LIGHTES-Leading Innovation through Green High Tech Engineering & Sustainability

Building upon the current green/renewable energy grant from the U.S. Department of Labor and the highly successful NSF S-STEM Scholars Program, the Leading Innovation through Green High Tech Engineering & Sustainability (LIGHTES) project is enhancing and expanding ongoing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) collaborations with five regional high schools, the College of Engineering at Stony Brook University (SBU), and Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). The goals of the LIGHTES project are to: (1) create new and revised alternative energy/green technology courses to enrich the Electrical Technology (ELT) and Engineering Science (ENS) degree programs; (2) develop a sequence of articulated green technology teaching and learning experiences that reach from high school to the baccalaureate level on Long Island, thus increasing the pool of skilled ATE graduates for green/sustainable technology careers; and (3) collaborate with NSF ATE green technology grantee, Bristol Community College (BCC), to establish a community of practice.

The collaborative activities with BCC are: (1) designing new alternative energy/green technology associate degree options by developing four new ELT and ENS courses and modifying four existing ELT and one ENS course; (2) forming a community of practice among STEM faculty at both institutions; (3) mentoring high school science and technology teachers at regional high schools using green technology workshops; (4) providing new student internships at BNL and SBU; (5) creating new pipeline activities among engineering faculty at the college, SBU and Hofstra University; and (6) integrating green technology education with the S-STEM college scholarships award.