ATE is Advanced Technological Education. With an emphasis on two-year colleges, the National Science Foundation's ATE program focuses on the education of technicians for the high-technology fields that drive our nation's economy.
NICE K12 Cybersecurity Education Conference
Conference
December 8 Nashville, TN
The NICE K12 Cybersecurity Education Conference is the premier event for K-12th grade cybersecurity educators. In its 11th year, the NICE K12 Cybersecurity Education Conference has gathered the most dynamic and innovative cybersecurity education leaders and professionals from across the US for an intensive, highly collaborative exploration to promote the discovery of cybersecurity careers and multiple pathways, identify methods to transform learning and much more.
The NICE K12 Conference is known to cybersecurity-related educators and educational stakeholders as the best place to engage with the thought leaders and pioneers leading the charge in classrooms, schools, districts, and regional and statewide cybersecurity education programs. The NICE K12 Conference is the national hub for providing resources in innovative teaching and learning for K12 educators to inspire their students to be the future cybersecurity workforce.
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Implications of Artificial Intelligence for Educators
Workshop
December 8 Godfrey, IL
This workshop empowers university, community college, and high school faculty, staff, counselors, and academic advisors with the knowledge and tools to effectively integrate AI into their teaching practices and curriculum development. Participants will explore practical applications of AI, including lesson planning, designing engaging and interactive content, creating dynamic assessments, and customizing individualized student learning experiences. Additionally, the workshop will highlight how to enable students to use AI in ethical and productive ways across various disciplines.
Through hands-on activities, collaborative projects, and real-world examples, faculty will gain a deeper understanding of AI’s transformative role in education. They will also explore new forms of student engagement, ensuring responsible AI use in both teaching and learning environments. This workshop prepares educators to harness AI to enhance classroom instruction, streamline administrative tasks, and equip students with the skills needed to navigate an AI-driven future.
This workshop also includes a 4-hour virtual session on December 12.
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ACTE CareerTech VISION
Conference
December 9 Nashville, TN
ACTE's CareerTech VISION is the must-attend event for career and technical education (CTE) professionals. Happening Dec. 9-12 at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville, Tennessee, VISION offers comprehensive programming covering high-quality CTE in secondary and postsecondary environments and emerging trends in the field to help career and technical educators thrive in their careers. VISION provides attendees with a rich array of networking opportunities, an Expo, hundreds of concurrent program sessions, and numerous networking opportunities.
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Keeping Your PEACE: Women in Manufacturing Education Foundation's Virtual Learning Series
Webinar
December 9
December doesn’t have to mean burnout. Join for a refreshing 60-minute virtual session to reflect, recharge, and learn how to keep your PEACE through the busiest season of the year.
These webinars are FREE for Women in Manufacturing members and only $35 for nonmembers, making them accessible and valuable for all professionals.
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Community Capabilities Webinar | AVN: Supporting Bio-Based Chemical Process Technology Development
Webinar
December 9
Hear from Jack Dever, Chief Technology Officer at AVN, who will introduce AVN’s capabilities for process development and talk through their process, including work they have done to develop a technology package for converting glucose to a commodity chemical.
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Community Conversations: Reflecting on 2025 – Lessons Learned
Meeting
December 16 Online
In this community conversation, ATE PIs, project evaluators, and staff will reflect on the lessons learned throughout 2025 and discuss how these insights can be applied to enhance evaluation practices moving forward.
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Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences
Conference
January 6 Lahaina, HI
Since 1968, the Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS) has been known worldwide as the longest-standing working scientific conferences in Information Technology Management. HICSS provides a highly interactive working environment for top scholars from academia and the industry from over 60 countries to exchange ideas in various areas of information, computer, and system sciences. According to Microsoft Academic, HICSS ranks the 36th in terms of citations among 4,444 conferences in all fields worldwide.
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Scouting America Badging Day
Student Event
January 10 Thief River Falls, MN
Scouting America Merit Badge Day will be held at Northland Community & Technical College. Scouts will have the opportunity to participate in a variety of engaging classes, including Aviation, First Aid, Welding, Law Enforcement, and Citizenship in the Nation. This event is designed to give Scouts hands-on learning experiences while working toward their merit badges.
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KidWind - Wind Energy 101
Workshop
January 10 Online
Join for this wind-focused, three-hour virtual workshop to explore the science of wind power!
During this virtual workshop, educators will learn the foundations of wind power including the science and technology of wind turbines and blade design. Presenters will also introduce activities for the classroom that engage students in dynamic, hands-on energy-based learning.
Registration closes December 27th so you receive materials prior to the workshop.
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Generative AI and Microsoft Copilot Training for Community College Faculty and Staff: 101
Webinar
January 15
This session is designed for community college faculty and staff exploring the fundamentals of Generative AI and Microsoft Copilot. Topics include Generative AI and responsible AI use, effective prompting techniques, and real-world applications in education. This session will provide practical insights and hands-on guidance to help integrate AI tools into your work.
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Google's Generative AI Leader Training and Certification
Meeting
January 16 Online
Become one of the first go-to resources and thought leaders in Generative AI Leadership, enhancing your visibility and influence within the organization. This no-cost opportunity, funded by Google Cloud’s Career Launchpad, and in collaboration with NAAIC, will prepare community college faculty for the Google Cloud Generative AI Leader certification.
The training will cover:
- Fundamentals of Gen AI
- Google Cloud's Gen AI offerings
- Techniques to improve Gen AI model output
- Gen AI business strategies
Training sessions
Session 1: January 16, 2026, 10 to 4:30 PM EST, online
Session 2: January 23, 2026, 10 to 4:30 PM EST, online
Office hours (optional): January 30, 2:30 to 4 PM EST, online
Certification exam deadline: January 31, 2026
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SPIE Photonics West 2026
Conference
January 19 Online
SPIE Photonics West is the premier event for lasers, biomedical optics, optoelectronics, and technologies supporting biophotonic, quantum, and vision applications.
View the lineup of outstanding plenary speakers from around the globe. Select advanced training from 60 course options. Discuss your product requirements with top optics and photonics suppliers at any of the five exhibitions throughout the week, and participate in the strong industry program – this year now on three stages!
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Generative AI and Microsoft Copilot for Community College Faculty: 102
Webinar
January 20
This follow-up webinar is designed for faculty looking to integrate Generative AI and Microsoft Copilot into their curriculum. We'll start with a brief review of Copilot Chat, then explore practical strategies for incorporating AI-driven tools into lesson plans. We'll also examine real-world use cases from various disciplines.
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ATE Projects and Centers
Advanced Manufacturing Technologies topics include:
- Additive manufacturing
- Automotive manufacturing
- General manufacturing
Agricultural and Environmental Technologies topics include:
- Agriculture and aquaculture
- Environmental technologies
- Natural resources
- Nuclear power
- Solar energy
- Wind power
Bio and Chemical Technologies topics include:
- Biotechnology
- Chemical and process technologies
Engineering Technologies topics include:
- Electronics and controls
- General engineering
- Marine technologies
- Materials technologies
- Optics
- Space technologies
General Advanced Technological Education topics include:
- Evaluation
- Learning research
- Recruitment
- Teacher preparation
Information and Security Technologies topics include:
- Geospatial technologies
- Information and communications technologies
- Logistics
- Security, information assurance, and forensics
Micro and Nanotechnologies topics include:
- MEMS
- Microsystems
- Semiconductors
Program Description:
The Commercial Building Energy Analysis and Audits program at City College of San Francisco prepares students to conduct energy audits, evaluate building systems for efficiency, analyze energy data, and apply financial and business strategies in audit reporting. The program is divided into 15 modular courses designed for a community college level student. These courses are adaptable and can be selected, reorganized, or offered in a shorter format to suit individuals with experience in construction, architecture, HVAC, building operations, or mechanical engineering.
Course Description:
This course, from the BEST Center and City College of San Francisco, teaches the fundamentals and concepts of HVAC with an emphasis on types of equipment and conveyance. Topics covered in this course include conversion of units; concept of work power, and energy; psychrometric processes and calculations; thermodynamic laws and heat transfer principles; sensible and latent heat...
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This lesson, presented by the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure, covers the general concepts of size and scale by discussing the micro and macro worlds. The activity focuses on using scale bars as this is "the most common feature when presenting nanoscale structures or naonoscale science." Students will also learn about different scales of measure which is fundamental to learning about nanotechnology. A Teacher Preparation Guide and PowerPoint slides are included.
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This 9-page unpublished paper, provided by Northwestern Connecticut Community College (NCCC), discusses the impact of NCCC's grant project that aimed to increase "student interest and capability to enter STEM programs and technical careers by building a pipeline from middle school to high school, on to college and into the workforce." For the project, NCCC partnered with Torrington High School to provide teachers with support and professional development training, externships in industry, and materials and funds needed to implement technical lessons into classroom instruction. The paper goes into detail on the project and its results, describing the impact it had on teachers, students, and curriculum development at Torrington High School. Included are excerpts from interviews with high school teachers that participated in the project.
Classroom materials developed as a part of the project are available to view separately.
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In this activity, provided by Digital World Biology, students use free, online biotechnology resources to investigate how well different commercial antibodies might work against SARS-CoV-2 variants. Students will first use NextStrain.org to locate and detect the spike proteins of emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants. Next, they will "use iCn3D and BLAST to align the sequence of the variant spike protein to a sequence of a spike protein that is bound to a commercial antibody." After identifying mutations in the antibody binding site, students will then compare "chemical bonds that would be formed between the original amino acid and the antibody with the predicted bonds that could be formed by the variant amino acid and predict whether their antibody will be effective against their variant."
Included is a 3-page instructor guide detailing each step of the activity, a 2-page student instructional sheet, activity materials, such as data spreadsheets, and an informational video on using...
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This 172-page resource was developed as a reference guide for the IT Skill Standards 2020 and Beyond project grant, explaining in step-by-step detail how to collaborate with employers to develop future-facing technical skill standards and then use that work to align curriculum to workforce needs. This guide also provides a hard copy of the final version "products" the grant created (KSA+Ts - knowledge, skills, abilities, and tasks, key performance indicators, employability skills, student learning outcomes, and degree expectations).
A companion report on the impacts and outcomes of the ITSS project is available to view separately.
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| Active ATE Centers | 15 |
| Active ATE Projects | 291 |
| ATE Resources | 6,957 |
| New Projects/Centers | 62 |
| New Resources | 62 |
ATE Resources by Subject Area
ATE Events by Subject Area
New Research: Increasing Cost of Community College Education
A new College Board report shows that the average published tuition and fees for in-district, full-time students at public two-year colleges in 2025–2026 reached $4,150, an increase of $110 from last year. State-level prices varied widely, from $1,440 in California to $8,900 in Vermont, and only nine states saw no change or increases of less than 1%.
To learn more about trends in college tuition and financial aid, read the full report from College Board.
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Upcoming Virtual Event: Google's Generative AI Leader Training and Certification
Supported by Google Cloud's Career Launchpad in collaboration with the National Applied AI Consortium (NAAIC), the free virtual event, "Google's Generative AI Leader Training and Certification," will be held on January 16 and 23, 2026. Sessions will cover the fundamental principles of artificial intelligence (AI), current AI offerings, strategies to improve the output of generative models, and relevant AI-informed business strategies. Completion of the training program will prepare community college faculty for the Google Cloud Generative AI Leader Certification.
Virtual Training Sessions
- Session 1: January 16, 2026, 10:00AM to 4:30 PM EST
- Session 2: January 23, 2026, 10:00AM to 4:30 PM EST
- Office hours (optional): January 30, 2026, 2:30PM to 4 PM EST
To learn more or to apply for the training program, visit the NAAIC website.
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New Issue: Community College Journal
The October/November issue of the American Association of Community Colleges’ (AACC) Community College Journal is now available online and in print through subscription. A featured publication by AACC, this journal provides contemporary information, insights, strategies, and connections for those in academia, industry, government, and workforce development.
The latest issue highlights:
- Trends surrounding community college-awarded bachelor's degrees.
- Succession strategies for future community college leaders.
- Impact of the 2012 "Reclaiming the American Dream" report from the 21-Century Commission on the Future of Community Colleges.
AACC's October/November publication of the Community College Journal can be accessed online here, and archived issues can be viewed in AACC’s library.
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