Electric Car Opens Doors To Learning At Nashua Community College

NASHUA, NH—Nashua Community College announced that students across multiple programs will have access to an electric car for research and study.

The college received a Switch Glider electric car kit through a grant from Perkins Integration, which also provided funding for engineering lab kits. The Switch Glider is designed by The Switch Lab in California, and "comes in the form of a reusable kit designed to be built, tested, driven and then disassembled for the next class."

Nashua Community College says students in automotive programs, as well as computer science, engineering, mechanical design, and physics will work with the car and its software.

Professor Betsy Gamrat, head of computer science at NCC, said students will have the opportunity to practice wiring the car and learn from the embedded computers.

"I’m looking forward to showing the students that software is part of many products – beyond laptops, mobile devices and web applications," she said in a news release.

Robyn Griswold, Vice President of academic affairs, said student groups can also learn from the car.

“There could be a student club that will get involved with this, and potential for a larger political discussion on campus about the impact of electric cars,” she said.