From the beginning of the 2005 spring semester, CIERD started organizing sessions discussing new trends in science - brainstorming and developing new ideas related to interdisciplinary research. The focus of CIERD discussion sessions will be on current research topics that combine various fields of science. Topics may include engineering, science policy, computer sciences, humanities, environment and medicine. Topics of the discussion will range from individual work of students within the Center to research being performed in different institutions worldwide.

The first objective of discussion sessions is to foster interaction and intellectual exchange between students from various departments and programs. The second objective is to find faculty support to help develop students' ideas into valuable research. The third objective is to explore opportunities associated with rapidly developing research fields.

The Discussion will be open to address the issues such as: what knowledge and resources are necessary to conduct the proposed research; how can the proposed research be related to ongoing research in other fields; how can the presented study be applied practically in product development, disease treatment and how may the research extend and complement other valuable studies.