History
CTICE traces itself back to 1998, when SEAS Vice-Dean Morton Friedman persuaded the National Science Foundation-supported Gateway Engineering Education Coalition and Edward Botwinick (Class of 1957) to create the Botwinick Multimedia Learning Laboratory in Mudd Hall. The Botwinick Lab became home for a new first-year design course, “Engineering Design Using Advanced Computing Technologies,” required for all undergraduate students at the Engineering School.
In 2001, Associate Dean Jack McGourty inaugurated the School’s community-based learning pedagogy in the first-year design course. This revolutionized Columbia’s undergraduate engineering curriculum, for the new course taught engineering skills by having students work with real world, not-for-profit clients on real projects. SEAS is the only engineering program in the country to require community-based learning of all undergraduate students.
The success of the first-year design course prompted SEAS to expand it in several directions: to non-engineering students through a series of interdisciplinary coursesand co-curricular programs, to advanced undergraduate and graduate engineering students, to middle and high school students, and to under-served adult learners through a workforce development program.
Since opportunities to work in the community exist at so many levels, SEAS established CTICE in 2006 as a way to consolidate its existing programs, expand community-based learning in other parts of the University, and extend the range of its community programming. Today, CTICE has become Columbia’s institutional home for community-based learning for students, K-12 programming in local public schools, and community outreach efforts.