Data Center Operations Program Development: A National Approach to Improving Capacity for Data Center Education

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The economic activities of enterprises that rely on Internet services require a significant data center infrastructure to ensure continuity of services. In turn, data centers require significant capital investment, ongoing operational maintenance, and the technical workforce capacity to support various center operations. As data center capacity continues to expand in the Northern Virginia (NOVA) region and the country at large, a trained engineering technology workforce is necessary to meet the growing demand for skilled workers. At present, community and technical colleges lack the instructional capacity to offer programs and coursework to support this rapidly emerging technological field. This project intends to address the lack of workforce issue by developing a sustained professional development program. The proposed Data Center Operations Program Development (DCO PD) has the potential to prepare engineering technology faculty to integrate DCO skills into their teaching practice, conduct national outreach to administrators and educators, and establish professional networks with data centers and their operators regionally and nationally. The project has three primary components. First is a sustained professional development fellowship for faculty, including a three-day workshop series at NOVA Community College's data center training facility and a five-day externship at an operational data center. Second is an awareness and recruitment campaign at national conferences including project presentations, data center site visits, and hands-on skills workshops. Third, and finally, is a data center education digital resource hub serving as a repository of curriculum, industry contacts, career information, and a map of growing data center markets. The project intends to advance the understanding of industry externships and site visits as a tool for facultu professional development. Instructional materials would be disseminated through publications of the Association for Career and Technical Education's Techniques magazine, the career and technical education Journal, The Science Teacher, and Technology and Engineering Teacher. Results of the project will be submitted to peer-reviewed journals and presented at various conferences. 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.