By Divya Abhat, EPIIC Web Team

Champlain College—a small, career-focused institution in Burlington, Vermont—has long been a leader in technology and innovation. Among the first colleges in the U.S. to offer online education, it was also an early adopter of Canvas by Instructure, the now-ubiquitous cloud-based learning management system.

It’s no surprise, then, that Champlain recently partnered with NuHarbor Security—a cybersecurity firm—to create a talent pipeline for students pursuing careers in cybersecurity. “In terms of areas of emerging technology, we’re really heavy in cybersecurity and game development,” says Brian Hall, EPIIC Principal Investigator for Champlain College.

As part of this effort, the college launched a newly renovated cybersecurity center that serves both as a workspace for NuHarbor employees and interns and as a hub for Vermont Cyber Start—a new initiative that gives high school students across the state an early start in cybersecurity. This partnership supports Champlain’s broader goal through the EPIIC program: to strengthen workforce and industry connections across Vermont and prepare students for careers in high-demand science and technology fields.

Meeting with Leadership

The National Science Foundation’s EPIIC program is designed to help give smaller institutions a seat at the table alongside larger academic institutions. That opportunity came last September when Champlain—together with its EPIIC cohort partners, Christopher Newport University and Western Oregon University—joined 13 other NSF awardees at the Congressional Artificial Intelligence Caucus on Capitol Hill to discuss NSF’s ongoing efforts to shape Artificial Intelligence (AI) policy, education, and workforce developement in the U.S.

“The EPIIC investment is an institutional capacity building grant,” says Hall. “Our goal was to help showcase how this investment that the NSF made in these types of grants was having an impact.”

Shared Challenges and Outcomes

The cohort, formally titled Developing Emerging Technology Ecosystem Partnerships for Primarily Undergraduate Institutions, received EPIIC funding in 2023 and has been active ever since.

Spanning the Mid-Atlantic, New England, and Pacific Northwest, the three institutions are working to build sustainable models for external partnerships that strengthen regional innovation ecosystems in areas such as AI and data science. Their efforts aim to expand hands-on learning and career preparation for undergraduates through internships, applied research, and workforce-aligned coursework.

At Christopher Newport University (CNU), a newly launched Innovation Hub is creating opportunities for collaboration among faculty, students, and external partners, with a strong focus on artificial intelligence and data science. The Hub promotes applied, use-inspired research by inviting industry and research institutions to co-develop projects—offered at no cost during its pilot phase. Faculty are supported through stipends, while students engage in hands-on work in areas like machine learning, software development, and smart systems, integrating real-world challenges directly into the academic experience.

In May, the Hub hosted a two-week introductory workshop on data science (DS) and AI for faculty across disciplines, including biology, finance, computing, and the humanities. The workshop provided foundational training in data analysis, visualization, and machine learning. Around the same time, the Hub launched a competitive call for faculty research proposals in applied DS/AI. Eight interdisciplinary projects were selected in collaboration with external partners such as Jefferson Lab, Huntington Ingalls Industries, and local nonprofits and government agencies.

Western Oregon University (WOU) is building on similar momentum with a growing set of workforce development initiatives. The university is supporting three faculty fellows to design STEM career pathways and explore how AI can be more deeply embedded in the curriculum. An industry advisory board has been established to align academic programs with regional workforce needs, and beginning in spring 2025, WOU will host a campus-wide workshop series connecting STEM students with technology employers throughout the region.

“Our latest meeting with our EPIIC Industry Advisory Board was focused on Agentive AI,” says Becka Morgan, Professor at WOU and EPIIC PI. “EPIIC has allowed us to focus and train faculty to increase our effectiveness in teaching these important skills. WOU Students are well prepared to enter a field that is changing at an increasingly rapid rate.”

Champlain College has also expanded its industry engagement, recently partnering with Anthropic—a leader in AI safety and research—to provide students and faculty with access to Claude Pro, an advanced AI assistant. This collaboration allows students to apply AI in real-world classroom projects, equipping them with sought-after skills for the job market.

Additionally, through a recent Argosy Foundation donation, Champlain is funding AI fellowships for faculty and students in 2025-2026 to incorporate AI-related projects into coursework.

Together, the cohort is identifying best practices, piloting industry partnerships, and developing centralized support systems. Their goal is to secure long-term funding and offer scalable, replicable models for peer institutions—ultimately strengthening workforce pipelines and deepening collaboration between academia and industry.

The cohort also serves as a peer support network, meeting regularly to exchange ideas and keep each other accountable. In September, they will present their progress at the Society for Experiential Education conference.

A More Streamlined Approach

While each institution had independently pursued industry partnerships before EPIIC, the program has helped them take a more coordinated, strategic approach. At Champlain, this has involved developing a tailored model with clear processes to guide partner engagement. The college is also building tools for communication, tracking, and relationship management, while hosting networking events.

“The grant has really helped put a lens on the process,” says Hall, noting that it has connected the disparate efforts across departments. “It has given us the opportunity to spend time, energy, and money on helping be the dot connectors for parts of the organization and get those conversations going.”