The NSF foundation coalition-past, present, and future

The Foundation Coalition (FC) was funded in 1993 as the fifth coalition in the National Science Foundation's Engineering Education Coalitions Program. The FC has as its vision a new culture of engineering education: students and faculty working in partnership to create an enduring foundation for student development and life-long learning. The member institutions-Arizona State University (ASU), Maricopa Community College District (MCCD), Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (RHTT), Texas A&M University (TAMU), Texas A&M University-Kingsville (TAMUK), Texas Woman's University (TWU), and the University of Alabama (UA)-are developing improved curricula and learning environment models that are based on four primary thrusts: integration of subject matter within the curriculum, improvement of the human interfaces that affect educational environments, technology-enabled learning, and continuous improvement through assessment and evaluation. The Foundation Coalition partners draw on their diverse strengths and mutual support to construct improved curricula and learning environments; to attract and retain a more demographically diverse student body, and to graduate a new generation of engineers who can more effectively solve the increasingly complex, rapidly changing societal problems.