A record 156 people attended the 2018 CAAT Conference held on April 20 at Macomb Community College in Warren, MI! The conference has been growing in popularity over the years and the 2018 event was no exception.

We are pleased to report that our survey results were very positive as well. Of those attendees who completed the conference survey (76), 98% rated the overall conference as extremely (32%), very (55%), or moderately (11%) valuable! Our keynote speaker was also a big hit, with 97% indicating Carla Bailo's presentation was extremely (69%) or very (28%) valuable!

Our conference attendees represented:

• 18 secondary schools and 2 school districts
• 16 industry businesses / employers
• 11 community colleges and 6 universities
• 7 professional associations/organizations
• 7 states and the District of Columbia
• 6 US, state and local government organizations and municipalities
• 11 STEM organizations
• 1 media outlet

We are extremely grateful to our speakers who generously donated their time and provided a wealth of useful technical and workforce information:

• Carla Bailo, President and CEO, Center for Automotive Research (keynote speaker)
• Mark Chaput, VP, American Center for Mobility
• Jace Allen, Business Development Manager, dSpace Inc.
• Michele Economou Ureste, Executive Director, Workforce Intelligence Network

We would also like to thank our sponsors for their assistance in promoting the event:

In addition, we would like to thank the many STEM organizations who participated in our exhibit area and provided information to our conference attendees about the great STEM activities taking place right here in southeast Michigan.

And last but not least, we would like to thank our conference attendees for taking the time out of their busy schedules to attend this annual educational event!

The CAAT and Macomb Community College (MCC) recently hosted a listening session on the automotive industry for the National Science Board (NSB). The listening session allowed NSB members to discuss and hear perspectives from relevant stakeholders about the opportunities and challenges related to the skilled technical workforce from a local, real-world perspective.

The CAAT and MCC provided the NSB with a recommended list of stakeholders representing local automotive manufacturers, suppliers, professional organizations, government and other educational institutions. Twenty-one stakeholders attended the meeting along with 7 NSB members and several senior MCC and CAAT representatives.

The event, held on April 19 at Macomb Community College's south campus in Warren, MI, was just prior to the 2018 CAAT Conference: Testing Tomorrow's Autonomous Vehicles Today, held at the same location on April 20th. Many of the NSB members attending the listening session also attended the CAAT conference, and subsequently spoke very highly of the event.

The listening session was discussed at the May 2 meeting of the National Science Board. Listen to the positive remarks made at the NSB Meeting about the listening session and the CAAT Conference by visiting NSB Webcast and selecting the Skilled Technical Workforce segment. Registration (free) is required to listen to the webcast.

For more information, read the NSF Press Release about the listening session at MCC, view a list of NSB members, or visit our CAAT Conference page.

With an emphasis on two-year colleges, the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program focuses on the education of technicians for the high-technology fields that drive our nation's economy. The program involves partnerships between academic institutions and industry to promote improvement in the education of science and engineering technicians at the undergraduate and secondary school levels. The ATE program supports curriculum development; professional development of college faculty and secondary school teachers; career pathways; and other activities.

In 2010, Macomb Community College received a $2.8M NSF ATE Center grant to establish the Center for Advanced Automotive Technology. This initial grant covered a four year period. In 2014, the CAAT received a $2.1M renewal grant to maintain the CAAT for an additional 3 years. In 2017, the CAAT received a no-cost extension that extended the renewal grant through June 2018. The CAAT is pleased to announce that it recently received a $600,000, 3-year NSF ATE Resource Center grant, which will convert the CAAT from a center to a resource center. The new grant will commence in July 2018 and go through June 2021, at which time a proposal for a renewal grant for an additional 3 years can be submitted.

NSF ATE resource centers constitute a highly visible source of educational materials, ideas, contacts, and mentoring and have a national focus and a broad impact. Resource centers may focus on a particular field of technological education or cut across several technology fields to promote best practices in areas such as recruitment, retention, curriculum development, teaching practices, and industry partnerships. Generally, only ATE national or regional centers and exemplary ATE projects that have already completed their original grants are well-positioned to become resource centers because leaders of these centers must demonstrate that they have already made substantial, high-quality contributions to technological education.

As a resource center the CAAT will continue to partner with business and industry, government agencies, professional organizations, and other academic institutions. It will work on national initiatives to bring about systemic changes in the way students are prepared for our national technical workforce and expand the role that community colleges play as agents of change towards this goal.

Among other things, the new Resource Center for Advanced Automotive Technology (RCAAT) will:

• Provide support and mentoring for institutions that wish to start or improve educational programs in a particular field of technology;
• Establish and support additional industry, business and academic partnerships;
• Organize and offer professional development opportunities for educators;
• Promote automotive design and engineering technician careers, visibility and public image;
• Address technician knowledge, skills, and competencies needed for the evolving, converging, and emerging automotive technical workplace; and
• Screen, validate, update, and broadly distribute exemplary materials, curricula, and pedagogical practices adapted or designed by ATE centers and projects and other appropriate sources.

Macomb Community College and the CAAT received a letter of congratulations from Michigan Congresswoman Debbie Dingell recognizing the CAAT's continuing efforts as an NSF ATE Resource Center to drive the skills needed for the next generation of automotive technicians, engineering technologists and designers.