Noorda Interdisciplinary Center
The Noorda Interdisciplinary Center (NIC) for Engineering, Science & Society, created with the generous donations from the Noorda Foundation, and an element of the original agreement with that foundation, endeavours to find collaborations between various disciplines in science, engineering, technology, humanities, and social sciences; to allow for creating interdisciplinary programs; to engage in projects with the community examining social impacts and creating positive changes through engineering and science; to expose students to the social contexts within which they work and create; and to reignite passion and exploration with the larger community for an enlightened understanding of techo-scientific issues.
The NIC is directed by David Ferro, former dean of EAST. It manages the ETC 2001 Engineering Culture class - a social science general education class. It also hosts the Peterson Speaker Series, directed by Luke Fernandez. In the past it also has managed the Electronic Engineering and Technology (EET) program.