Education

Some of the best critical and creative thinking students from around the world competed in Amherst on Friday night for the international future solving conference. The event took place on the UMass campus. The program hosted over one thousand problem solvers from around the globe for its annual conference both in person and virtually. Students…

The Healey-Driscoll administration and MassTech have awarded Western New England University (WNE) a $1.37 million Tech and Innovation Ecosystem grant to establish an incubator that will drive innovation in financial technology, or fintech. WNE’s new Springfield-based fintech incubator will bolster talent development in the growing tech sector; fund new, on-campus computing infrastructure for hands-on learning…

New technologies aimed at improving prostate-cancer diagnosis, enhancing employment services for job seekers with disabilities, and optimizing clinical-use treatments for melanoma patients could get closer to market thanks to $250,000 in seed funding announced by the University of Massachusetts. Ten faculty research projects will each receive up to $25,000 from the Technology Development Fund, an…

A Calling to Serve George Timmons recalled a conversation he had a with a friend — a college president and mentor — several years back. He had a simple question for him. “I asked him, ‘doc, how to you know when you’re ready?” he recalled, meaning, in this case, ready to become a college president…

Springfield Technical Community College (STCC) will offer two healthcare courses, emergency medical technician (EMT) and phlebotomy certification, starting in June. The EMT course, which begins Tuesday, June 6, is open to anyone 18 and older, while the phlebotomy course, starting Tuesday, June 20, is for people working in approved healthcare worker roles. The EMT course,…

Dr. Michelle Schutt will be inaugurated as the 11th president of Greenfield Community College (GCC) on Wednesday. Dr. Schutt has more than two decades of experience when it comes to supporting students, staff, and faculty through her work in higher education leadership, according to a news release sent to 22News from GCC. She was inspired…

A team of engineers at UMass Amherst recently showed that nearly any material can be turned into a device that continuously harvests electricity from humidity in the air. The secret lies in being able to pepper the material with nanopores less than 100 nanometers in diameter. The research appeared in the journal Advanced Materials. “This…

Holyoke Community College (HCC) has landed a $1.28 million grant to launch a new, free certificate and internship program intended to help address a shortage of workers in the human-services industry. The grant, from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health & Human Services, will cover the full cost of tuition, fees, books, and supplies for…

A new partnership between American International College (AIC) and two community groups working to promote access to higher education is designed to benefit families in Springfield by empowering parents to support their children’s academic success. AIC joined hands with the Coalition of Experienced Black Educators (COEBE) and the Springfield Empowerment Zone Partnership to organize a…