As the ERCs have evolved, their education program developers and staff have devised a number of strategies and learned lessons that have benefited the centers' education programs. Many of these are summarized below.

4.8.1 Education Program Planning and Direction

• Funding for education should be consistent with its high priority among NSF ERC program goals. The support of the center director is crucial.
  
• In planning an education program, the center must align its vision and goals with the center's strategic plan and objectives.
  
• The choice of an education coordinator/director will determine the success of the education program. The position should be viewed as a full-time professional one, with appropriate flexibility, autonomy, and status.
  
• An education advisory committee should be established to give center faculty a mechanism to provide input into center education programs and to provide support for them.
  
• The initial budget should include sufficient funds to cover administrative costs, graduate student support, undergraduate research, travel for recruiting, and editorial and production help for dissemination efforts.
  
• Adequate baseline funding must be provided to the education program. A collection of supplemental grants alone does not make a coherent program, as not all funding opportunities will fit in the education strategic plan and only those that do fit should be pursued.
  
• It is prudent to develop an education program in phases that are implemented over several years, beginning with programs for graduate and undergraduate students in the center's home institution(s).
  
• Strategic planning for education must consider the impact of the 11-year ERC life cycle. As a center "graduates" from NSF support, the education program's survival depends on institutional support (including cash), motivated faculty, commitment to the goals of the education program, and a strong, evolving research program. The continuation of a graduated center in some ERC-like form is essential to maintaining support for the associated education programs.
  
• As the center matures, the education budget should include increasing contributions from sources such as industry members, NSF supplemental funding, and private foundations. Opportunities should be pursued to leverage the NSF funds using non-federal ERC funds for matching.
  
• A strong relationship with the personnel of the NSF ERC Program leadership, and especially with the center's Program Director, will greatly enhance a center's education program.
  

4.8.2 Education Programs

• The ERC Program has innovative educational benefits for students: exposure to a cross-disciplinary systems view, teamwork, direct involvement of industry as faculty and mentors, communications training, mentoring opportunities, and exposure to the latest developments.
  
• Graduate students are expected to learn how industry operates and understand industrial perspectives, so that they are prepared to contribute immediately on the job after graduation.
  
• ERC faculty and staff should cooperate with the department and college in recruiting graduate students as broadly as possible (such as at professional meetings, by word of mouth with colleagues, and via the internet).
  
• Financial support for graduate students can be obtained from a wide variety of sources, including grants from NSF, industry, private foundations, and federal and state agencies.
  
• Outreach to graduate students in outside institutions can best be obtained by forming long-lived collaborations with the faculty and staff of those institutions. Both domestic and international collaborations are vital.
  
• The emphasis on undergraduate participation in research is a special feature of the ERC Program. For undergraduates, the ERCs have established their own variant of the competitive NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program, with an emphasis on recruiting from a diverse population.
  
• An important feature of most ERCs is the student leadership council, which gives students a collective voice in the center's affairs and fosters leadership skills.
  
• Educational partnerships with community colleges and technical institutes have great potential, but are only beginning to be implemented by a few ERCs.
  
• ERCs' outreach to K-12 teachers and students (through means such as summer camps, workshops, competitions, lab tours, and school visits) is an important contribution to reforming science and math education at the precollege level and expanding the student pipeline for engineers. Each ERC should determine what precollege offerings make sense in the context of its strategic plan, resources, and community relationships.

4.8.3 Curriculum Development

• Establishing a new ERC curriculum is a challenging and complex task, involving coordinating many faculty members in an interdisciplinary research area.
  
• New degree programs, in particular, require substantial long-term institutional resources and commitment from the ERC and the parent university.
  
• Nonfaculty ERC staff who wish to develop undergraduate or graduate courses should find interested faculty to champion them and arrange with the professor's department for a reduction in teaching load to allow the needed time. Beta-test course materials. If your ERC is a multi-university center, work on mechanisms to offer credit for students to take the course at other ERC universities.
  
• Find a vehicle, such as CD, web, or book, for wider distribution of course materials.
  
• A new minor degree program must be especially well coordinated with the existing academic standards and structures of the university. The key to successful development is to build on student interest and enthusiasm.
  
• Involve students (undergraduate or graduate) in evaluating plans and implementing the new program.
  
• Professional certificate programs, if properly planned and delivered, can help meet the demand for continuing education in the ERC's associated industry and improve the reputation of the center. ERCs that offer such programs, however, must allow for enrollments that fluctuate with swings in the economy.

4.8.4 Educational Outreach to Industry and Communities

• ERCs are expected to carry out educational outreach to industry and the wider community. The link between industry and education is one of the determining factors in the success of an ERC, and the strength of this link is a crucial element in the longevity of the center.
  
• Educational links to industry involve mutual learning, in which knowledge flows both ways.
  
• The ERC's education coordinator/director should have a close relationship with its industrial liaison officer, because the two activities overlap strongly and affect each other's results.
  
• Establish industrial contacts/partners for the education program as early as possible, to help ensure industrially relevant education and industrial support in the later years of the ERC.
  
• Develop an interactive program with industry that brings industrial involvement at many levels.
  
• Industrial internships are one of the most valuable mechanisms for industry-ERC educational interaction. They provide vital technology transfer and educational experience for both undergraduate and graduate students, while giving the industry partners a thorough look at students as potential employees.
  
• Maximize student interaction with industry through poster sessions and presentations at industry meetings and workshops.
  
• Short courses provide not only continuing education opportunities for industrial personnel but also technology transfer both to and from the center.
  
• Seminars and workshops are among the quickest, most efficient, and most economical ways to promote industry-ERC interaction involving students and faculty. They can be recorded on videotape or CD for future access.
  
• The center's educational mission includes educating the public on developments in science, engineering, and technology; retraining engineering and industrial workers in new technologies and research areas; and designing programs to reach new audiences with new engineering and technological innovations.
  
• ERCs make special efforts to reach certain groups (including underrepresented minority groups, unemployed or dislocated workers, and at-risk youth). In this role, the ERC seeks to improve public awareness of technology, improve the skills and knowledge of potential science and engineering students, increase the diversity of the engineering student pool, and recruit those students to the ERC itself and/or its associated institution(s).
  

4.8.5 Educational Collaborations and Partnerships

• Sustained collaboration is the key to success in this part of the ERC's mission. By working directly with schools, other ERCs, academic institutions, and companies, in collaborative partnerships, ERCs can propagate their successes through first-hand human contact-the most effective channel for transferring educational know-how or technology.
  
• One secret of success for ERC education programs is to work closely with existing programs (such as in the college of engineering).
  
• Collaboration with local schools, communities, and universities should have a high priority, since it is generally cheaper and easier than working with partners who are farther afield. It also builds relationships with local partners that are potential sources of support for the ERC education programs.
  
• ERCs are in pivotal positions to work with local communities to reform science and math education (and education more broadly); improve the diversity of the population drawn into science and engineering research; and enrich the general scientific literacy. Their expertise and their missions give them entrée to both industry (which is impatient for reform) and the teachers and administrators who must carry it out.
  
• The opportunity to act locally should not blind ERCs to their national and international opportunities, which reflect the technology and market scopes of the industries they serve.

4.8.6 Delivery Systems for Education Programs

• ERCs have pioneered the development and use of many innovative educational technologies. Their impetus has included the need to deliver nearly identical information to scattered locations (various affiliated universities and industry sites) on diverse schedules; larger class sizes; and a growing scarcity of faculty.
  
• Live television broadcasting of courses faces severe challenges, including the complexity of technical systems, the difficulty of establishing two-way communication; and the need to "perform" on camera. It is sometimes difficult to get students involved in such courses, or to stay involved if technical difficulties give the link a bad reputation.
  
• Some ERCs use videotape recording to capture some courses, seminars, and/or industry presentations for later viewing by students (including industrial personnel) at remote locations.
  
• Computer-based instruction-distributed through CD ROMs and/or web access-offers convenient access to educational modules, workshop presentations, conference presentations, educational games, and other materials.
  
• For web-based learning systems, standards are being developed by government and industry, but these standards remain immature.
  
• New ERC-initiated web-based authoring and delivery systems are under development that should influence standards and ultimately improve the development and delivery of educational materials on the web.
  

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