NextGen Technicians: Addressing Industry Demand for Robotics

下一代技术人员：满足机器人行业的需求

• 批准号: 1901957
• 负责人: Robert Franken
• 金额: $ 30万
• 依托单位: North Iowa Area Community College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-06-01 至 2022-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1901957&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NextGen; Technicians; Addressing; Industry; Demand

This project at North Iowa Area Community College is designed to increase the number of industrial technicians in the workforce who are skilled in robotics. Manufacturing is the largest workforce sector in North Iowa. A spring 2018 survey of 30 regional manufacturers confirmed the general need for more industrial technicians. In addition, respondents indicated a strong need for technicians with robotics education. Because of the combined issues of too few workers and the need for technicians with robotics education, employers are struggling to meet production demands. This project will use strategies to broaden the pipeline into the courses that will best support the burgeoning need for robotics-savvy technicians. The region and the college have a high proportion of first-generation low-income students. Thus, this project's focus on robotics may help many individuals with financial need move more quickly into high paying jobs. The project aims to develop educational pathways to broaden access to robotics education for populations including veterans, high school dual enrollment students, students on the college campus, and incumbent workers. This project may provide a model for other community colleges and their industry partners about how to incorporate advanced robots into manufacturing technician preparation. As a result, the project has the potential to contribute to improving the national STEM workforce.The inclusion of robotics will allow the college to offer instruction in more advanced levels of industrial technology. An introductory robotics class for Industrial Mechanics and Maintenance and Industrial Systems Technology students will address industry need and also support college recruiting, which is key to providing more industrial technician graduates to regional employers. The course will embed a newly-developed stackable credential from the National Coalition of Certification Centers (NC3) and the college will uniquely enhance the credential by adding lab courses that feature state-of-the-art robots. This project will enable the college to recruit and educate more industrial technicians, with a plan to double the number of graduates in the Industrial Mechanics and Maintenance and Industrial Systems Technology programs and introduce new robotics training to these students. To these ends, the project focuses on: 1) adding state-of-the-art robotics equipment and training faculty in the new robotics technology; 2) training and credentialing all Mechanics and Maintenance and Industrial Systems Technology students using a new Introduction to Robotics course that will include hands-on robotics labs and NC3 Level 1: Fundamentals Robotics coursework and robotics credentialing; 3) creating and implementing demonstration projects for both educational and recruiting purposes to expand the pathway into the college Mechanics and Maintenance and Industrial Systems Technology programs; and 4) training and credentialing incumbent workers using the Introduction to Robotics course with the NC3 robotics credential. The use of this curricular model is based on results of previous research and draws on the experience of closely-related NSF-funded projects. This project is funded by the Advanced Technological Education program that focuses on the education of technicians for the advanced-technology fields that drive the nation's economy.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

北爱荷华地区社区学院的这个项目旨在增加熟练掌握机器人技术的工业技术人员的数量。制造业是北爱荷华州劳动力最多的行业。2018年春季对30家地区制造商进行的一项调查证实，普遍需要更多的工业技术人员。此外，受访者表示强烈需要受过机器人教育的技术人员。由于工人太少，再加上需要受过机器人教育的技术人员，雇主们正在努力满足生产需求。该项目将利用策略拓宽渠道，使之成为最能满足对精通机器人技术的技术人员日益增长的需求的课程。该地区和该学院的第一代低收入家庭学生比例很高。因此，这个项目对机器人技术的关注可能会帮助许多有经济需求的人更快地找到高薪工作。该项目旨在开发教育途径，以扩大包括退伍军人、高中双招生学生、大学校园学生和在职工人在内的人群接受机器人教育的机会。这个项目可以为其他社区学院和他们的行业合作伙伴提供一个如何将先进机器人纳入制造技术人员准备的模型。因此，该项目有可能为改善国家STEM劳动力做出贡献。机器人技术的加入将使该学院能够提供更先进的工业技术教学。为工业机械、维修和工业系统技术专业的学生开设的机器人入门课程将满足行业需求，并支持大学招聘，这是为地区雇主提供更多工业技术毕业生的关键。该课程将嵌入国家认证中心联盟（NC3）新开发的可堆叠证书，学院将通过增加以最先进的机器人为特色的实验室课程来独特地增强证书。该项目将使学院能够招聘和教育更多的工业技术人员，并计划将工业机械和维修以及工业系统技术专业的毕业生人数增加一倍，并为这些学生引入新的机器人培训。为此，该项目侧重于：1)增加最先进的机器人设备和培训新机器人技术的教师；2)使用新的机器人入门课程（包括动手机器人实验室和NC3 1级：机器人基础课程和机器人认证）培训和认证所有机械和维护和工业系统技术学生；3)为教育和招聘目的创建和实施示范项目，以扩大进入学院机械与维修和工业系统技术专业的途径；4)使用具有NC3机器人证书的机器人入门课程对在职工人进行培训和认证。这种课程模式的使用是基于以前的研究结果，并借鉴了密切相关的nsf资助项目的经验。该项目由先进技术教育计划资助，该计划侧重于为推动国家经济的先进技术领域培养技术人员。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。