Congratulations to the 2024 FLATE Award Winners!

FLATE (Florida Advanced Technological Education Center), FloridaMakes and FAITE (Florida Association for Industrial and Technical Educators) are pleased to announce winners of the 2024 FLATE Manufacturing Awards. This year’s Awardees include:

• David Yocum, Advanced Manufacturing Teacher, Anclote High School, Clearwater, FL will receive the 2024 Distinguished Manufacturing Secondary Educator-of-the-Year Award.

• Gil Burlew, Advanced Manufacturing & Production Instructor, Manatee Technical College, Bradenton, FL will receive the 2024 Distinguished Manufacturing Post-Secondary Educator-of-the-Year Award

• Pauline Sevigny, President & Owner, GRACE Aerospace, LLC will receive the 2024 Distinguished Manufacturing Partner Service Award

• Most Innovative Manufacturing Month Student Event Award Winners (tie for 1st):
• St. Petersburg College: 2023 Manufacturing, Engineering, Construction, and Architecture Expo (MECCA) Discovery Day, Clearwater, FL. Partners for this event included Pinellas County Schools, Urban League, and Homeless Empowerment Group.
• Bausch + Lomb Pharmaceuticals: Manufacturing Month Student Industry Tours, Tampa FL

This is the 17th year FLATE has recognized educators at the secondary and postsecondary level and industry partners for their outstanding contributions to promote manufacturing related technical education in Florida.

"The FLATE Awards shine a spotlight on the dedicated educators and industry partners shaping the future of manufacturing. Their unwavering commitment to advanced technical education empowers the next generation of skilled workers, driving innovation and prosperity within Florida's manufacturing landscape," said Ernie Friend, Executive Director of FLATE. "Congratulations to all the applicants and winners of this year's prestigious awards."

The Most Innovative Manufacturing Month Student Event Awards recognize outstanding and innovative ways to promote manufacturing career awareness and technology education through innovative student outreach events. In-person or virtual events include student tours of manufacturing facilities or other events that engage students in innovative ways directly with manufacturers.

Awardees were selected from a distinguished pool of nominations submitted from across the state and were judged by an awards committee comprised of industry representatives, FAITE board members, past awardees, and members of the FloridaMakes Advanced Manufacturing Workforce Leadership Committee (AMWLC)

"FloridaMakes is proud of the 2024 FLATE Awardees for their work in manufacturing education in Florida," said Kevin Carr, FloridaMakes CEO. "It is important to continuously build our pipeline of youth entering the manufacturing industry and recognizing excellence in manufacturing education is one way we can do this.”

The recently released 2023 Florida Manufacturing Report by FloridaCommerce with support from FloridaMakes highlights Florida manufacturing GDP of $72.9 billion. This GDP outpaces many key sectors in Florida. Find the report here.

Awardees will be recognized at the 2024 Florida Association for Career and Technical Education (FACTE) Annual Conference & Trade Show that will be held July 15-17, 2024 at the Sawgrass Marriott in Ponte Vedra Beach, FL. The winners will also serve as panelists for the Best Practice Award Winners Panel at the conference.

About FloridaMakes

FloridaMakes is a statewide, industry-led, public-private partnership operated by an alliance of Florida's regional manufacturers associations with the sole mission of strengthening and advancing Florida’s economy by improving the competitiveness, productivity and technological performance of its manufacturing sector, with an emphasis on small- and medium-sized firms. FloridaMakes is the official representative of the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) National Network in the state of Florida, a program of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce. For more information visit FloridaMakes.com.

About the Florida Advanced Technological Education (FLATE) Center

FLATE is a Center of Excellence for advanced technological education and is committed to ensuring that Florida has a well-prepared workforce for advanced and emerging technologies in manufacturing by providing educational resources and strategies for curriculum, professional development and student recruitment in secondary and post-secondary education. FLATE was created in 2004 through a grant from the National Science Foundation Advanced Technological Education Program which is focused on improving STEM education to meet the needs of American advanced technology industries. In 2020, FLATE became a part of the FloridaMakes network. For more information visit www.fl-ate.org.

2024 Spring Forum on Engineering Technology

The 52nd state-wide Forum on Engineering Technology was held on April 4-5, 2024.  Thank you to the State College of Florida (SCF) in Bradenton, FL for hosting! The forum was well attended with 66 participants, including 36 from 17 Florida state and community colleges and two universities as well as representatives from Florida manufacturers and other partner organizations.

The Forum on Engineering Technology (ET Forum) has served as an important vehicle for bringing together Florida’s diverse and geographically dispersed community with common issues and challenges. With the support of the Florida Department of Education (FDOE), FLATE works with the ET Forum network to strengthen the consortium, share its administrative activities and projects, provide professional development, bring industry and academia together, and engage in statewide FDOE curriculum frameworks review and reform. Over the years, it has become a true community of practice.

The Forum meets twice a year and has convened fifty-two times, at 25 different Florida colleges. The ET Forum, with FLATE guidance and leadership, continues to grow strong by recruiting interested colleges, hosting industry professionals from companies near the host institution, providing professional development for emerging and relevant technologies, participating in FDOE statewide curriculum frameworks reform and change related to ET disciplines, and providing extensive networking and opportunities for sharing and collaboration amongst colleges.

The Spring ET Forum included two days filled with key topics, discussions, and updates. At SCF, the participants were greeted by  Pepper, the SCF Coding Robot.  On the first day, topics included:

• Roundtable discussion on recruiting faculty, adjuncts, and students, best practices for advisory committees, and faculty loads
• Update on SETIAB – the State Engineering Technology Industry Advisory Board
• Education vendor Roundtable discussion on current technical education trends
• Engineering Technology college program updates
• Industry/Economic/Workforce Panel on work-based learning, industry certification and connecting with educators
• 
  Tour of the SCF Engineering Technology facilities and labs
• Update on FloridaMakes and the State of Manufacturing in Florida
• FDOE reported on new program developments including the updated CPalms.org site - the State of Florida's official online toolbox source for standards information, curriculum modules, and course descriptions
• Associate of Science in Engineering Technology core standards - suggestions and potential revisions were reviewed/discussed.

The SETIAB (Statewide Engineering Technology Industry Advisory Board) met following the ET Forum.  Attendance included 15 industry voting members and 16 educational partner non-voting members. The Board discussed and approved the new ASET "Advanced Automation" Specialization standards.  A full report will be included in the May FLATE Focus.

The 2nd day of the forum continued with the discussion of classroom technology, followed by NSF Grant updates (including a discussion on updating Florida’s ET pathways), and college program updates.  Also on day 2, distinguished guest speakers and key relevant topics included:

• Operation K-12 Cyber Florida, University of South Florida
• University of North Florida’s BS in Advanced Manufacturing
• AmSkills Articulations

The Florida Engineering Technology Forum serves as a model organization for other disciplines and career clusters in Florida as well as technical disciplines in other states. Presentation and recordings are available at ET Forum Google Drive and FLATE.PBWorks/Presentations.

Of the 16 evaluation survey responses received (13 in-person and 3 virtual attendees), nearly 80% (13) of respondents agreed that the Forum offered excellent overall professional development and networking value and 100% of the survey responders (16) would recommend the Forum to others.

Special thanks to our Sponsors!  The ET Forum could not happen without our educational vendors: 

• Technical Training Aids
• SMC International Training
• Bluegrass Educational Technologies, LLC
• FESTO
• D.C. Jaeger Corporation
• Southern Educational Systems
• Learning Labs

For more information on the Forum and/or ASET degree visit https://fl-ate.org/programs/e-t-forum/

The Fall 2024 ET Forum will be held September 26-27, 2024 at Palm Beach State College.

Mechatronics 101 Workshop

On March 1, 2024, thirteen (13) high school and community college educators attended the all-day FLATE Mechatronics 101 workshop at St. Petersburg College Clearwater Campus.  This workshop uses the Independent Mechatronics Education Curriculum (iMEC)2.0 and the Independent Remote Experiment Automation Lab (iREAL) trainers designed and developed over ten years ago by Mr. Doug Laven of the Mechatronics Department of South Central College (SSC) in Mankato, MN. The Florida educators assembled their own trainer from the ground up, assembling and wiring components to demonstrate simple logic circuits with several input and output devices. At the end of the day, all attendees took home their built iREAL trainers, small assembly tools, and the various input and output devices. Many of the attendees had never wired electronic components and were excited to have the well guided instruction. In a post-workshop survey, attendees gave the workshop high praise for the all-day hands-on, step by step instruction.

This was the second Mechatronics 101 workshop supported by FLATE and its NSF award, 2148138, which is enhancing the state’s AS Engineering Technology degree with industry 4.0 skills. Dr. Barger says, “it’s very important to provide rigorous, hands-on educator professional development in conjunction with curriculum changes so they can, in turn, share the new technologies with students in their classrooms. The next steps for the attendees of this workshop will be at least two (2) virtual sessions with more advanced challenges and a shared folder with the advanced activities and videos.

Mr. Laven developed the iMEC2 and iREAL trainers originally to meet the needs of industry in his region with a small, compact, affordable, and flexible training platform that students could borrow from the college to do the required hands-on labs for the mechatronics courses. This effort was funded by the National Science Foundation through grant 1304835. A more recent NSF SSC award, 2037491, expanded the use of the iREAL electronic trainers and added three additional mechatronics-related trainers, Programable Logic Controllers (PLC), Sensors, and Process Control to support dual enrollment programs in Minnesota and Nebraska.

Florida Manufacturing Days in Tallahassee

Florida Manufacturing Days in Tallahassee took place on February 13-14, 2024. Coordinated by the Florida Manufacturing & Supply Chain Advocacy Council, this annual event brings together manufacturing champions from across the state. The Council, composed of representatives from various associations, including FLATE and the regional manufacturers associations from across the state, works to strengthen local relationships and implement grassroots campaigns.

Florida Manufacturing Days is a time for manufacturers and other industry stakeholders to meet with legislators and statewide partners to discuss and advocate for manufacturing-related issues and to learn more about the legislative process. The events and meetings hosted during Florida Manufacturing Days allow participants to network and lend their voice in shaping Florida's manufacturing business environment. This year, more than 45 attendees actively engaged in over 50 meetings with legislative offices.

FLATE was represented at Florida Manufacturing Days by Ernie Friend, Executive Director of FLATE, along with educational partners Shera Gill from Northwest Florida State College, and Alan Harris and Stephen Stagon from the University of North Florida's School of Engineering. All ET Forum schools were represented in an exhibit with college posters around the rotunda of the Capital, allowing all state representatives to see manufacturing education programs in their districts.