As the only institution of higher education in the two-county area IT is the mission of fulton-montgomery community college (FM) to provide the necessary educational programming to prepare residents…

As the only institution of higher education in the two-county area IT is the mission of fulton-montgomery community college (FM) to provide the necessary educational programming to prepare residents of fulton and montgomery counties to participate in the local economic growth and share in the benefits that will result from the development of the region's tech valley project. The center for engineering and technology (CET) at FM is an outgrowth of recent national science foundation-funded work conducted with other colleges that provides curriculum to meet tomorrow's workforce needs. IT is also a follow-up to earlier work with NASA in which professor engaged during a NASA fellowship working on tech prep and the NASA TRI-state education initiative. The overarching goal of CET is to develop the skills and knowledge necessary to support workforce development in the western part of new york state's tech valley region. CET serves as a resource for programs in engineering science, electrical technology, computer technology, computer science, computer information systems and general science at fulton-montgomery community college. The FY 2010 NASA earmark award will facilitate the acquisition of critical pieces of equipment that will be utilized across the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (stem) curriculum in an effort to produce technicians and transfer students for the workforce of the future. Aside from the practical purposes the equipment provides, CET hopes to attract and retain students in the stem disciplines by providing state-of-the-art tools combined with hands-on education activities that will engage and prepare the students for careers in high technology. The current proposal includes funding for an engineering science and technology faculty member to provide direct instruction using the new equipment as well as to facilitate curriculum development across the stem disciplines at CET. Additional funding is requested to provide release time to current CET faculty members to focus on turning CET into a "hardware library" by providing a tool set that stem courses will utilize in a variety of ways to support basic science as well as technical training. Funding is also requested to hire a technician to assist the faculty and to maintain the equipment acquisitions from FY 2009 as well as those proposed in FY 2010. The center for economic growth (CEG) and other organizations have long maintained that no one college or university can provide all of the educational needs to support the development of a 21ST century workforce in the upstate region, but rather a comprehensive approach utilizing all of the region's education resources will be necessary. No other college in new york state can match the educational ladder that FM can provide with first CO-located board of cooperative educational services (boces) in new york and the recent addition of bachelors program delivered through FM's campus. This educational ladder meets the needs of our rural area and students have the benefit entering at multiple levels from high school through a bachelor's level, or exiting the educational process to a technician's level or completing the ladder to enter a graduate level. Building on this strength, the CET faculty members will also focus on strengthening an existing partnership with the university at albany's college of nanoscale science and engineering. In addition to articulation agreements from FM programs to the university at albany, the partnership also supports student internships, fieldtrip opportunities as well as access to world-renown scientists and engineers. CET faculty and FM administration also continue discussions with global foundries as they construct a new chip fabrication plant just 25 miles away in malta, NY. Once the operation is completed, there are 900 technical jobs expected all requiring at least an associate's degree, in addition to projected 3,000 ancillary support jobs.