Description of the Accelerated Engineering Certificate at Holyoke Community College
Description
The HCC Team developed a unique approach to assist STEM students with accelerated learning in the Community College setting, which will position first year students for internships and research opportunities faster, to increase persistence and completion of a certificate. This program is focused on the recruitment of historically marginalized students and supports our Colleges Strategic Plan, to support the needs of our Hispanic student Community. Holyoke Community College is currently a HSI withroughly 26% Hispanicstudents. By supporting our student's development of technical skills, coupled with essential skills, students will be able to work in industry at an earlier point in their academic journey. We will be using high-impact practices, coupled with accelerated learning, in a supported community to fast track our students. Following recommendations from the Minority Serving Institutes, Americas Underutilized Resource for Strengthen the STEM Workforce, published in 2019 by the National Academies of Science, the team will intentionally prioritize supplemental instruction, embedded classroom peer mentoring and career preparation.Back to Certificate Summary »
This certificate will be designed with the following:
- An accelerated time frame (1-year full-time) to complete the certificate, which enables those students with family and work obligations to gain technical skills and employment in an in-demand industry quickly and return to the workforce.
- Built-in high-impact practices which allows students to complete core competency skill building, while also learning humanistic, meta and essential skills that will position them for undergraduate research and/or internships.
- Access to proven retention strategies by creating a cohort and community of students, who will learn together and be supported by HCC STEM peer mentors, teaching assistants and dedicated staff and administrators.
- Unique access to a summer math accelerator which will support and improve their initial mathematical skills.
- The accelerated engineering certificate program will provide participants with the skills to successfully complete an engineering internship following this program and after their first year.
- Students who successfully complete the certificate, can move onto the internship options building confidence and stem identity to continue on toward an A.S. degree program in engineering.
Goals of the Program
- Address the need for a more and better prepared engineering workforce.
- Faculty taught, guided and mentored on how to create and facilitate a studio style course. These courses can be taught in parallel, faculty meet weekly and share about student progress, challenges and strengths.
- Build relationships with local, regional, and national industry to support internship positions and hands on learning experiences. Our goal is to introduce students to experiential learning following 1 year of accelerated foundational knowledge instruction - which will fast track and solidify their engineering path.
- The goal is to recruit, retain, and place a diverse number of students into the STEM workforce.
- This certificate will allow students to create a STEM identity and build confidence in their ability to be an engineer early on in their engineering or educational path.
Courses:
- The Built Environment: Engineering Studio 1
This four-credit course, taught in a studio format, introduces foundational knowledge from several engineering disciplines to expose students to the engineering design process, problem solving and methodology. A final product could be in any medium, but must present your evaluate and assess new technology's in each discipline and evaluate them for social and cultural impacts. The final product must be contained in your eportfolio. Topics covered will include, civil engineering, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering. Math, technical writing and essential skills will be woven into the course. - Designing the Future: Engineering Studio 2
Topics covered will include, mechanical, robotics and computer engineering. Math, technical writing and essential skills will be woven into the course. The final product must be contained in your eportfolio - Making the World a Better Place: Engineering Studio 3
Topics covered will include, biotechnology and bioengineering. Math, technical writing and essential skills will be woven into the course. The final product must be contained in your eportfolio - Engineering Studio 4
Topics covered will include, 3D modeling, hands on software skill building in solidworks, blender, R-level 1 Math, technical writing and essential skills will be woven into the course. The final product must be contained in your eportfolio. - Engineering Studio 5
Topics covered will include hands on software skill building in, CAD/ Arc GIS, R-level 2 Math, technical writing and essential skills will be woven into the course. The final product must be contained in your eportfolio - Engineering Studio 6
Topics covered will include hands on software skill building in, MATLAB, Python, PSpice, math, technical writing and essential skills will be woven into the course. The final product must be contained in your eportfolio - Engineering Studio 7
This one-credit course, will be required for each semester and will introduce project management and focus on professional development and preparation for internships. This course will also be used to assist students in building their eportfolio from outcomes of each course, and staying on schedule to prepare, research and present their capstone project.
To complete the Accelerated Engineering Certificate:
- Students must complete all of the required 7 courses
- Students must complete an eportfolio
- Students must complete the capstone project