leading biotechnology companies to develop an experiential learning program that will engage diverse participants in biotechnology skill development and expand career pathways in biomanufacturing and bioprocessing. Recruitment for program participants will begin with four partner institutions, including two Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), one emerging HSI, and one Historically Black College and University, and then expand to 50+ regionally affiliated community colleges across the intermountain west region. The project benefits society by expanding participant recruitment across various professional and educational backgrounds, fostering a diverse pool of individuals equipped with biological engineering skills to bolster national health, prosperity, and welfare. This project creates an experiential learning program to achieve competency-based training in biomanufacturing and bioprocessing serving 50+ regionally affiliated community colleges in the Intermountain West. Utah State University (USU), in partnership with industries including Thermo Fisher Scientific, Cytiva, and Perfect Day, seeks to mentor participants to acquire skills through hands-on experiences and applications from industry experts. Program participants engage with one or more of the four technical tracks to learn emerging and novel biotechnologies, identified as critical by industry partners but not currently offered in traditional A.S. or B.S. degree programs. These experiences are integrated with science-based fundamentals and engineering principles provided through interactions with USU biological engineering faculty members. Furthermore, outreach to partnering school districts in the region provide a “shadowing” bioprocessing program for high school students. Measurable outcomes include the impact of training on employment and retention within the regional biomanufacturing industry sector. Overall, this project supports experiential leaning opportunities for individuals to increase interest in and access to career pathways in emerging biomanufacturing fields. The NSF ExLENT Program supports inclusive experiential learning opportunities that provide cohorts of diverse learners with the skills needed to succeed in emerging technology fields. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.