Albany Technical College celebrates Engineering Week
February 18, 2014- Albany, GA- Albany Technical College will celebrate Engineering Technology Week with an event on Wednesday, February 19, 2014, beginning at 8:30am in the front of the Nathaniel Cross Health Care Technology Building. The program will kickoff at 8:30am with tours of Albany Tech's Engineering Technology programs, which include Civil Engineering Technology, Electromechanical Engineering Technology, and Telecommunications Engineering Technology. At 11am, Ed Barker, Assistant Director for Advanced Computing at Kennesaw State University and STEM Leadership Foundation President, Kell Robotics, will speak. An Egg Drop competition will follow the speaker. Currently the Assistant Director for Advanced Computing at Kennesaw State University and the President of the STEM Leadership Foundation, Ed Barker plans to address attendees on Kell Robotics innovation. Barker has devoted much time developing K-12 STEM education initiatives with a goal of helping Georgia's largest teaching training University, Kennesaw State, to engage in innovative STEM education programs that are beginning to transform the educational landscape.
Founding the Kell Robotics Innovation Center, a public-private partnership that promotes innovation in STEM education, Barker has worked as the STEM Leadership Foundation President. In this role, he works as a tri- sector leader engaging and promoting collaboration across private, public, and social non-profit organizations and helping them to apply a wide range of cross-sector skills, sensitivity to context, open-mindedness, and powerful networks to advance informal STEM education. This event is another initiative Albany Tech is offering since receipt of a share of a $13.6 million consortium grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Labor in 2012 as part of the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Training (TAACCCT) initiative. Albany Tech shares the grant with Atlanta Tech and Athens Tech. Since receiving the grant, Albany Tech, Athens Tech, and Atlanta Tech have all been working on strategies designed to add and/or enhance associate degree programs in the Engineering Technology field. The goal is to increase the number of graduates of associate degree programs in Engineering Technology in an effort to meet current and future workplace demands.
Albany Tech currently offers associate degree programs in Civil Engineering Technology and Electromechanical Engineering Technology. Plans have been underway to enhance these programs by adding much needed instructional equipment and introduce embedded certificate programs as they are developed. Each of the three colleges have developed a protocol for "prior learning assessment," in which students can obtain college credit for skills they have mastered previously in their jobs. This event is just one of many the grant is covering to educate attendees on career opportunities in the engineering technology field. Last fall, Albany Tech held an Engineering Symposium to kickoff efforts. More events are scheduled to be held in the upcoming months. -