HP Innovations in Education Grant,$284,000 could impact 200 students

Kesha Williams
November 03, 2009

ECSU technology professor says HP Innovations in Education Grant, $284,000 could impact 200 students over two years

 Elizabeth City State University was selected as one of 10 colleges and universities in the United States to receive a highly competitive 2009 HP Innovations in Education grant. This $284,000 grant will help students pursue and complete high-quality, high-tech undergraduate degree programs in engineering, computer science, information systems, and information technology.

Dr. Kuldeep Rawat in the ECSU Technology Department said the grant will support faculty in the redesign of industrial technology, engineering technology, and aviation science courses. The grant that will likely impact over 200 students during two-year project period.

 &quotDistance learning courses with remote lab modules will help the department of technology at ECSU to attract and retain students who are geographically dispersed and are not in position to travel to campus due to financial or other personal/professional reasons,&quot Rawat said.

&quotThe service-learning modules will be integrated in some of the technology courses so students can apply concepts taught in a course to issues in the community.

The HP mobile Tablet-PC classroom and HP Virtual Training Room facility will be used for lectures, seminars, lab demonstrations, and mini-projects during summer outreach initiatives. These activities intended to increase awareness and interest in hi-tech degree programs among the number of minority/low-income students.

In addition to the award, HP will sponsor three members of the project team to attend the 2010 HP Innovations in Education Worldwide Summit in San Francisco Bay Area, California in February 2010.

At the worldwide summit, 10 teams from the US and Canada will be joined by over 90 project teams from Latin America, Europe, Africa, Asia Pacific, and Middle East. Through a series of professional development workshops, poster sessions and presentations at the conference, the recipients will share their project details with peer educators across disciplines such as Engineering, Information Systems, Information Technology, and Computer Science. Many teachers and professors will also demonstrate their use of a variety of software solutions to support their course redesign efforts.

Modeling, Automation &ampamp Robotics, and Control Systems – from a remote location. Availability of centralized computing power with real-time interactive remote access will fit well in a shared environment where geographically dispersed students can collaborate on research projects and share content rich visualizations in real-time with instructor and students. In addition, including service-learning component in technology courses will increase interaction and involvement of students in community related projects.

The remote computing infrastructure and other project resources will be housed in the Department of Technology that offers programs in Engineering Technology, Industrial Technology, and Aviation Science. Rawat says that support from HP over the past three years has propelled the department on a wonderful journey, where technology and excellent instruction combine to create powerful new learning experiences for students, especially in science, math, engineering, computer science.

Worldwide, HP is investing more than $17 million in mobile technology, cash and professional development as part of the global 2009 HP Innovations in Education grant initiative. This initiative follows HP’s five-year, $60M investment in HP Technology for Teaching grants to more than 1,000 schools and universities in 41 countries. During the past 20 years, HP has contributed more than $1 billion in cash and equipment to schools, universities, community organizations and other nonprofit organizations around the world.

&quotInnovation is key to expanding education opportunity – and HP is privileged to collaborate with educators around the world who are committed to exploring the exciting possibilities that exist at the intersection of teaching, learning, and technology,&quot said Jim Vanides, Worldwide Program Manager for HP Global Social Investments. &quotEmerging evidence from the last five years is very positive – excellent instruction combined with the right technologies is measurably improving student academic success.&quot

More information about the 2009 HP Innovations in Education initiative and other global social investments is available at www.hp.com/go/grants. More information about the HP project at Elizabeth City State University is available here.

For more information on ECSU’s award or use of it, call Dr. Kuldeep S. Rawat, 252-335-3846 or contact by e-mail:ksrawat@mail.ecsu.edu