The Engineering and Technology Department at City College of San Francisco is looking to develop partnerships with local and regional organizations to develop and train future workforce more effectively.
The Engineering and Technology Department at City College of San Francisco has developed an impressive reputation over the past 7 decades by offering a large number of engineering and technology related programs to serve the local industries with their skilled workforce needs as well as providing the first two years of engineering curriculum for the transferring students pursuing 4-year degrees in various engineering fields. We offer over 100 unique courses and serve over 1800 students each semester with over 40 highly specialized and well educated faculty. Our students range from high school graduates to returning adults seeking retraining. Our offerings include programs such as Analog & Digital Electronics, Computer Aided Design (CAD), Welding Technology, Manufacturing and Fabrication Technology, Alternative Energy, lower division courses for all engineering majors, Environmental Control Technology (HVAC), Engineered Plumbing, Land Surveying, Biotechnology, Stem Cell Technology, Biomedical Equipment Technology (BMET), Lab Assistance Technology, and Genomic Technology.
Some of the top regional engineering and technician professionals are former students of our department. Our transferring students continue to do better than those who start their engineering education at the universities. Due to the fast pace of technology evolution and its impact on what we teach and how we teach them, we can’t continue our technology training and engineering education the same way we have done in the past several decades. For us to provide our local industries with a well trained technicians and well educated engineers, we need to conduct our teaching and training differently. We need some help with that from industry.
· Sustainable Industry-sponsored internship opportunities to provide our engineering and technology students work environment exposure along with realistic and current skills. The department is more than happy to work with the participating industries to develop an arrangement, such as the ones listed below, to make this a valuable experience for the student and a productive one for the participating industry.
o First preferred choice is for this to be a PAID experience. And to have a significant duration such as 12 months of half time weekly schedule such as 15-20 hours per week. Such experience will eliminate the need for our working students to have another job and they will be able to focus on their studies. The longer length also makes this internship more like a work experience, which can help the student with future employment.
o Second choice would be an UNPAID experience, which would provide the students the experience and confidence in their technical abilities and can still serve as a valuable industry contribution.
o Other internship arrangements, preferable by sponsoring industry, are also welcomed.
· Donation of Equipment that can be used in our laboratories for the hands-on experience and exposure to modern equipment. Our lab equipment is old and community college budget is declining. For our technical programs, the equipment plays an important role in the quality of our training. We can use some donated equipment.
· Donation of Funds for computers for our faculty. Our department faculty is using PCs that are almost 10 years old. In this field, we need to have newer computers to conduct our training and education work more effectively. 20 desktop and 20 laptop computers will enable our department’s faculty to keep up with computer applications.
· Donation of Funds for overhead LCD projectors in each of our labs. Our faculty members need LCD projectors to conduct their teaching work today. With few projectors being shared by so many faculty members, it is critical for each of our classes to have their own ceiling installed unit. We need 10 LCD projectors to accomplish this.
The Engineering and Technology Department at City College of San Francisco offers more than 100 unique technical courses by highly educated and trained technical staff of 7 full-time and 33 part-time instructors with majority of the part time instructors from various local industries.
Our department serves over 1800 students per semester who take our classes for the following reasons:
· Transferring Students with engineering major who take their lower division engineering course work at City College before transferring to universities to study in a specific engineering discipline. The Engineering Department at City College of San Francisco offers the most comprehensive lower division engineering curriculum in California.
· General Education students who are required to take one science class for CCSF graduation and if transferring to a UC or a CSU, take a science lab additionally, can fulfill this requirement by taking an energy class (ENRG 3) with its lab (ENRG 3L) in Engineering Department. They can also take practical math courses (ET 108A and ET 108B) fro CCSF graduation and general Education requirements. The technical math (ET 50) can be taken for CSU’s quantitative reasoning requirement.
· Continuing education students who come to us for life-long learning or career changes. Many of these students already have degrees. They come to get skills to go after new jobs. There are many examples in our 19 technical programs.
· Economic Development and Workforce Training students include industry personnel looking for certification or 2-year degrees in new technologies such as CAD, Analog & Digital Electronics, Energy, Engineered Plumbing Design, HVAC Design, Welding, and Biotechnology.
Some of our students’ stories:
· Alice NG completed her lower division engineering course work at CCSF in 2007, then applied and successfully got a summer internship in a Civil Engineering firm in East Bay. She transferred to UC Davis afterwards to earn her B.S. in Civil Engineering. After graduation from UCD, she returned to the Bay Area to plan her graduate studies. During this planning period, she got another internship assignment with the City of SF, and she also generously offered to serve as an unpaid teaching assistant for CCSF Engineering Department during these tough budgetary times. She is now on her way to continue her graduate studies at UC Berkeley. She has indicated that she will stay in touch with the CCSF Engineering Department and plans to come back in the future and teach for us.
· Manuel Covarrubias completed his lower division engineering course work at CCSF in the mid- nineties, then transferred to San Jose CSU to earn his B.S. in Electrical Engineering. He then started his engineering work by joining Boeing Company. After getting several years of full time job experience with Boeing, he decided to continue his graduate studies in engineering at UCLA and earned his M.S. in engineering. He stayed in touch with the CCSF Engineering Department since then and has recently joined the part time faculty and is teaching a course in practical mathematics.
· Lawrence Nti completed his lower division engineering course work at CCSF in the late nineties, transferred to SFSU to earn his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering afterwards. After getting several years of full time job experience in energy sector in the Bay Area he decided to continue his graduate studies in engineering at San Jose State University. He stayed in touch with the CCSF Engineering Department since then and has recently joined the part time faculty and is teaching a course in alternative energy.
· Keith Mueller completed his lower division engineering course work and an electronic technician program at CCSF in the late eighties, transferred to UC Davis to eventually earn his B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering as well as an MBA. He then worked for several Silicon Valley engineering companies in the late nineties. After getting several years of full time job experience he joined the part time staff in Engineering Department in 2000. In 2005 he become a full time faculty in the department and is the main architect of a new innovative program called “Biomedical Equipment Technician”, which is trying to built an internship like activity as a required component of the technician training similar to clinical classes in nursing programs.