Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) is an umbrella term, widely used outside the United States and in the United Nations, to encompass all rapidly emerging, evolving and converging computer, software, networking, telecommunications, Internet, programming and information systems technologies.
Improvements to deployed ICT technologies, infrastructure, systems and solutions, and people’s abilities to productively use them, are strategically important issues to individuals and organizations of all kinds – and to local, state, national and global economies.
To enhance education initiatives in this field, the National Science Foundation Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program has awarded a 4 year, $3 million grant to establish the Mid-Pacific ICT (MPICT) Center, at City College of San Francisco.
MPICT’s mission is to coordinate, promote and improve the quality of ICT education, with an emphasis on 2-year colleges, in a region consisting of northern California, northern Nevada, southern Oregon, Hawaii and the Pacific Territories.
To accomplish this mission, MPICT launched with 4 Regional Partner schools: Ohlone College, Cabrillo College, Foothill College and Santa Rosa Junior College, which together with City College of San Francisco’s Computer Networking and Information Technologies (CNIT) and Computer Science (CS) departments, represent the San Francisco Bay Area. In the Fall of 2009, MPICT added a new Regional Partner school, Truckee Meadows Community College in Reno, NV, which adds connections to ICT programs at all 4 Nevada community colleges through the NSF funded NVITE project.
MPICT endeavors to:
- Champion the importance of ICT
- Build collaborative relationships with the rich ICT industry resources of the San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley to improve ICT education
- Coordinate efforts to harmonize, improve and communicate educational and career pathways and experiences in ICT
- Expand and diversify the skilled ICT workforce