SCATE Center at Florence-Darlington Technical College awarded more than $4 million in a year
The South Carolina Advanced Technological Education (SCATE) Center housed in the Southeastern Institute of Manufacturing and Technology (SiMT) at Florence-Darlington Technical College (FDTC) has received $4,066,724 in National Science Foundation (NSF) grants over the past year.
Grants awarded include grants funded in the Advanced Technological Education (ATE) and NSF Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Program (S-STEM) Division of Undergraduate Education.
The SCATE Center, an NSF ATE Program initiative dating back to its establishment in 1996 offers resources that support a variety of programs in the engineering technology and other STEM fields.
Additionally, the center provides current and prospective students at FDTC with tuition scholarships, internships and career development assistance, and a loan-to-own high-quality laptop computer.
Students are given computers with access to Internet, virtual reality capabilities, and various software along with equipment depending on his or her degree curriculum.
Within the past year, the SCATE Center at FDTC has been awarded three grants that have garnered more than $4 million to help support technician education across the region and country. The SCATE Center along with FDTC faculty have been heavily involved with writing three separate grants that aim to educate technicians for the high technology fields that drive the nation’s economy.
Rick Roberts, Managing Director of the SCATE Center, said, “This support will maintain the great momentum [the center has] gathered over the last several years to improve and expand educational programs for technicians to work in high-tech STEM fields that drive the U.S. economy. That said, we are looking forward to continuing to be a part of bridging the educational gap to help fill in-demand, high-paying skilled technical jobs across region and the country.”
Most recently, the SCATE Center was awarded a $989,113 grant that will begin its funding this October.
The NSF S-STEM grant, Cyber Generation Tech Stars: Supporting Student Success in Computer Technology, Industrial Technology, and Engineering Technology will help the SCATE Center and FDTC contribute to the national need for more scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians.
The four-year grant will carry out this task by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need. Specifically, the project will provide one-year scholarships to at least 120 low-income, academically talented students who are pursuing an Associate of Applied Science degree in computer technology, network systems management, industrial technology, and/or engineering technology at FDTC.
In June 2018, the SCATE Center was awarded a $294,081 grant from the NSF. The NSF ATE grant, Collaborative Research — HSI ATE Hub — Diversifying the ATE Program with Hispanic Serving Institutions using Culturally Inclusive Mentoring and ATE Resources is a collaboration between FDTC’s Mentor-Connect project and Arizona State University’s Arizona Science Foundation project.
The collaboration provides support to Hispanic Serving Institutions by informing community and technical colleges about funding opportunities in relevant STEM programs at NSF, mentoring institutional teams (faculty and administrators), and assisting institutional teams in developing project ideas and crafting proposals.
These initiatives support community and technical colleges across the country in learning about funding opportunities in relevant STEM programs at the NSF. To date, these two programs have collectively served 32 HSIs in nine states.
“The value that the ATE program has brought to two-year colleges will be strengthened with a specific commitment to identify HSI two-year colleges whose STEM strategic plans developed through the KickStarter program align with the merits of NSF ATE,” said Science Foundation Director, Carolyn Van Ingen Dunn.
Three months later in September 2018, the SCATE Center earned its largest grant, an NSF ATE grant, Mentor-Connect: Leadership Development and Outreach for ATE-3. The grant totaling $2,783,550 was awarded to help improve technician education and continued the successful Mentor-Connect and Mentor-Connect 2 projects at FDTC, in partnership with the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC).