Spotlight
Research: Pathways to Technology
| USF News
HCC's engineering technology students are trained to become skilled technicians who perform many functions in manufacturing, service, utilities, logistics and other industries.
Photo by Pedro Castillano | HCC Office of Marketing and Public Relations
A nearly $1.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation will allow USF researchers to study a process to help create a highly trained workforce in engineering technology.
Assistant professor Will Tyson is leading an interdisciplinary team from USF's departments of sociology and anthropology and the Florida Advanced Technological Educational Center (FLATE) at Hillsborough Community College to examine student pathways from Tampa Bay area high school career academies through community college advanced technology programs to the local workforce.
"There is an urgent need for an educated technology workforce in the U.S. FLATE and our local community colleges are addressing that need," says Tyson, a sociologist and principal investigator.
The grant is one of eight active $1 million NSF grants at USF, and the only one awarded to an assistant professor.
Researchers will use data to answer questions like: What are the academic and demographic backgrounds of students who enroll in advanced technology programs at community colleges out of high school? How are their educational and employment outcomes different from comparable students who enter the workforce or enroll in bachelor's degree programs out of high school?
And they will gather information from individuals who represent the "real life" aspect of the data — students, teachers and administrators as well as employers and employees from local businesses who hire graduates from engineering technology and associated AS degree programs.
The study also will examine best practices to help provide information to improve the education of engineering technicians.