INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Indian River State College (IRSC) is partnering with the Florida Institute of Technology (FIT) to increase the number of students seeking degrees in engineering.
A National Science Foundation grant worth more than $610,000 over five years has been awarded to Florida Institute of Technology, based in Melbourne, Florida, in partnership with IRSC and Eastern Florida State College.
The newly funded project entitled, “Growing the Community College Pipeline for Careers in Civil, Chemical, and Ocean Engineering through the FITS-STEM Program” will provide state college students one or two year scholarships worth up to $10,000 per year when they transfer to Florida Tech to study civil, chemical or ocean engineering.
This funding is in addition to other financial aid available to students. This scholarship initiative will primarily focus on groups typically underrepresented in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields.
Florida Tech is an ABET accredited engineering school located within commuting distance for IRSC students and offering Bachelors, Masters, and Ph. D programs. See www.fit.edu for more information on degrees and the application process.
The project is led by principal investigator Ashok Pandit, professor and head of civil engineering and co-principal investigators include: Manolis Tomadakis, professor and head of chemical engineering at Florida Tech; John Windsor, professor and associate head of marine and environmental systems at Florida Tech; Gary Koser, lead professor of civil engineering programs at Indian River State College; and Melvut Guvendik, chair of engineering programs at Eastern Florida State College. For more information on this project, contact Professor Gary Koser at IRSC at gkoser@irsc.edu or (772) 462-7511.
