Collaborative Research: Akamai Workforce Initiative

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The Akamai Workforce Initiative (AWI) is an interdisciplinary project that partners high-tech industry, cutting edge research, and inventive education to meet needs in astronomy, remote sensing, and other technology industries in Hawaii. The UCSC Center for Adaptive Optics, University of Hawaii-Maui Community College, Maui Economic Development Board, and the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy will collaborate through the AWI to provide training in electro-optics for a diverse student population through an innovative, culturally-relevant curriculum, designed to meet workforce needs. The AWI will advance these akamai - smart, clever, expert - students into the technology workforce on Maui, and more broadly in Hawaii.The goals of the AWI are:- to integrate aspects of Native Hawaiian culture, inquiry-based learning, and other innovative teaching practices into a new electro-optics engineering technology program at Maui Community College;- to establish a collaboration of scientists, engineers, and educators to support the tech pipeline and design and teach inquiry-based activities;- to increase participation of women, Native Hawaiians, and other underrepresented groups in engineering technology education and employment in Hawaii; and- to build partnerships and encourage mutual awareness of educational and employment opportunities in high-tech industry among the local communities of Maui County. To achieve these goals, the AWI will undertake five richly interwoven major activities:- A new electro-optics program at Maui Community College will begin as a certification and build toward a future engineering technology degree.- The Maui Science and Technology Education Exchange will build partnerships among stakeholders from the science, engineering, education, business, and Native Hawaiian communities for workforceneeds assessment, curriculum and internship design, and cultural integration.- The Maui Teaching and Curriculum Collaborative will develop a community of scientist- and engineer-educators who design and teach inquiry-based activities.- The Akamai Workforce Development program will recruit, prepare, and place interns in industry and research settings to advance them into the technical workforce.- The Akamai in the Community program will employ alumni as ambassadors for the AWI, training them as public speakers and engaging them with K-12 and other local community audiences.This award provides support for Phase I of the AWI in order to establish the Teaching and Curriculum Collaborative, to implement the Akamai Workforce Development internship program, to develop and pilot one electro-optics course and to make progress on designing the electro-optics degree program, and to establish a K-12 pathway.