The primary goal of this NUE in Engineering program entitled, "NUE: Unifying Nanotechnology Education at CUNY Community Colleges", at CUNY City College, under the direction of Dr. Ilona Kretzschmar, is to unify nanotechnology education at 2-year Community Colleges (CC) in the City University of New York (CUNY) system and to create a pipeline of better prepared students from these CCs to Senior Colleges such as the City College of New York (CCNY). This goal will be achieved using a successfully tested process for implementation of Nanomaterials curricula developed over the past two years in collaboration between Hostos and Bronx Community College faculty and CCNY faculty for the implementation of Nanotechnology Education at Borough of Manhattan (BMCC), LaGuardia (LGCC), Kingsborough (KBCC), and Queensborough (QBCC) Community Colleges.
In addition to the direct educational impact on CC curriculum and students, this project also creates a pipeline for a diverse group of research-trained students from the CCs to Senior Colleges and provides support to enhance retention. The student populations are 74 (BMCC), 53 (LGCC), 48 (KCC), and 51% (QBCC) from Hispanic or African American ethnic groups. Thus, the transfer of CC students to Senior Colleges in the CUNY system via the Introduction to Nanomaterials Course will increase the overall diversity in STEM disciplines at CUNY.
The proposed unification of Nanotechnology education at the CUNY community colleges provides an unprecedented opportunity to create a critical cluster of nanotechnology expertise at the community colleges, which has the potential to affect the entire CUNY system.
