UMass Lowell SLICE: Service-Learning Integrated throughout the College of Engineering

Welcome to the SLICE Program!

Solar lighting has enabled the people of Huamba, Peru, to receive medical treatment at all hours. The lights are part of a larger system that powers a vaccine refrigerator and shortwave radio.

We define service-learning as a hands-on learning approach in which students achieve academic objectives in a credit-bearing course by meeting real community needs. In engineering the students become better professionals and better citizens while the community benefits.

SLICE project objectives:

• Integrate service-learning into the engineering curriculum at UML so that every student is exposed to service-learning in every semester of their experience in every department at UML.
• Study the art and science of service-learning.
• Create a formal program to connect faculty to community groups (local and international).
• Develop appropriate projects/experiments for integration of S-L into about forty core courses in the undergraduate engineering curriculum at UML.
• Develop assessment tools to gauge the impact of this integration on students, faculty, institution, and community.
• Become an engaged college--engaged with the students, each other as faculty across departments, and with the community.