What is City Tech I-Cubed?
The catalyst for institutional integration is the City Tech I3 incubator. The City Tech I3 Incubator will serve to strengthen laboratory content, pedagogy and technology by fostering closer relationships between the nine current NSF-funded projects at City Tech:
1- STEP-MMNet- Metropolitan Mentors Network: Growing an Urban Talent Pool in New York City
2- REU (NOAA-CREST)- Research Experiences for Undergraduates in Ground-Based and Satellite Remote Sensing
3- S-STEM-1- Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (Computing and Engineering Technology)
4- S-STEM-2- Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (Chemical Technology, Computer Science and Applied Mathematics)
5- ADVANCE- Increasing the Participation and Advancement of Women in Academic Science and Engineering Careers
6- NSF C-PATH- NSF Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Pathways to Reinvigorate Undergraduate Education/Planning for Institutional Transformation through Computational Thinking
7- ATE- Advanced Technological Education
8- CCLI- Course Curriculum and Laboratory Improvement/ Water and Work: The Brooklyn Waterfront 2050
9- I3– Innovation through Institutional Integration/The City Tech I3 Incubator: Interdisciplinary Partnerships for Laboratory Integration
The I3 incubator is a model for institutional integration that will serve to advance three critical NSF I3 themes: broadening participation, integrating research and education and developing a global workforce. The City Tech I3 incubator is a permanent mechanism for continuous STEM improvement, focusing on the student laboratory experience whereby students interact directly with the material world using the tools, data collection techniques, models and theories of science. The NSF grants listed above will work together to provide students with the best possible laboratory experience via the convergence of research and education.
The three goals of the City Tech I3 Incubator are to:
1- Widen opportunities for students, particularly those from groups underrepresented in STEM, to participate in and succeed in programs that are centered in, enriched, and enlivened by meaningful laboratory research experiences and that prepare all students for further study or employment.
2- To establish a STEM Lab Incubator as an integrative nexus for all STEM programs to facilitate the engagement of students with faculty research, and to develop key indicators and other assessment methodologies and metrics to measure the effectiveness of labs as learning environments.
3- To provide lab experiences that mirror emerging industry practice and reflect ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology) laboratory learning outcomes, and partnerships for 21st Century Skills, and to connect students and faculty more closely with industry.
Mechanisms of integration are :
1) Creation of a multi-dimensional model of lab practice across all STEM departments as a tool for benchmarking lab transformation.
2) Creation of a cross-project matrix for grant funded projects that charts diversity goals, outreach to high schools, research engagement of students, involvement of industry, and significant learning outcomes.
3) A management structure led by the provost, two academic deans,and a biologist on the faculty that will be continuously advised by a City Tech I-Cubed Incubator Advisory Board comprising members of departmental advisory boards and the PIs of current grant-funded STEM initiatives.
4) Location of professional development activities for the wider STEM faculty in the Faculty Commons, a college-wide center for teaching and learning.
5) Enhancing communications by using the cross-project matrix as a communication tool and establishing a strong web presence for all I-Cubed activities.
City Tech was awarded a NSF Computer & Information Science Engineering Pathways to Revitalized Undergraduate Computing Education (CPATH), another NSF STEM related planning grant after the award of I-Cubed. The grant entitled NSF-CPATH Planning for Institutional Transformation through Computational Thinking will also be integrated into I-Cubed.
