The National Science Foundation in August awarded AACC $600,000 for undergraduate research in science, technology, engineering and math.

The college will use some of the funds to pay students and faculty to conduct STEM research, according to biology professor Seth Miller, who worked with other professors to apply for the grant.

“Students have a lot of competing obligations, and so we wanted to make sure that this was something that we could do, that students would be able to have the time for and get compensated for it,” Miller said.

Miller said students do not have to be STEM majors to participate.

“You just have to be interested in doing a STEM research project,” Miller said.

AACC can use the grant money, which Miller said will last three academic years, starting this semester.

The college also has applied for a second NSF grant for $500,000 from the Research Experience for Undergraduates program.

The $600,000 grant came from NSF’s Innovation in Two-Year College in STEM Education competition. Some students said they are looking forward to conducting the research.

“Since I am a biology major, there would be future opportunities for me to be able to get into research projects or help fellow students with research projects,” first-year student Nihesha Edwin said.

Lance Bowen, dean of the School of Science, Technology and Education, said the college used to fund three or four research projects a year.

Now, Bowen said, “We are going to be able to do dozens of those projects a year.”

NSF awarded $14.5 million to community colleges for 35 projects, workshops and conferences, according to the foundation.