Engineering

Organizations

American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Two-Year College Division was established by the ASEE Board of Directors in 1992, in recognition of the important role played by two-year programs in the engineering education pipeline. The primary role of the division is to focus on those engineering and engineering technology education issues that are important (and, in some cases, unique) to community colleges, junior colleges, 3 + 2 programs, two-year technical institutes, and other two-year programs. Reported 300 members in 1999.

National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is a private, independent, nonprofit institution that provides engineering leadership in service to the nation. The NAE has more than 2,000 peer-elected members and foreign associates, senior professionals in business, academia, and government who are among the world's most accomplished engineers. They provide the leadership and expertise for numerous projects focused on the relationships between engineering, technology, and the quality of life.

Meetings

At ASEE conference Two-Year College Division sponsors a Business Meeting and sessions including "Two-Year College Special Topics Potpourri". In addition, community college instructors are frequent presenters at the ASEE conference.

Projects

Enhancing the Community College Pathway to Engineering Career a book from the National Academy of Engineering and the National Research Council, discusses ways to improve the transfer experience for students at community colleges and offers strategies to enhance partnerships between those colleges and four-year engineering schools to help students transfer more smoothly. It focuses on challenges and opportunities for improving transfer between community colleges and four-year educational institutions, recruitment and retention of students interested in engineering, the curricular content and quality of engineering programs, opportunities for community colleges to increase diversity in the engineering workforce, and a review of sources of information on community college and transfer students. It includes a number of current policies, practices, and programs involving community college four-year institution partnerships.

The National Science Foundation supports many projects to support community college engineering education. For example The Center for the Advancement of Scholarship on Engineering Education (CASEE) of NAE will conduct a survey of 50 different 2- and 4-year colleges about enrollments, degree attainments, and transfers by engineering and engineering technology students.

Science Resource Statistics Infobrief The Role of Community Colleges in the Education of Recent Science and Engineering Graduates (2004). 
This 2004 report from Science Resources Statistics examines both the role of community colleges in the educational experiences of science and engineering (S&E) degree recipients and how this role differs among subgroups of the U.S. population

EngineeringDegree.com is an online resource for students considering a degree in engineering. There is extensive information about the field and study of engineering including a comprehensive breakdown of the different specializations available within the larger field of "engineering."

Awards

Pacific Southwest Section - Outstanding Community College Educator Award Sponsored by Boeing, the Pacific Southwest Section (PSW) Outstanding Community College Educator Award is presented for excellence in the instruction of engineering and/or engineering technology. The purpose of the award is to honor the recipient and to serve as an incentive to the recipient and other faculty members to make further significant contributions to engineering education.