Press Event Launches MPICT Center

Headlined by Congresswoman Jackie Speier, 3 days before her front page article in the San Francisco Chronicle, the Mid-Pacific ICT Center launched November 11, 2008 with a press event at the new $70 million City College of San Francisco (CCSF) Mission Campus!

L2R: Mike Murphy (Foothill College), Rick Graziani (Cabrillo College), Michael McKeever (Santa Rosa Junior College), Dr. Jim Wright (Ohlone College), Gary George (IP Networks), Jim Dolgonas (CENIC), John Rizzo (CCSF Trustee), Congresswoman Jackie Speier, Chancellor Don Griffin, Natalie Berg (CCSF Trustee), Alice Murillo (CCSF Vice Chancellor), Pierre Thiry (MPICT PI), James Jones (MPICT), Carmen Lamha (CCSF CNIT Dept), Carlota Del Portillo (CCSF Mission Campus).

Mid-Pacific ICT Center Funded by NSF

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program has awarded $3 million over 4 years to establish the Mid-Pacific Information and Communications Technologies (MPICT) Regional Center in San Francisco.

Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) is an umbrella term, widely used outside the U.S. and in the U.N., to encompass all rapidly emerging, evolving and converging computer, software, networking, telecommunications, Internet, programming and information systems technologies.

MPICT’s mission is to coordinate, improve and promote ICT education, with an emphasis on 2-year colleges, in northern California, northern Nevada, southern Oregon, Hawaii and the Pacific Territories.

MPICT will leverage the abundant ICT industry and academic resources of the San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley to enrich educational experiences and outcomes for faculty and students throughout its region, and via other NSF ATE centers and projects throughout the country.

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Inside This Issue:

• Press Event Launches MPICT Center

• Mid-Pacific ICT Center Funded by NSF

• 1st Advisory Panel Meeting Held

• MPICT Hosts ICT Educator Conference

• Information and Communications Technologies (ICT)

• Community College Focus

• JSPAC Participation

• MPICT Contributes to HI-TEC Conference

• Tentative Events Calendar

1st Advisory Panel Meeting Held

Immediately following the press event on November 11, 2008, the Mid-Pacific ICT Center held its first Advisory Panel meeting.

MPICT’s Advisory Panel consists of some 70 representatives of diverse sectors of society, including K-12 and post secondary educational institutions, equipment manufacturers, software companies, service providers, government, standards bodies, enterprises and non-profits.

Each shares an understanding of the importance of ICT and a skilled ICT workforce for their organizations and
economies, and each has an interest in advancing ICT fields, ICT infrastructure and solution deployments, and ICT education and workforce improvements.

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