Officials highlight $400K in federal funding for MCC’s CAD Expansion Program

LOWELL — U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan was at Middlesex Community College Monday afternoon to highlight more than $400,000 in federal funding for STEM education as MCC looks to grow its computer-aided design programs.

The $409,410 in federal funding was announced in September, and it comes from the Economic Development Administration’s STEM Talent Challenge Grant Program for MCC’s Industrial Integrated Computer Aided Design Expansion Program. The funding will be used to increase student enrollment, partner MCC with local employers and provide students with the opportunity to do hands-on, real-world work in the field they are studying.

MCC was one of 11 institutions across the country to receive the grant.

MCC President Phil Sisson said during a gathering of students and officials in the college’s Lower Cafe in the Cowan Center that the college started having conversations about their biotech program, and how students would often leave the program to join the workforce before they were finished with their degree or certificate.

“To some degree, we used to bemoan that, and our faculty would complain about it and we would be concerned,” said Sisson. “We tried to flip that in a conversation and said, what if we created a program that really integrated the career world with what is happening here at the institution so that as students complete a certificate or an associate’s degree, they take away either six months or a year of real-world experience that goes on their resume, and takes them away from the two or three part-time jobs that they may be working in order to pay their way through college.”

MCC had great success in doing so, Sisson said, so the conversations began about how they could do something similar in other academic programs and science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields.

MCC Dean of STEM Marie Tupaj said the federal funding will allow the school to expand its CAD curriculum, and help students refine their skills in software programs that allow the user to create 2D and 3D renderings of real-world objects, which are used often in architecture, manufacturing and engineering fields. The college currently has a 24-credit, computer-based curriculum that provides students with foundational knowledge in mechanical, electrical and architectural drafting, printed circuit design, and use of microprocessors.

The CAD labs at MCC have computers with several CAD software programs like AutoCAD, Architectural Desktop and PADS-PCB for learning how to design objects that apply to a number of industries.

Engineering Department Chair Cristopher Algarra said this funding is a “new phase” of a project MCC has been engaged in for years.

“We realized how academia and industry have been evolving, and as we evolve there has been a small gap that formed between them, so we work together in order to close that gap and provide more opportunities to students,” said Algarra.

Trahan said to the group of students that if they are in a STEM field today, they have “an incredible opportunity.”

“This hands-on experience is going to accelerate your own development, your own career path, your own economic opportunity,” said Trahan.

She pointed out that the funding and MCC’s expansion of its CAD program comes at a time when the U.S. is working to move its manufacturing of computer chips and components into the country.

“We are putting all of this money into bringing chip manufacturing and chip design home to the United States, because we can build anything here in our country and it is something to be excited about,” said Trahan. “But we also have to ramp up so many folks to meet that need and to meet that demand.”

One student, Victor Salomon, 21, of Acton, said he was proud of the work he is doing in MCC’s CAD program, because he has already been able to apply it to a real-world job.

“When you take those skills to work, and actually create something in real life that you can have in your hands no matter how small or how big it is, how complex or simple. I think it is a feeling of fulfillment that nothing else can really fill,” said Salomon.

Another student taking classes in the CAD program, Alexander Angulo, 50, a retired U.S. Marine living on Hanscom Air Force Base, suggested these are skills that should even be offered to high school students, to help them have a better transition into learning CAD software when they get into college.

“Like having an idea of what you want to do in CAD, and being able to go from high school to university right into a job,” said Angulo, noting also that there are other STEM fields high schools should be implementing into their curriculum.

“One of the things I think we all understand too is that coding is going to be very important. And if it starts in high school and they can transfer it over, that’s great, but if they don’t have that background, it is going to be extremely important to catch up,” said Angulo.

Trahan said she feels that local high schools should have a good sense of what professions are going to be widely needed as we move further into the 21st century.

“Schools like Lowell High, and Lawrence High and Haverhill High, they need to know about the jobs that we are going to actually attract and retain in our country,” said Trahan. “The growth of our country is 1,000% in STEM learning.”