Category Archives: DCO PD NSF Grant

ATE PI Conference 2024, BUILD Welding NSF Grant, Conferences, Data Center Operations, DCO PD NSF Grant, DCO Professional Learning Fellowship, Design Thinking, Digital Fabrication, Fabrication, In-Demand Technology Pathways, NSF Grants, PDI NSF Grant, Product Design Incubator (PDI)

Promoting NOVA Grant Funded Programs at the ATE PI Conference in DC

3 grant award programs showcased at the annual DC event

The 2024 NSF ATE PI (Principal Investigator’s) Conference successfully wrapped up this month in Washington, D.C., gathering over 850 ATE (Advanced Technical Education) grantees and partners from across the U.S.

The event provides a valuable opportunity for sharing innovations and fostering collaboration among educators in advanced technological education. Teams from NOVA SySTEMic and NOVA IET attended, as well as students from NOVA’s Product Design Incubator (PDI) program, to actively raise awareness about National Science Foundation (NSF) grant-funded initiatives through presentations, spotlight sessions, and networking events.

NOVA highlighted 3 different NSF grant award programs in spotlight sessions and through ATE Connects, a hub for networking and collaboration where ATE projects are showcased with posters, materials, and discussion.

The 3 highlighted NSF grant awards were:

  1. Data Center Operations Program Development (DCO PD), which seeks to support colleges across the country in developing programs, courses and content to increase capacity for data center education through 3 components; A DCO Professional Learning (PL) Fellowship for educators, An awareness and recruitment campaign through ACTE’s national conferences, and a Data Center Education Digital Resource Hub. More info about DCO PD can be found here. 
  2. The Product Design Incubator (PDI), which prepares community college students for success in digital fabrication through a product design challenge, guiding them from ideation to final presentation. PDI’s goals are to increase industry engagement, foster interdisciplinary collaboration, and produce IET workers with strong communication, collaboration, and critical thinking skills – all highly valued by regional employers. To date, PDI has completed 2 cohorts at NOVA. In 2025, we plan to accept our last cohort of 24 students and increase collaboration with our industry and academic partners. More about PDI here.
  3. BUILD: Futures in Welding and Fabrication. The NSF BUILD grant is a new and developing program that will enhance welding instruction at NOVA by redesigning and restructuring courses to align with industry demands, addressing the regional need for a new generation of skilled welders in an aging workforce. BUILD will offer additional support resources to welding students, boosting their competitiveness in the job market. BUILD has 4 goals: to rebuild and modernize the welding credential, to develop a welding fabrication capstone course, to improve access to welding co-curricular support, and to increase outreach to High School students. More about NOVA’s welding program can be found here.
ATE PI Conference 2023, Bridge Programs, Career & Technical Education, Conferences, Data Center Operations, DCO PD NSF Grant, DCO Tech NSF Grant, Design Thinking, Digital Fabrication, Externships, Fabrication, In-Demand Technology Pathways, Makers By Design NSF Grant, PDI NSF Grant, Product Design Incubator (PDI)

NOVA IET Highlights 4 NSF Grants at ATE PI Conference

Our team was on-point with presentations and exhibits at the ATE Principal Investigators’ Conference #ATEPI in Washington, D.C. this week, extolling the various National Science Foundation (NSF) funded grants that have provided us with vital avenues to expand technical education to help meet the need to fill #InDemandTech jobs and careers.

Northern Virginia Community College staff and faculty Josh Labrie, Natasha Schuh-Nuhfer, Richard Sewell, Cameisha Chin, Chris Russell, Jim Crane, and Thomas (TJ) Ciccone, (VP STACK Infrastructure) were on-hand to present and highlight 4 grants at the conference:

DCO PD (Data Center Operations Program Development), intended to raise awareness for the national need for data center operations education and to increase capacity for DCO education at community colleges and technical colleges around the nation.

DCO Tech (Data Center Operations Technology Training), designed to increase regional capacity for training in Engineering Technology and Data Center Operations through expanded recruitment, employment training, and increased collaboration between industry, K-12 educators, and faculty.

MBD (Makers By Design), created to strengthen the engineering technology pathways by providing professional learning for K-12 teachers, running digital fabrication summer camps, and hosting design challenges.

PDI (Product Design Incubator), established to train groups of community college students through a product design challenge, integrating entrepreneurship training and design thinking to guide students from initial ideation through the prototyping and pitch processes.

Read more about these grants and opportunities for fellowships, training, and more at https://lnkd.in/gyGpU22v

The ATE PI conference brings together more than 800 NSF ATE grantees and their project partners to focus on the critical issues related to advanced technological education. Conference participants represent community colleges, business and industry, secondary school systems, and four-year colleges covering projects in a wide variety of areas, such as information technology, engineering technology, micro- and nanotechnologies, chemical technology, biotechnology, and others.

American Association of Community Colleges

#DataCenterOperations #DCO #DesignThinking #Fabrication#Entrepreneurship

ACTE National Postsecondary CTE Summit 2023, Career & Technical Education, Conferences, CTE, CTE Fellowships, Data Center Operations, Data Centers, DCO PD NSF Grant, DCO Professional Learning Fellowship, Engineering Technology, Fellowships, In-Demand Technology Pathways, Industry Partnerships, NOVA IET Career Pathways, Professional Learning, Publicity, Soft Skills, Tech Equity, Tech Fellowships, Women in STEM

NOVA Launches DCO PD at ACTE Conference in Denver

NOVA IET launched the DCO PD (Data Center Operations Program Development) grant award with ACTE at their National Postsecondary CTE Summit in Denver on September 21st, with a call to action for college and secondary educators to participate in a DCO Fellowship that will bring them to NOVA for professional learning, then return to their schools and institutions with an action plan to implement and expand DCO in their service area.

Data Center industry experts  Anthony Hatzenbuehler, from CoreSite, Vanessa Kennedy, from STACK Infrastructure, and Jeffrey Cassar from Cologix, Inc., added their valuable insights as panelists at the launch presentation led by NOVA SySTEMic Director Josh Labrie.

Labrie opened by noting that “the DCO industry is growing fast and markets continue to strengthen across the U.S. DCO’s goal is to raise awareness for the national need for data center operations education and to increase capacity for DCO education at community colleges and technical colleges around the nation.”

One way this will be accomplished this is by bringing college and secondary educators to Northern Virginia Community College for a Professional Learning Fellowship.

By a wide margin, Northern Virginia is the No. 1 site for data centers in the country and the world. With NOVA’s upcoming Data Center Training Facility underway at the Woodbridge campus, the region is an ideal locus to facilitate training that will act as a catalyst for expansion throughout the country.

After the fellowship, participants will complete an externship at a data center in their region and develop a DCO Education Action Plan that can applied in their professional practice, inspiring and equipping more people to get into Data Center careers, no matter what their background.

Cassar stated during the panel session that “someone with a solid base education and  who’s motivated has so much opportunity within data centers. It’s a career, it’s not a stepping stone.”

Hatzenbuehlar added “what I’m looking for is somebody who has the drive, desire, and the aptitude to keep going and furthering their knowledge even beyond the education system to the industry they’re in.”

Kennedy highlighted the importance of fostering industry awareness and talent: “Data center growth in employment is outpacing the economy. There are so many career opportunities. We’ve been really big on pushing internship programs and diversity, trying to get women into the data center and technology sector. We need that talent. STACK has been partnering with NOVA to do these internships with a goal of finding them a place in the industry. We want everyone to be successful.”

Hatzenbuehlar later capped off the panel by stating “that’s what we’re looking for in partnering with NOVA – we’re really in need. there’s a ton of demand for operators and very little supply. We need to partner together to build that supply chain.”

Educators can apply for the DCO Professional Learning Fellowship here. 

Read more about DCO PD at www.nvcc.edu/systemic/dco-pd-nsf-grant.html

NOVA IET is looking forward to working with Association for Career and Technical Education and co-principle investigator, Sophia Ward-Alston on DCO PD.

Special thanks also to Thomas (TJ) Ciccone, Albertine (Laury) D.,  Josh Levi and the Data Center Coalition.

DCO PD is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

#DCO #DataCenterOperations #MissionCritical #InDemandTech