Three Universities Receive NIST Funding to Develop Standards Curricula

GAITHERSBURG, Md.—The U.S. Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has made three awards for approximately $225,000 to support standards education in undergraduate and graduate level curricula. Since the program began in 2012, NIST’s Standards Services Curricula Development Cooperative Agreement Program has received 195 applications and made 36 awards totaling over $2.2 million.

Projects awarded under this program support curricula development to integrate content on documentary standards and standardization processes into courses, modules, seminars and learning resources, including sustainable approaches, methods and models that can be replicated and/or built upon by other educational programs into undergraduate and graduate curricula at U.S. colleges and universities. 

The latest recipients are:

Rochester Institute of Technology (Rochester, New York) - $74,967

To develop and embed a set of reusable and customizable course modules on risk, disruption, and continuity that integrate relevant national and international documentary standards at levels appropriate for undergraduate and graduate students. These modules will enable students to understand and apply standards for organizational resilience to prepare for and respond to various forms of disruption and challenges organizations face with regards to continuity threats and vulnerabilities, and will be organized by thematic elements that can be arranged and synthesized for curricular applicability.

Texas A&M University-Kingsville (Kingsville, Texas) - $74,998

To develop modules for freshmen engineering and business courses to increase student awareness of standards and to create an interdisciplinary undergraduate minor program and an interdisciplinary graduate certificate program in supply chain management and logistics standards for career readiness. This collaboration between the College of Engineering and the College of Business Administration will include courses offered online and in person.

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Blacksburg, Virginia) - $74,999

To include standards education in civil engineering curriculum for concrete and cementitious materials through digital learning modules including video lectures, virtual field trips, exercises, and other resources to introduce undergraduate and graduate students to current and emerging trends related to materials, sustainability, emerging and future technologies, and the resiliency of the built environment.