The Mid-Pacific ICT Center has received $3 million in startup
funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Advanced
Technological Education (ATE) program.
The
National Science Foundation (NSF) is an
independent federal agency created by
Congress in 1950 "to promote the progress of
science; to advance the national health,
prosperity, and welfare; to secure the
national defense…" With an annual budget
around $6 billion, it is the funding source
for about 20% of all federally supported
basic research conducted by America’s
colleges and universities. In many fields,
such as math, computer science and the
social sciences, NSF is the major source of
federal backing. In the past few decades,
NSF-funded researchers have won more than
170 Nobel Prizes.
An essential element in NSF's mission is
support for science and engineering
education, from pre-K through graduate
school and beyond. The research NSF funds is
thoroughly integrated with education to help
ensure there will always be plenty of
skilled people available to work in new and
emerging scientific, engineering and
technological fields, and plenty of capable
teachers to educate the next generation.
No single factor is more important to the
intellectual and economic progress of
society, and to the well-being of its
citizens, than the continuous acquisition of
new knowledge. NSF is a major part of that
process.
The
NSF Advanced Technological Education (ATE)
Program focuses on the education of
technicians for the high-technology fields
that drive our nation's economy. With an
emphasis on two-year colleges, ATE
encourages partnerships between academic
institutions and employers to improve the
education of science and engineering
technicians at undergraduate and secondary
school levels. The ATE program supports
curriculum development; professional
development of college faculty and secondary
school teachers; career pathways to two-year
colleges from secondary schools and from
two-year colleges to four-year institutions;
and other activities. ATE is part of NSF’s
Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE).
NSF ATE Centers undertake broad national
or geographic-specific initiatives in high
technology fields that drive the economy and
are of strategic importance to the nation.
All ATE centers serve as leaders in their
fields. Each pursues a distinct vision of
technological education it carries out in
cooperation with two-year and four-year
colleges and universities, secondary
schools, business, industry, and government.
In addition to the centers, ATE supports
projects that target particular
technological education issues.
Besides
MPICT, NSF ATE Centers related to ICT
include the
ICT Center and
BATEC in Massachusetts,
Convergence Technology Center (CTC) and
GeoTech in Texas,
CSEC in Oklahoma,
CyberWatch in the DC area, and
CSSIA in Illinois.
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