Atlanta University Center Consortium Launches New Institute to Increase Black Engineers

IDEA aims to build the number of Black engineers creating an institute focused on dual-degree engineering.

ATLANTA, Nov. 7, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Historically Black Colleges and Universities have produced 40 percent of all Black engineers in America. The Atlanta University Center Consortium (www.aucenter.edu), with an established Dual Degree Engineering Program, has contributed to this number for over five decades with a mission to increase the number of Black engineers.

Now with a $1.5 million investment from the A. James and Alice B. Clark Foundation, the Atlanta University Center Consortium aims to expand its efforts to increase the number of minority engineers by creating the Institute for Dual Degree Engineering Advancement (IDEA). IDEA will be a national hub for collaboration between 250 DDEP programs across the nation, providing models for best practices for dual degree engineering students.

• IDEA will create the first institute in the nation at a consortium of historically black, private, liberal arts higher education institutions focused on dual-degree engineering. Graduates of dual-degree engineering earn a liberal arts degree at an AUC institution and an engineering degree at one of nine engineering partner schools.
• Because of the emphasis on leadership, communication, and service in liberal arts education, the AUC has produced a unique brand of engineers with valuable soft skills.
• The current AUC DDEP program strengthens the engineering field, supporting the matriculation of over 5,000 alumni and over 400 current students across three campuses, Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse College, and Spelman College.

"Like the A. James & Alice B. Clark Foundation's mission to focus on today's challenges, the Atlanta University Center Consortium's Dual Degree Engineering Program answered the clarion call of America to increase the number of students graduating in STEM,"said Dr. Said Sewell, Director of Academics, Research and Student Success.

Leaders will announce the program and gift to faculty, staff, students and special guests on Wednesday, November 9, at 11:30a.m. at the AUC Robert Woodruff Library in the Atlanta University Center.

Learn more about the program here: https://aucenter.edu/ddep/

The Atlanta University Center Consortium, a 501 (c)(3) non-profit corporation under the laws of the State of Georgia, formed in 1929 to operate on behalf of its member institutions–Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse College, Morehouse School of Medicine, and Spelman College—is the world's oldest and largest association of historically Black colleges and universities.

Contact: Teresa D. Southern

Manager of Communications, Marketing & Events

[email protected]

SOURCE Atlanta University Center Consortium