About ICT Center

The National Center for Information and Communications Technologies (ICT Center)¹is always looking for additional community colleges, institutions or business and industry groups interested in supporting and contributing to ICT Center's mission. Find out how you can participate.

Mission
The mission of the ICT Center is to provide appropriately skilled technicians and technologists with a primary focus on Connecting Technologies1 as workforce for ICT (Information and Communications Technologies) business, industry and ICT users.

ICT Center's mission is also to contribute to scientific and technological innovation in information and communications technologies (ICT) education with a primary thrust in two areas: Curriculum Development and Program Improvement. Curriculum Development encompasses the design and implementation of new curricula, courses, laboratories and instructional materials. Program Improvement encompasses faculty and teacher development, student academic support and formal partnerships with business/industry, government, educational institutions and other stakeholders. The targeted audiences include high school and college faculty, secondary and postsecondary students, and employers and employees in the ICT sector.

^1. Connecting TechnologiesTM
The term Connecting TechnologiesTM as used by ICT Center refers to all network mediums, the hardware that interconnects these network mediums, the software that enables and manages the flow of all forms of traffic over these interconnected networks utilized by ICT-enabled industries, traditional and emerging, to conduct their core business and mission-critical applications.

The Challenge
The ICT industry - driven by a demand for instantly accessible information - is profoundly transforming the world. Voice, data, and video communications across a worldwide network are creating opportunities that did not exist a decade ago.

Preparing a workforce to compete in this global marketplace is today's major challenge for the ICT industry. As we enter the 21st century, with even more rapid breakthroughs in technology anticipated, education is the key.

The Response
To meet this need, Springfield Technical Community College (STCC), in Springfield, Massachusetts, established the National Center for Telecommunications Technologies (ICT Center) in 1997.

Project Description
The National Center for Information and Communications Technologies (ICT Center) is an Advanced Technological Education Center for Excellence in the instruction of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT). Under the administrative direction of Springfield Technical Community College and located on its campus, the Center derives major funding from the College, the National Science Foundation, and major telecommunications companies.

ICT Center's unique competencies relative to Connecting Technologies include:

1. Understanding the science behind different network mediums.

2. Understanding the performance characteristics (reliability, scalability and manageability) of each medium and the hardware and software used to connect like mediums together and interconnect different mediums together.

3. Understanding the cost/performance relationship for network types and their hardware and software components.

4. Understanding the security issues related to networking in general and related to each transport medium in particular.

5. Understanding the skill sets required to design, build, manage and maintain all network types.

6. Providing the curriculum, content, resource and other support materials to train the skilled workforce required.

7. Ability to determine optimal solutions for users based on their unique criteria and strategic objectives considering hardware, software, access methods and protocols.