Monterey Bay Advanced Networking Education Consortium

University Corporation At Monterey Bay, Seaside CA

Investigators

Abstract

Three community colleges are collaborating with an area four-year college to educate and prepare students from low-income and underrepresented communities to compete for the many documented high-tech, high-paying information technology (IT) jobs. This goal is achieved by accomplishing the following objectives: (1) Increasing recruitment of students from local communities into associate and undergraduate programs in computer networking; (2) Increasing collaboration with industry and governmental agencies through capstone projects, internships and workshops; and (3) Integrating industry standard simulation tools into the networking curriculum to improve the quality and scope of the education provided. Expected outcomes of this project are: (1) Increasing the overall recruitment of students into computer networking programs at each participating institution by 10% each year, and the number of women students in all participating institutions by at least 10 (double the current total) within a three year period; (2) Developing 15 capstone projects in collaboration with industry and governmental agencies; (3) Placing a minimum of 50 students into summer internship positions in industry and governmental agencies; (4) Increasing the number of students being placed into IT jobs by 10% each year; (5) Attaining 80% student satisfaction with the use of simulation tools in networking courses; and (6) Highlighting three employer sponsored networking capstone projects using simulation tools each year at the capstone festival.