A water quality technician has collected and graphed the back flow test data for a carbon nano-tube (everybody has to do something with nano, so FLATE’s puzzle team is no exception) based membrane technology water filtering system. When the water to be sold under the companies PDS (“Purer then Driven Snow”) brand passes one way through the filter, the water is purified and then sent to the bottling facility. The tech periodically back flushes the membrane and if the filter is clogged replaces it. The tech runs the back flow test by disconnecting the forward flow and then pumps purified water through the filter in the opposite direction. If the filter is not clogged, the black flush test pattern has a similar shape as the forward flow plot but it has higher flow rate values for each pressure.

                                         

After reviewing both the forward and back flush pressure vs. flow rate plots below, the tech knows if the filter is clogged. She has determined that this specific filter is not clogged. 

The orange plot is the filter’s back flush data plot.  Yes or NO.  Submit your answers below the blog, or post it at www.fl-ate.org.

Last month we brought you a story about two STEP (Science, Technology, Engineering and Production)

awardees from Hoerbiger Corporation of America in Pompano Beach Florida. In our continuing series highlighting the role and contributions of women in manufacturing, this month we highlight three additional STEP awardees from Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems America, Inc. in Orlando, FL. The women awardees, in this story, hail from different points of the corporate continuum, each characterizing their unique contributions to MHPSA’s successful operations and production.

According to Harvard University research addressing the misalignment of education and job preparation, by

2018, 57% of jobs will require skills based training (technicians). The highly technical, knowledge based economy is already here, because the recurring theme from U.S. manufacturers nationwide is that jobs are available but skilled workers can’t be found to fill them. Skilled employees with advanced manufacturing technical training are in high demand for jobs among Florida’s 14,500 Florida manufacturing companies. For example, in Broward County alone, computer-driven machine tool work is projected to increase by 21% over the next five years. How can these needs be addressed in a cost effective and immediate manner?

The National Academies of Engineering, Science, and Health recently hosted their first Education and 

Training Opportunity workshop in support of the Gulf Research Program. The Gulf Research Program (GRP) is supported primarily from BP gulf recovery funds. Among the workshop’s goals was the establishment of the current state of education and training pathways for the Gulf region’s middle skilled workforce in some target occupational areas related to the gulf oil industry.  This also includes the identification of perceived and real gaps between the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that successful middle-skilled workers typically now have what they need. In addition, it is important to determinethe programs, activities, and frameworks needed to build capacity in the Gulf region’s middle skilled workforce in these areas. To accomplish these workshop objectives, the academies have assembled 40 workforce and technology experts from the Gulf region. For Florida technical education expertise, the Academies looked to FLATE. Dr. Marilyn Barger participated on a panel focused on building capacity in the Gulf region’s middle skilled workforce while Dr. Richard Gilbert participated in the workshop activities as an invited technology subject matter expert. These FLATE team members were two of the three experts invited from Florida to participate in this National Academies workshop.

The GRP effort will continue throughout the summer with more workshops in other gulf locations. The data

and information collecting goals of the workshops will help the project better understand the local and regional needs with respect to three identified disciplines related to the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion: hydrocarbon technologies; environmental restoration and monitoring, and community and public health. The compiled workshop outcomes will help define the programs and activities that will be funded by the GRP to address the skills gap identified in the Gulf region.

Dr. Barger was recognized with the SME Education Award for her leading efforts, in developing

manufacturing-related curricula for the entire state of Florida, and served as a national model for other states for emulate. Dr. Barger has been a long standing member of SME, and is renowned in the national engineering education community for inspiring students to pursue manufacturing-related education and career pathways. She serves on several national panels/advisory boards for technical programs, cur­riculum and workforce initiatives, including the National Association of Manufacturers Educators’ Council. As a firm advocate and leader in engineering technology education, she has more than 20 years of experience developing curricula. She is a licensed engineer, a Fellow of the American Society of Engineering Education, and a charter member of the National Academy and USF’s Academy of Inventors.

On May 28-30, 2014, the basque government hosted the International Congress on Vocational Training in

Donasita-San Sebastian, in the Basque region of Spain. A panel of five women from the United States representing the Steering Committee of the Obama administration’s new strategy on Advanced Manufacturing presented the ongoing and accelerated work in our country’s community and technical colleges to better support U.S. manufacturing. This presentation reviewed national and local initiatives to better align education and training programs to meet workforce needs of manufacturers in the same way FLATE, the Florida Department of Education and college partners have been institutionalizing in Florida for the past several years. 

Given FLATE’s longstanding partnership with several institutions in the Basque region, I was among the invited delegates to attend the conference. This International Conference is set up as a “Meeting for Collaboration between Vocational Training Centers” from 45 countries, to consolidate relations and cooperation and improvement of vocational training around the world. Speakers from over 10 countries discussed and focused on issues/innovations from their countries. The 400 invited delegates also toured Usurbilgo Landbide Eskola and Tknika Center for Innovation in Vocational Education, the Basque government’s amazing place and space for fostering applied research in science and technology with technical education.

The “skills gap” message was loud and clear from all formal speakers, and many informal networking

conversations zeroing in on the need for highly skilled workers in “middle-skill jobs”.  The dizzying pace of technology changes in all industry sectors and the importance of keeping the technical programs aligned and updated were also addressed in all venues. Strong support from the political leaders and government officials was also clear and supported the growing importance of VET for long and short-term economic prosperity.

Of course, it was lovely to be in San Sebastian again and reconnect with colleagues and friends at Tknika,

Usurbil, SMC Training and the Global Training Initiative. I was able to observe first-hand the extensive growth of Tknika’s innovation projects and an amazing increase of participation in all projects from research institutions in just two years. Making applied research the common platform for technical education and training, industrial innovations, entrepreneurialism/idea incubation and the connection to basic university research is a great objective. However, providing the space, resources and opportunities in a shared and unthreatening environment to accomplish that objective is a great challenge. Hat’s off to Jorge Arévalo, deputy minister for vocational education and training for doing that and putting Tknika on the global map in the world of VET.

Manufacturing has emerged from its grimy past and has metamorphosed into a high-tech, high-skilled role.

This shift in its trajectory has created an immense and immediate need for a skilled workforce, one that increasingly requires encompassing women as an integral part of the manufacturing workforce. “It is important have the voices of women represented in the manufacturing workforce” said Amanda Riebel, continuous improvement engineer at Hoerbiger Corporation of America in Pompano Beach Florida which is a strategic partner of FLATE and a current National Visiting Committee member organization.

Amanda Riebel’s journey into manufacturing started when she graduated with a degree in mechanical

engineering and started working for a manufacturing facility in St. Joseph, MS, before moving to Florida. As a continuous improvement engineer at Hoerbiger Corporation, Amanda oversees the implementation of the 5S’s, working on improving tool life, improving efficiencies of different machines, products and processes while leading a couple of continuous improvement teams within the company.

The STEP award has been rewarding on many counts. Since the reception, Hoerbiger has partnered with

area schools to promote STEM and manufacturing particularly to women. Both Amanda and Celeste have visited Board Anderson High School and Atlantic Technical Institute to speak to 12^th grader seniors about their experiences and careers in manufacturing. It has earned them respect especially among male peers, and enabled them to getting promoted, and inspired other women within the company to be nominated for the award in future. “You can do anything you put your mind to. Don’t let anybody tell you what you can’t do” said Dowdy.

You can view the full list of 2014 STEP awardees from Florida in the enclosed box below. The first recognition of 122 women included 10 from Florida. FLATE worked with industry partners across the state to get many women from Florida to get nominated for the award, said Dr. Marilyn Barger, executive director of FLATE. “FLATE adds its voice to congratulate the 160 women receiving the award this year” Barger said. Additionally as a way to promote the STEP Ahead program in Florida, FLATE wil be bringing additional stories in the upcoming editions of the FLATE Focus highlighting the experiences and accomplishments of STEP awardees from our partner companies like Mitsubishi Systems in Orlando, Conmed Linvatec in Largo and Southern Manufacturing Technologies in Tampa.

For more information on the STEP Ahead initiative and to submit a nomination for next year’s awards visit https://tinyurl.com/aq8nod3, or contact Dr. Marilyn Barger at barger@fl-ate.org, or at 813.259.6578.

Florida Advanced Technological Education (FLATE) Center, the National Science Foundation Center of Excellence for high-tech manufacturing, is pleased to announce Suncoast Credit Union Foundationis sponsoring 11 scholarships for the 2014 FLATE “Girls Only” robotics camp. The Girls Only camp is scheduled for June 16-20, 2014 at Hillsborough Community College (HCC) in Brandon, and is open to all girls entering 6th– 9th grade as of September 2014.

     

A star is born!, or so it seems at least in the case of Desiree Harmon. Harmon is the first female industrial

mechanic hired by Cemex a global company in Brooksville, FL with its parent company in Mexico. Working on machines may sound tough, but Desiree enjoys it all. “I do not see what I do as a man’s or a woman’s work; it’s more about doing what you enjoy” Harmon said. Her success is rooted in her passion and reinforced through formal education and training at Withlacoochee Techcnical Institute in Inverness, FL.

Harmon recently graduated from the Industrial Machinery Maintenance & Repair (IMMR) program at WTI, and is the first female student who successfully completed the program. The IMMR program according to Larry Hensley, instructor for IMMR program at WTI is “based on local workforce needs and caters to local power, chemical and industrial plants in the region.” He says the overarching goal is to prepare studens for successful careers in industrial machinery maintenance “where students can reap the benefits of having a trade-based skill.”

Graduates are hired by local power plants through the Millwrights Local 1000 of Tampa. “We have been able to get everyone hired by local power plants with all of our students achieving journeyman status” said Hensley. The average student, according to Hensley, from those who have just graduated to those who have been employed in the field earn an average of $85,000 plus benefits. “I love the work that I do, and I don’t know how I would raise a family if I didn’t have a skilled trade” said Harmon.

Despite great benefits the ratio of women graduating from the program is still very low. With the exception of Harmon, female students, according to Hensley struggle to remain in the program. The biggest impediment for female students, he says, is not only the nature of the job, family related responsibilities, or the number of hours required to graduate, but also a lack of awareness and targeted initiatives to recruit women to these programs/careers. To that end, Harmon is a model student who despite working full time and being a mother of three children has successfully completed the program. “I would  recommend any single mothers to take an interest in welding and machining as it is a great way to provide a good life for your family” said Harmon. “You have to remain focused on the job. From there on the possibilities are endless.”