A Journey to Integrate Spatial Visualization into Community College Engineering and Technology Programs to Increase Student Diversity and Retention

Kenny Grimes is an Associate Professor of Engineering at Tidewater Community College in Virginia Beach, VA. TCC’s Associate of Science in Engineering program produces transfer students that comprise nearly half of the Old Dominion University engineering undergraduate population. Mr. Grimes’ TCC position is a culmination of diverse prior experiences from careers as a powertrain control system engineer at General Motors, a program director at SpringHill camp, and an urban public high school math and physics teacher and F.I.R.S.T. robotics team #1793 coach. He is recipient of TCC’s 2015 Faculty Reward for Professional Excellence in Teaching, is a 3-time Norfolk Public Schools Bell Award winner, a Norview High School’s Teacher of the Year finalist, a General Motors Sloan Fellow, and co-author of a ’Best Paper” at the 1987 International Symposium on Automotive Technology Association, Florence, Italy. He earned a M.S. in Education from Ferris State University, a M.S. in Engineering from Purdue University, and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Kettering University. Mr. Grimes has also been an ASEE Two-Year College Division, Robot Competition Judge, and Team Co-Sponsor from 2012 to the present.