In 2020, Wake Tech, in partnership with the Wake County Public School System and WakeEd Partnership, received a National Science Foundation grant to integrate industry-inspired activities into math lessons. Helping Students Understand Real-World Applications of Mathematics by Connecting Industry to Math Instruction (CIMI) is a three-year grant. Each summer, 20 high school and community college math instructors will have the opportunity to attend a two-week workshop during which they will spend two to three days in industry immersions and will choose a topic from their immersion to create an industry-inspired application.

The goals of CIMI are as follows:

• Change classroom practice of at least 48 high school math teachers and 12 community college math instructors by increasing their use of industry-inspired activities to teach math concepts within the context of technical STEM fields.
• Develop online catalog of self-contained, validated activities to improve student skills in mathematics, critical thinking and communication. Using STEM industry-inspired scenarios, the catalog would benefit teachers and improve the course content and instructional experience for students preparing to be science and engineering technicians.
• Better align applicable high school and community college math courses by collaboratively incorporating STEM-based, career-aligned, contextualized math activities into sustainable classroom practice.
• Support student recruitment into STEM fields, particularly focusing on five Applied Engineering Technologies programs at Wake Tech identified as high industry demand.