Photo of the ATE Booth

Highlighting the valuable work of ATE is done through a variety of pathways within and beyond the community. And while most grantees include outreach and dissemination activities as part of their specific project or center goals, it’s also critical to capture and share out the aggregate impact of the program. As such, Internet Scout Research Group, home to ATE Central, is excited to share information about the ATE Collaborative Outreach and Engagement (ACOE) project that was funded this spring by the National Science Foundation (DUE #1723674). The project has three overarching goals:

1. Inform stakeholders of the resources and services offered by the funded projects and centers in the ATE program,
2. Support grantee outreach efforts by creating materials and resources they can easily adapt and integrate into their own work, and
3. Facilitate collaboration and engagement within and beyond the ATE community.

This collaborative project will continue the dissemination work led so well for many years by Mike Lesiecki and his team at MATEC and Marilyn Barger from FLATE. Although the official sunset of MATEC was on June 30, Mike is graciously continuing to serve as an advisor on the new ATE Impact publication that will come out in 2018 to mark ATE's 25th anniversary. The entire community owes a huge debt of gratitude to Mike for leading efforts like the ATE Centers Impact publications, website, and HI-TEC Conference that raised the profile of the ATE program and broadened our STEM technician education and industry partnerships nationally.

With this new grant, ATE Central/Internet Scout Research Group, and the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), in collaboration with writer Madeline Patton, will create two new Impact publications (2018/19 and 2020/21) and maintain the centers site in tandem with FLATE’s excellent work with the ATE booth which travels to multiple conferences each year and helps raise the profile of ATE around the country. Together these components will continue to work to expand awareness of ATE center and project resources and activities, to strengthen partnerships and collaborations, disseminate innovative ATE materials, and create synergy around the program's efforts.

In order to release the ATE Impact 2018 publication and to mark the 25th anniversary of the ATE program next year, work on the new publication has already begun this summer. The new books will be adding more impacts from projects as well as continuing to highlight the work of centers to help broaden the scope and cover a larger swath of the community.

ACOE is designed to significantly help broaden the impact of the ATE community as a whole. The publications and booth are designed to showcase the cumulative impact of the funded projects and centers and help educators, students, industry partners, funders and other key stakeholders learn more about the valuable work being done under ATE funding. While individual projects and centers may reach out to their own audiences, the goal of ACOE is to help create a collective brand for the community and support project and center outreach and dissemination efforts at a broader level. For more information, feel free to contact the project team at ATEimpacts@scout.wisc.edu.