Santa Clara University

School of Engineering Receives $68,000 HP Technology Grant

Santa Clara University was selected as one of 42 two- and four-year colleges and universities in the United States and Puerto Rico to receive a 2007 HP Technology for Teaching grant, which is designed to transform teaching and improve learning in the classroom through innovative uses of technology. Santa Clara University’s School of Engineering will receive an award package of HP products and a faculty stipend valued at more than $68,000.

The award package will be used to support Technology Integration for Diverse Excellence (TIDE), a School of Engineering project that will extend learning gains to first-year engineering undergraduates and high school students in outreach programs. The project will involve redesigning the Introduction to Engineering course to enhance collaborative undergraduate learning through inquiry-based learning activities that focus on sustainability. Specific exercises will introduce students to civil, mechanical, electrical and computer engineering and explore the power and impact of an interdisciplinary engineering approach to sustainability challenges. The equipment and activities will also support SCU’s Summer Engineering Seminar (SES), a summer outreach program that introduces students from underrepresented populations to the various aspects of engineering and encourages them to pursue STEM fields, and the Spring Engineering Education Days (SEEDs) offered to local high school students on Saturdays in April.

TIDE will also leverage the School's selection as a finalist in the 2007 Solar Decathlon competition. Following the competition this fall, the Solar Decathlon house will return to campus as a heavily instrumented sustainability laboratory. HP tablet PCs will provide a unique opportunity for the students to wirelessly connect with the data/systems of the Solar Decathlon house from the classroom, making the living laboratory accessible to a large number of students. TIDE will promote student success across engineering disciplines and enhance the School’s leadership in the area of sustainability by integrating the Solar Decathlon house as a demonstration “green building” that showcases sustainable design.

Santa Clara University believes that educational technology can facilitate teaching and learning through increased collaboration, information access, and engagement. Student learning is enhanced by mobile technology with wireless networks across 90% of campus, including all academic and residence halls. SCU’s new $95 million Learning Commons, Technology Center, and Library (scheduled to open fall 2008) will expand collaborative learning space, and make use of technology such as hardware and software for digital audio and video manipulation.