OSWEGO — SUNY Oswego has received a grant of $183,800 to expand its engineering programs and help prepare students for high-need jobs in the region.
The grant is part of the SUNY High Needs Program. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the latest round of grants under this program June 6.
“The High Needs Program and others like it are helping fulfill SUNY’s original purpose: to be world class institutions that foster cutting edge innovation and train the next generation of high tech workers,” Cuomo said in a news release.
The three-year grant will enable SUNY Oswego to launch two one-week summer robotics camps starting in 2014 for high school science students and freshmen entering area community colleges, the university said in the release. It also will enable the college to hire a wireless engineering specialist to staff the Wireless Solutions Lab in the new Richard S. Shineman Science, Innovation and Engineering Center, set to open for classes in August.
“The support we receive through the High Needs grant will allow us to create and sustain a recruitment pipeline into our software engineering program and our new electrical and computer engineering program. This will enable us to produce more graduates in fields important to the region, far into the future,” Lorrie Clemo, vice president of academic affairs and provost at SUNY Oswego, said in the release.
The SUNY High Needs Program, established in 2006 to meet state demand for nurses and engineers, expanded the areas of workforce need in the new round of grants to include renewable and clean energy, biomedical and biotechnical, agriculture and agribusiness and information technology fields, as well as more health care and engineering and technology occupations, according to SUNY.
SUNY Chancellor Nancy L Zimpher said the impact of the High Needs Program has been “substantial,” with more than 1,000 students a year added or retrained in nursing and engineering to date.