NIST Awards Five Universities Funding to Develop Standards Curricula

To support standards education in undergraduate and graduate level curricula, the U.S. Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) Standards Services Curricula Development Cooperative Agreement Program has awarded approximately $373,000 in grants to five universities nationwide.

The awards will help support the development of standards curricula in manufacturing, maritime design, and other areas. The recipients are Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, Ohio), Georgia Southern University (Statesboro, Georgia), Texas A&M University (Kingsville, Texas), University of Arizona (Tucson, Arizona), and Webb Institute (Glen Cove, New York). NIST reports that the projects awarded under the 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 Standards Services Curricula Development Cooperative Agreement Program and its awardees are building a standards-capable workforce who recognize that the bridge between innovation and manufacturing and the global marketplace is standards,” said Gordon Gillerman, director of NIST’s Standards Coordination Office. “The diversity of the funded programs reflects the diverse areas of our lives that benefit from standards, including manufacturing, medical applications, engineering and marine vehicles.

Information on future and previous awards can be found on the NIST Standards Services Curricula Development Cooperative Agreement Program webpage, or contact Mary Jo DiBernardo via email.

[Read the full NIST release].

ANSI Supports Standards Education

To support effective participation in domestic and international activities, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is committed to fostering and supporting standardization education efforts for participants at all levels. In its oversight of various educational initiatives, the ANSI Committee on Education (COE) leads various activities and interactive workshops to raise awareness of standards education within campus communities:

• To provide college students with hands-on knowledge of the standards development process, the ANSI COE is hosting two virtual standards simulation workshops on 16 November 2021. Also this year, the ANSI COE partnered with ANSI members, accredited standards developers, and other partners to update a directory of educational resources. The committee also worked with universities to create a directory of courses that discuss or integrate standards into curricula.
  
  
• ANSI's 2022 Student Paper and Video Competition is open to post-secondary students of all disciplines, and requires applicants to submit essays that exemplify the 2022 theme: "Standards Support Innovation, Cooperation, and Excellence at the Olympic Games." The deadline is June 1, 2022.

• ANSI’S K-12 Student Page offers free resources to download to help spread the word to students and educators about the critical role of standards in their everyday lives.

• Extensive listings of additional standardization education efforts, including free e-learning courses and resources, are available via ANSI’s Education & Training in Standardization resource page.

• ANSI also provides free access for faculty and students to any defined group of standards currently available in the collections of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) through its University Outreach Program.