ATE Impacts 2020-2021

NCAT Prepares Technical Workforce to Use Autonomous Technologies As the first national ATE center in autonomous technologies, NCAT is crafting, adapting, and implementing educational resources to help two-year college faculty and other educators in many disciplines meet current workforce demands while increasing the quality and diversity of technicians. NCAT leaders are drawing on their extensive experience developing replicable instructional models and are utilizing best practices to recruit underrepresented populations and support their entry to STEM careers. NCAT is also a catalyst for research on the knowledge and skills that technicians will need as job titles and work assignments shift. To accomplish the center's goals NCAT leaders have engaged stakeholders from industry and government as well as colleagues from ATE centers and projects. Their shared priority is preparing the nation's technical workforce to use autonomous technologies that are changing how people live, work, and learn. NCAT is using service-learning activities to engage community partners on projects that integrate autonomous technologies to solve real-world problems. NCAT expects this approach will enhance curricula, increase hands- on learning opportunities, improve communities, and create or modify two-year colleges' degree and certificate programs. * Industry partners support NCAT's development of software tools for facility inspections using autonomous technologies. 49