Those of you who are familiar with our organization – Workforce Consortium for Emerging Technologies – recognize that we are working hard to bring new teacher professional development programs on Emerging Technologies for the 2010 – 2011 school year. The details still need to be worked out but here are some key dates to put on your calendar. Sign up for our RSS so you do not miss out on these great events.
SAVE the DATES

March 10, 2011 – Technology Institute at NYSUT Headquarters
March 21, 2011 – Biotechnology ‘Protein is Cash’ Four day program at HVCC

More info and programs to come….

Click here to see an overview of GlobalFoundries, located in Upstate New York.

September 24, 2010

Nanotechnology Applications in Today’s World

Nanotechnology has often been thought of as playing a key role in the next industrial revolution. Nanotechnology is not an industry; it is an enabling technology that is impacting a growing number of industry sectors, which now include electronics, biotechnology, biomedicine, pharmaceuticals, textiles, building and construction materials, agriculture and food production, printing and publishing, plastics, metals, information technology, and many others. Yet, many people still have no idea what nanotechnology is. It is critically important that today’s students (tomorrow’s technicians, engineers, office workers, citizens) and instructors have a better understanding of nanotechnology and of its far-reaching implications – or risk the loss of the competitive opportunities available.

October 15, 2010

Building a NanoLab: Equipment and Program Overview

Click here for registration information on both webinars.

The Tech Valley Career Pathways Consortium, formerly known as The Greater Capital Region Career Pathways Consortium, is currently planning a series of professional development activities and will be publishing a 2010-11 calendar of events.
The consortium’s efforts will include:

• Continued efforts to improve the college readiness of high school students (especially in math) through early college placement testing (11th grade), professional development for high school teachers and curriculum development.
• Continued support for program development and improvement through equipment and supplies acquisitions for Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs offered at local Community College and BOCES programs in the areas of 21st Century Manufacturing, Biotechnology, Nanotechnology, and the Green Technologies.
• Professional Development for school counselors, academic teachers and college faculty to promote awareness of emerging careers in the Tech Valley Region and skill requirements.
• Increasing student awareness of emerging Tech Valley careers through the continuation of Career Pathways Summer Camps in the Emerging Technologies for local high students.

The Workforce Consortium will be involved by helping to plan these events so be on the look out right here on our website – www.wcet.us.

Funding for the Tech Valley Career Pathways Consortium is provided by the federal Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Improvement Act of 2006 and the New York State Education Department.

A new regional National Science Foundation (NSF) – Advanced Technology Education Center (ATE) is born in upstate New York. It is the Regional Center for Semiconductor and Nanotechnology Education (RCSNE). Hudson Valley Community College will receive almost $3 million over the next four years to help educate and drive interest in the nanotechnology and semiconductor manufacturing industry in the Northeast.

The highly competitive NSF grant, which is about $750,000 each year, will support an array of efforts, including promoting semiconductor and nanotechnology-related programs at other community colleges and four-year institutions; internship-based training and workshops; and the coordination of student recruitment for those programs. In addition, the RCSNE will develop pipeline programs that will promote careers in the industry to students in grades K through 12. Funding also will go towards researching and meeting workforce needs of the industries.

Partners in the grant include General Electric, Global Foundries, IBM, Tokyo Electron and SEMATECH. The college also will team with The University at Albany, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Rochester Institute of Technology, SUNY IT and a range of community colleges across New York, Vermont, Massachusetts and Connecticut to spread the word about career opportunities and facilitate training in these industries.

The ongoing construction of the Global Foundries chip fabrication plant in Malta, IBM’s commitment to site an Advanced Integrated Circuit Packaging Research and Development Center in upstate New York and General Electric’s plan to build an advanced battery manufacturing center in the Capital Region underscore the fact that this is a career field expected to growth both locally and nationally.

It’s expected that the Global Foundries facility in Malta alone will create 1,465 permanent manufacturing jobs by the end of 2012.

RCSNE joins 36 Advanced Technological Education (ATE) centers supported by the National Science Foundation located throughout the country. The centers undertake broad national or geographic-specific initiatives in the high technology fields that drive the economy and are of strategic importance to the nation. All of the ATE centers serve as leaders in their fields. Each center pursues a distinct vision of technological education that it carries out in cooperation with two-year and four-year colleges and universities, secondary schools, business, industry, and government. In addition to the centers, the ATE program supports projects that target particular technological education issues. Learn more about these important resources by checking out the websites: http://atecenters.org/ and http://atecentral.net/