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Download our FREE and Open Electric Vehicle Technology Curricula Today!
The National STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) Consortium (NSC
), a collaborative of ten leading community colleges in nine states, was formed to develop credit curricula and wrap-around services to increase student retention, academic completion and job attainment in five STEM fields: Composites Technology, Cyber Technology, Electric Vehicle Technology
, Environmental Technology, and Mechatronics Technology. The NSC was funded through a U.S. Department of Labor Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College Career Training grant (TAACCCT
). Over the course of the last four years the NSC has developed five one-year STEM certificates aligned to both industry-identified outcomes and a model for student success. All of the curricula developed under this project are free and open educational resources available on two online repositories: Carnegie Mellon University's Open Learning Initiative and California State
University's M
ERLOT/Skills Commons
.
The OLI site includes interactive modules and embedded learner analytics, and on OLI each of the five NSC pathways, the NSC STEM Readiness Course, and the NSC STEM Foundations course, are presented as complete packages. On the SkillsCommons site each course is posted individually along with its support materials, and each program's Program Guide is also posted, so users can easily download individual courses and/or the program guide and all relevant courses. SkillsCommons also includes "program support materials" such as informational videos, outreach materials samples, subject matter expert reviews of curricula, and the NSC retention revenue calculator.
Macomb Community College was the lead college for the Electric Vehicle Technology pathway developing along with Ivy Tech Community College two tracks: Electric Vehicle Development Technology and Electric Vehicle Service Technology.
To access the NSC Electric Vehicle Technology materials from the CAAT Resource Library, click here
.
To access the NSC Electric Vehicle Technology materials via the OLI:
- Navigate to the NSC Electric Vehicle Technology section of the OLI course library at Electric Vehicle Technology.
- Explore courses and online modules as a guest.
- Apply for an Instructor account to access Instructor Resources (i.e., the Teaching Toolkit) for a particular course.
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President Barack Obama Promotes Free Community College and Apprenticeships at Macomb Community College
President Barack Obama recently spoke at Macomb Community College's Sports and Expo Center, which is across the street from the CAAT office at Macomb's South Campus in Warren, MI. The president used this visit to launch a new initiative that promotes free community college tuition to eligible students, and to announce grants totaling $175M for apprenticeship programs.
Obama was joined by Jill Biden, a community college professor and wife of Vice President Joseph Biden, who has been selected by Obama to co-chair the new
College Promise Advisory Board that will explore ways of implementing the free tuition plan. "This is one of the best and most innovative colleges in the country," said the President. "It's a great community college and that's the reason I came back to Macomb (to propose) free community college for responsible students."
In Michigan, Macomb Community College, Focus: HOPE and the Southeast Michigan Community Alliance will receive a total of $11 million to train more than 1,700 apprentices in information technology and advanced manufacturing.
Obama, who first visited Macomb Community College in 2009, visited Macomb's Michigan Technical Education Center (
M-TEC) prior to his speech at the Sports and Expo Center. There he spoke with two Macomb students about their studies at the M-TEC and the job opportunities they will be prepared for upon completion of their 10-week programs.
Learn more:
- Click here to see the President's entire speech at Macomb Community College.
- Click here to see a short video clip of President Obama's speech, and Joe Petrosky, CAAT Principal Investigator and Macomb's Dean of Engineering and Advanced Technology, speaking with WDIV's Paula Tutman about President Obama's interest in investing in people and apprenticeships.
- Click here to learn more about $175M for apprentice grants.
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Assistance from CAAT Co-PI Le
ads to NSF ATE Grant for Texas A&M
With the support and gui
dance of CAAT Co-PI, Dr. Gene Liao, Texas A&M University has been awarded a $409,000 National Science Foundation (NSF) Advanced Technological Education (ATE) grant for their collaborative research in providing an adaptive learning environment for high school and community college students. Congratulations Texas A&M!
The ATE grant program will provide an adaptive learning environment for students to attain the skills necessary to work in high value manufacturing to meet the needs of the oil and gas energy industry. Houston Community College's (HCC) Petroleum Engineering Technology program and Manufacturing Engineering Technology program and Texas A&M's Department of Engineering Technology and Industrial Distribution are working to create a sustainable certificate program in high value manufacturing. The certificate would offer multiple tracks for community college students and the curriculum would meet the critical workforce needs of a vital industry.
The certificate program will offer three options for students: enter the workforce after receiving their certificate; transition to earning their associate degree before entering the workforce; or transfer their HCC credits to a four-year degree program in the Dwight Look College of Engineering at Texas A&M. Additionally, the program will develop high value manufacturing modules for high school students aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) as part of a summer program for teachers. The Texas A&M principal investigators and co-principal investigators (Dr, Bimal Nepal, Dr. Monica Cortez and Dr. Michael Johnson), in collaboration with the faculty at HCC, will develop the certificate program courses.
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CAAT Welcomes New Assistant Director of Automotive and Energy Projects
Please join us in welcoming Dr. Nelson Kelly to the CAAT staff. Nelson, who replaces recently retired Doug Fertuck, will focus on
technology assessments, curriculum development oversight, managing seed funding, and conducting periodic webinars.
Nelson is an SAE Certified Vehicle Electrification Professional (CVEP) who most recently served as an adjunct instructor for the CAAT's Electric Vehicle Development Technician Certificate program at Macomb Community College. In conjunction with this program, Nelson developed course material on hybrid electric vehicles and was awarded for his contributions to the program by the National STEM Consortium. The courses developed by Nelson are:
- Motors and Controls for Electric Vehicles & Industrial Applications
- Electric Vehicle Data Acquisition, Sensors and Control Systems
- Advanced Energy Storage
Prior to working at Macomb Community College, Nelson was a Staff Researcher in Hydrogen Fuel Chemistry and Systems for General Motors Research and Development, where he led team research projects developing the company position on vehicle electrification and leading to 14 US patents and many publications in scientific journals. Nelson was also a Staff Research Scientist, Sustainable
Automotive Futures for General Motors. In this capacity he identified sustainable and renewable methods for fueling future clean vehicles.
Nelson has a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from Penn State and a B.S. from Miami University in Ohio.
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| Recently Held CAAT Activities |
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| Student Prepares to Catapult a Marshmallow |
Launch of CAAT's New In-Classroom STEM Labs Highly Successful!
The CAAT recently conducted its first FREE
STEM Outreach Labs
and they were a huge success! The objective of these in-classroom labs is to interest students in pursuing a STEM career. Two labs were conducted over the course of three days at Powell Middle School in the Romeo Community Schools district.
147 seventh graders participated in the Bristle Bots lab. The Bristle Bots challenge is to build a robot out of a toothbrush head, battery and a vibrating disk (which causes the Bot to move). The Bots then needed to race around a track without getting stuck, going backwards, going around in circles or tipping over. The students made adjustments to their Bots by adding "legs", trimming the bristles and moving the center of gravity on top of the brush head. The students found this both challenging and fun. 105 sixth graders designed, built and tested a catapult, with the objective of launching a marshmallow two meters into a box. As the students tested their original design, they re-engineered and then made changes until success was achieved. Survey results indicated that:
- 47% of the Bristle Bot students indicated that they are extremely or very interested in pursuing an engineering career and 37% are now extremely or very interested in pursuing some type of STEM career.
- 35% of the Catapult students noted that they are extremely or very interested in pursuing an engineering career and 32% are extremely or very interested in pursuing some type of STEM career.
Student survey comments included:
- "It was the best lab that I have ever done."
- "It was very cool making our own inventions."
- "We should build and do more things like this in STEM because you learn how to do things and it is fun."
A teacher's survey noted, "I really enjoyed the program and think it is beneficial to getting students excited about the STEM fields."
Click here for more information or to request your free STEM lab.
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CAAT Director Attends 2015 MICHauto Summit
CAAT Director, Bob Feldmaier, attended the 2015
MICHauto Summit on September 30, in Detroit, MI. This event was attended by approximately 500 of the automotive industry's foremost thinkers and leaders. The theme of the summit was, "The Connected Culture: Shaping Michigan's Automotive and Mobility Future," and the event focused on how Michigan can leverage its automotive heritage to lead the research, design and manufacturing of next-generation mobility technology. Event partners included several CAAT partners, including the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (
UMTRI), the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (
MEDC) and the Michigan Department of Transportation (
MDOT).
Those attending the event were able to experience new, innovative automotive technology firsthand (including riding in a connected vehicle), learned about new technology reshaping the automotive industry (including connectivity, 3-D printing, and cybersecurity), and learned how Michigan is positioned to win the global mobility race.
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CAAT Participates in
HTUF National Meeting & Technical Exchange
CAAT Director, Bob Feldmaier, attended the 2015 High Efficiency Truck Users Forum (HTUF
) National Meeting and Technical Exchange held September 29-30, in Sterling Heights, Michigan. This event provided an opportunity for HTUF stakeholders (military planners, OEMs, suppliers, and fleets) to exchange information on issues affecting the development and deployment of high-efficiency military and commercial vehicles. Building on past HTUF events, this was a working meeting that delivered action-oriented outcomes. Discussions were centered on fuel economy improvements, vehicle electrification, and automated/connected vehicles.
The first day of the event was held at the Defense Corridor Center for Collaboration and Synergy (DC3S
). On the second day, participants took part in briefings and were given a tour of the vehicle test laboratories at the U.S. Army's Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC) in Warren, Michigan.
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CAAT Director Attends Technical Briefing on Lightweighting with Aluminum 
CAAT Director, Bob Feldmaier, attended the free Technical Briefing on "Lightweighting with Aluminum" presented by Alcoa and the asbe Foundation. The briefing was held on Thursday, October 15th at Oakland Community College's Auburn Hills campus.
There were about 50 people in attendance, largely from industry.
The presentations highlighted a new Micromill product which is a high strength aluminum with greatly improved manufacturing processes, information on joining technologies, and Alcoa 951, a pre-treatment to improve adhesive bonding.
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What's New on the CAAT Website?
The CAAT recently submitted its final Project Report and Project Outcomes Report to the National Science Foundation (NSF) to complete its initial NSF Grant to establish the Center for Advanced Automotive Technology.
The CAAT is currently operating under an NSF renewal grant to continue the CAAT through 2017.
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What's New in the CAAT Resource Library?
The following resources were recently added to the FREE CAAT Resource Library. Check them out today!
National STEM Consortium (NSC) Electric Vehicle Technology Curricula
Included in this resource are the following:
- NSC Electric Vehicle Technology Curricula
- Tutorial on how to access the NSC Content in OLI
- Electric Vehicle Technology Program Guide, which tells the story of the one-year, 30-credit model academic certificate created by the NSC Electric Vehicle Technology Team
- Student Voices: Stories from the National STEM Consortium, a community college program that made a difference in the lives of its students.
Click
here to view this resource.
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Did you know
that more than one million plug-in electrified vehicles (PEVs) have been sold worldwide? According to hybridcars.com, "plug-in cars started in negligible volumes last decade, but the mass-market began just less than five years ago. The first half million came in July 2014, and now one year and two months later another half million have been sold."
Did you know
that 196 events were held in conjunction with National Drive Electric Week last month? According to Plug In America, the event broke it's own record again. The
National Drive Electric Week 2015 event
"
tallied 196 events in 187 cities this year with more than 130,000 people attending events coast-to-coast across the U.S. and Canada, in Hong Kong and New Zealand." "Highlights included the world debut of the 2016 Nissan LEAF and the West Coast debut of the Chevy Bolt EV concept. These vehicles came together at the Los Angeles event, which alone featured roughly 1,000 ride-n-drives out of nearly 9,000 total. Events from Hawaii to Maine also delivered parades, rubber-burning drag races, panel discussions and more. Every major plug-in model available in nearly every state was represented."
Did you know that Apple is targeting 2019 to launch its new electric vehicle?
Did you know that "General Motors already has more than 1 million 4G LTE connected cars on the road, compared with an estimated 50,000 for the rest of the industry combined?" That's right, "thanks to its blossoming relationship with AT&T, more than 30 of its vehicles now come with built-in radio modules, and virtually all of next year's lineup will include them.
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Connected & Automated Vehicle Myth Busters
Myth:
Autonomous vehicles are far in the future.
Fact: Current vehicles already have many autonomous features. Automated Breaking Systems apply the breaks if the vehicle gets too close to the car in front of it. Self-Parking Systems use a camera to help the driver park, or completely automates the parking process. There are many other automated processes now in cars and many more to come in the coming years.
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