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

依赖互联网服务的企业的经济活动需要大量的数据中心基础设施来确保服务的连续性。反过来，数据中心需要大量资本投资、持续运营维护和技术员工队伍能力来支持各种中心运营。随着北弗吉尼亚州(NOVA)地区和全国范围内数据中心容量的持续扩大，需要一支训练有素的工程技术员工队伍来满足日益增长的熟练工人需求。目前，社区和技术学院缺乏教学能力，无法提供课程和课程来支持这一迅速崛起的技术领域。该项目旨在通过制定可持续的职业发展计划来解决劳动力短缺的问题。拟议的数据中心运营计划开发(DCO PD)有可能培养工程技术教师，将DCO技能整合到他们的教学实践中，在全国范围内向管理人员和教育工作者进行推广，并与区域和国家的数据中心及其运营商建立专业网络。该项目有三个主要组成部分。首先是针对教师的持续专业发展奖学金，包括在Nova社区学院数据中心培训设施举办的为期三天的系列研讨会，以及在运营数据中心举行的为期五天的实习。第二是在国家会议上开展宣传和招募活动，包括项目演示、数据中心现场访问和动手技能研讨会。第三，也是最后一项，是数据中心教育数字资源中心，作为课程、行业联系人、职业信息和不断增长的数据中心市场的地图的存储库。该项目旨在促进对行业外部培训和实地考察的了解，以此作为教师专业发展的工具。教学材料将通过职业和技术教育协会的技术杂志、职业和技术教育杂志、科学教师和技术和工程教师的出版物传播。该项目的成果将提交给同行评议的期刊，并在各种会议上介绍。该项目由高级技术教育计划资助，该计划专注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NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.