ATE Community Webinars

This webinar focuses on the various forms associated with NSF ATE grant proposals. Forms can make up 2/3 of a final proposal submission and impact the quality and accuracy of a proposal. The webinar will cover knowing the purpose of various forms associated with NSF ATE proposals, knowing what data to enter into each form associated with NSF ATE proposal, learning the importance of providing consistent information on forms and other components of a proposal, and recognizing common errors that can be avoided.

The purpose of this webinar is to help those who have not been funded by NSF to develop fundable proposals. Topics include how to prepare a budget for your NSF ATE grant, what to include in each budget category, how to prepare a budget justification, how to align the budget and project description, and how to avoid common errors.

Has your college been an ATE grantee? Did you have a "New to NSF" grant? Keep the momentum going! Take advantage of what ATE funding can do for your college's technician education programs and students by "Moving Up" to an ATE Project. What will help make your proposal be more competitive? How do requirements and reviewer expectations change when you take the next step? Where can you get help to make your proposal more competitive? Learn the answers to these questions along with strategies, insider tips, and mistakes to avoid in seeking your next ATE grant.

PRESENTERS: 

Elaine Craft, PI, Mentor-Connect (DUE 1501183 and 1840856) and other NSF ATE Grants (SCATE Center Director, retired), Florence-Darlington Technical College, SC
Elaine.Craft@fdtc.edu

Elizabeth (Liz) Teles, Former NSF ATE Program Director, Co-PI on two ATE Mentor-UP awards (DUE 1931264 and 2032835), VA
ejteles@yahoo.com

Pamela Silvers, PI, Computer Technologies Instructor, Skilled Workers Get Jobs NSF Grant (DUE 1800920), Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College (A-B Tech), NC
pamelajsilvers@abtech.edu

Join presenters Kendra Bouda and Rachael Bower on Tuesday, September 15, 2020 from noon-1:00 pm CDT for a free webinar on archiving with ATE Central. Presenters will discuss NSF ATE’s archiving requirement and recommended Creative Commons licenses, what the ATE Central Archiving Service is, and how to select and submit materials for archiving. Learn what to expect during the archiving process and what happens to your materials behind the scenes. This webinar is designed for those new to archiving with ATE Central, though all are welcome to participate. 

During this webinar, a program officer for the National Science Foundation (NSF) Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program will explain ATE funding opportunities available to two-year colleges, especially those new to ATE. Mentor-Connect project leaders will follow with specifics about support available to help you prepare a competitive NSF ATE grant proposals (service provided by NSF ATE grants #1501183 & #1840856). The live webinar provides opportunities for audience questions to be answered throughout the broadcast.

This webinar will focus on advances in the competency-based training and certifications available to current and future supply chain automation technicians. Hosted by National Science Foundation (NSF) funded National Center for Supply Chain Automation (SCA) will feature the Manufacturing Skill Standards Council (MSSC) speaking about their new ISO 17024 accredited supply chain certifications for industry and Amatrol, Inc. presenting their new hands-on supply chain skills assessment device, Skill Boss Logistics.

For more than 25 years, the National Science Foundation’s Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program has awarded competitive grants, with an emphasis on two-year colleges, to test innovative ideas for improving STEM technician education in the advanced technology fields that are important to the nation’s economic health and security. Community colleges nationwide, in response to Covid-19, are challenged to develop strategies to successfully deliver hands-on content in an online environment such as through virtual labs, simulations, and augmented and virtual reality.  Join us to learn how ATE grants have been successfully used to create innovative curriculum, technologies, and authentic learning experiences in virtual environments; about the critical value of preparing students with STEM technical skills in a current- and post-pandemic economy; and what you need to do to apply for NSF ATE funding.

Presenters:
Jonathan Beck, Executive Director and PI, National Center for Autonomous Technologies, Northland Community and Technical College, MN
V. Celeste Carter, Lead ATE Program Director, National Science Foundation, VA 
Kevin Cooper, PI, RCNET and Dean of Advanced Technology, Indian River State College, FL
Michele Norgren, Director and PI, VESTA National Center, MO

The National Science Foundation (NSF) recognizes that there is much uncertainty among ATE grantees regarding how to start or to proceed with your ATE projects during the Covid-19 public health emergency. This webinar is designed to address commonly asked grant management questions to assist the ATE community and will cover such topics as no-cost extensions; supplemental funding requests; changes in project objectives, deliverables, timeline, and scope; budget adjustments; evaluation plans; and annual reporting. Conducted in partnership with the American Association of Community Colleges, Mentor-Connect, and ATE Central, the webinar will feature an opportunity to hear from experienced PIs and from NSF lead ATE program director, V. Celeste Carter. To further support the ATE community, the webinar will be followed by an ATE Central Office Hours, via Zoom, for an opportunity to interact directly with presenters and NSF program directors to continue the discussion.

In this webinar, presenters will share 10 strategies for adapting to this new evaluation reality. These strategies will help participants rethink evaluation plans amidst project changes and disruptions, engage stakeholders virtually, and adapt to remote data collection. Participants will have a chance to hear from other evaluators and share their own successes and struggles with adjusting evaluation practices in the era of social distancing. This webinar will provide practical tools to apply to evaluation work during this time of uncertainty and change. 

Understanding the synthesis-property-application relationship of nanostructured metal oxides has paramount importance to meet the materials needs and challenges of our society. In this webinar, Dr. Mao will present his work on pyrochlore and spinel nanoparticles useful for lighting, scintillators, thermometry, and bioimaging. His research group has gained a clear understanding of the influences of synthesis conditions, particle morphology and composition on their luminescence. These exemplary nanomaterials offer bright promise of producing innovative advances across multiple technologies.

Professor Mao’s research centers around designing advanced nanomaterials, achieving desirable properties and functionalities, and tackling complex interdisciplinary material challenges. Current studies focus on the development of facile and reliable synthesis methods for complex metal oxide nanomaterials, the investigation of their novel properties, and the exploration of their application potentials in the areas of optoelectronics, energy conversion, and sustainability. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles, and a few book chapters and patents.

This webinar focuses on the various forms associated with NSF ATE grant proposals.  Forms can make up 2/3 of a final proposal submission and impact the quality and accuracy of a proposal.

The webinar will cover

• the purpose of various forms associated with NSF ATE proposals
• what data to enter into each form associated with NSF ATE proposal
• the importance of providing consistent information on forms and other components of a proposal
• common errors that can be avoided

Soaring population growth, supply and demand imbalance, shortage of ready-to-use remedies, and urbanization have imposed unprecedented challenges to satisfying the world’s essential needs for water, healthcare, food, and energy. Aim of the webinar is to address some of the quintessential challenges of the 21st century in water treatment and precision medicine by designing conceptually novel soft material platforms based on micro- and nanoengineering the most abundant natural bioproducts. The overarching goal is to provide transformative and/or translational solutions based on highly renewable resources that can set the stage for the adoption of affordable, widespread technologies with immediate benefits for humans and ecosystems. This webinar will detail how nanoengineering the most abundant biopolymer in the world, cellulose, has led to the invention of biomass-based, environmentally friendly threshold (ppm level) antiscaling additives and scale-resistant membranes. The speaker will introduce a fundamentally novel family of nanocelluloses, named hairy cellulose nanocrystals, and explain how they overcome the limitations of current nanocelluloses, cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) and cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs), to open new horizons in environmental and biomedical applications. This nanomaterial platform shows the power of harnessing nature’s building blocks to produce functional soft matter. Colloidal particles, polymers, gels, foams, dispersions, and emulsions created from this abundant resource can leverage eminent, cost-effective technologies for improving the quality of modern life.

Using the syllabus as our template we'll begin to explore how to put the components of universal design and the four core principles (Perceivable, Operable, Understandable and Robust or POUR) discussed in more detail in our March webinar into practice.  Brought to you by the NSF funded ATE Central project and the National AEM Center at CAST, we'll explore how you can shape your class syllabus to provide a welcoming environment for all students, including those with disabilities.  There will be time to get answers to your accessibility questions, and examples of how others in the community college sector are putting universal design for learning into practice in their classrooms and labs.

For many of us in education, accessibility guidelines can be confusing. Fortunately, they can be distilled into four core principles, as captured by the acronym POUR (Perceivable, Operable, Understandable and Robust).  Many of the learning materials educators use in classrooms and labs are self-created and understanding how to make them accessible to all students including those with disabilities is critical. Experts from the National AEM Center at CAST, in collaboration with the NSF funded ATE Central project,  will offer practical, applied techniques that educators can implement right away. Instructors can build upon their higher-level understanding of the POUR core qualities to ensure their classroom materials “are accessible and work for all learners from the start, by design.”

The National Science Foundation's (NSF) Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program grant proposal writing process can seem daunting to those new to the ATE program. Each year, Mentor-Connect offers a detailed cost-free technical assistance webinar highlighting all aspects of the budget and budget justification for those building competitive grant proposals for ATE. 

The purpose of this webinar is to help those who have not been funded by NSF to develop fundable proposals.  Webinar Participants will learn:

• how to prepare a budget for their NSF ATE grant
• what to include in each budget category
• how to prepare a budget justification
• how to align the budget and project description
• how to avoid common errors

This webinar will discuss targeted coaching skills that both technician instructors and employers need to know to be successful. It will share broad research findings from both studies and interviews about effective coaching principles and methods. It will spotlight two technician education practitioners who have used these principles and methods to develop effective targeted coaching approaches. You will learn how they used design methods and key principles. You will see some models that you can use to develop your own local targeted coaching program. This webinar will build your understanding of the unique needs of diverse learners and help you understand the opportunities for building on the distinct experiences and perspectives of diversity in both classroom and work apprenticeships.

Diseased states are typically characterized by the presence or absence of a biomarker. These biomarkers may be general characteristics of the environment (i.e. stiffness, pH) or specific biomacromolecules (i.e. peptides, nucleic acids, proteins, cell receptors). In this seminar, I will discuss synthetic strategies for generating nanoscale hydrogels that recognize and respond to multiple biological stimuli. These multi-responsive nanomaterials are useful for (i) actuating biological signals, (ii) targeting drug delivery, and (iii) facilitating tissue regeneration.

Presenter: John Clegg is currently a postdoctoral fellow in bioengineering in the Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University. He is also appointed as a postdoctoral fellow in the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard. John received his Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering from the University of South Carolina in 2014, and his masters and doctoral degrees from the University of Texas at Austin (MSE, Biomedical Engineering, 2016, MA, STEM Education, 2018, Ph.D., Biomedical Engineering, 2019).

In his research John designs and synthesizes hydrogels, which achieve targeted drug delivery through a combination of cell hitchhiking and responsiveness to the extracellular environment. He is interested in (1) Developing synthesis methods for generating novel hydrogel materials with precise network structure, as well as (2) Applying cell-material constructs to treat inflammatory disease, autoimmune disease, and cancer.

Integrated Nanophotonics refers to the integration of photonic systems (e.g. optical devices, laser sources, and optical detectors) on a silicon or silicon compatible chip that can be interfaced with conventional integrated circuit technology.  By leveraging recent advances in Si chip technology integrated nanophotonics is currently transitioning to high-volume manufacturing. This presentation provides an overview of integrated nanophotonics technology and several key aspects of manufacturing and quality control (testing). The implications of this technology regarding relevant skill standards for technicians is described as well as core elements of potential technician education modules required to support this exciting new field.

Media plays a huge role in most educational and training settings so it's important to make sure that everyone, including students, staff and faculty with disabilities, can easily access and use the media you create. Whether you are posting informative photos and diagrams or creating a short video, there are tools and techniques that can help support making accessible media for use in a variety of settings. 

Join to learn more about captioning tools, image description, and audio description.  Presenters Madeleine Rothberg from WGBH's National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) and Rachael Bower from AccessATE will focus on practical tips and techniques with plenty of time for questions and comments from participants. 

This webinar is designed to provide student attendees with an orientation to the ATE Conference.  The webinar highlights why you should attend, what you need to do to attend, what you can expect, and how you can maximize your time to get the most out of the conference and its many networking opportunities.

Please join presenters Kendra Bouda and Rachael Bower on September 17, 2019 at 1pm EDT for this free webinar on archiving with ATE Central. The presenters will share tips on organizing your materials for archiving, using the archive submission form, and tracking your submissions online. See what happens with your submissions behind the scenes, as ATE Central staff process your materials, add metadata, and make your resources discoverable to the ATE community and beyond. Participants are encouraged to come prepared with archiving questions and seek advice on navigating the archiving process.

During this webinar, a program officer for the National Science Foundation (NSF) Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program will explain ATE funding opportunities available to two-year colleges, especially those new to ATE. Mentor-Connect project leaders will follow with specifics about support available to help you prepare a competitive NSF ATE grant proposals (service provided by NSF ATE grants #1501183 & #1840856). The live webinar provides opportunities for audience questions to be answered throughout the broadcast.

The Advanced Technological Education (ATE) Principal Investigators’ Conference, co-sponsored by the American Association of Community Colleges and the National Science Foundation (NSF), is a national professional development and networking event for ATE project and center grantees and their project partners. The conference is by invitation only and brings together approximately 850 people—representing NSF ATE grants from across the country—to focus on the critical issues related to STEM technician education. This webinar serves as an orientation to the conference and highlights why you and your ATE grant team should attend, what you can expect, how you can best prepare to participate in the required showcase sessions, and how you can maximize your time to get the most out of the conference and its many networking opportunities.


Planning to submit a proposal to the National Science Foundation’s Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program? Then this is a webinar you don’t want to miss! We will cover the essential elements of an effective evaluation plan and show you how to integrate them into an ATE proposal. We will also provide guidance on how to budget for an evaluation, locate a qualified evaluator, and use evaluative evidence to describe the results from prior NSF funding. Participants will receive the Evaluation Planning Checklist for ATE Proposals and other resources to help integrate evaluation into their ATE proposals.

An extended 30-minute Question and Answer session will be included at the end of this webinar. So, come prepared with your questions!

Many of the learning materials educators use in the classroom (such as lecture handouts and the course syllabus) are self-created and understanding how to make them accessible to all students including those with disabilities is critical. The authoring tools used to create these materials often include options for adding accessibility into the content creation workflow, and standards such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) provide guidance for how to do so.  The WCAG guidelines are written in technical language that can be confusing to even veteran developers. Fortunately, they can be distilled into four core principles, as captured by the acronym POUR (Perceivable, Operable, Understandable and Robust), that define four qualities of an accessible user experience. Using the revision of a course syllabus as the context, this webinar, brought to you by the NSF funded AccessATE project and the National AEM Center at CAST,  will focus on practical tips and techniques based on the POUR principles you can implement right away to ensure your documents are accessible and work for all learners from the start, by design.

This webinar focuses on the various forms associated with NSF ATE grant proposals.  Forms can make up 2/3 of a final proposal submission and impact the quality and accuracy of a proposal. The webinar will cover:

• the purpose of various forms associated with NSF ATE proposals
• what data to enter into each form associated with NSF ATE proposal
• the importance of providing consistent information on forms and other components of a proposal
• common errors that can be avoided

X-ray free-electron lasers based on powerful mile-long particle accelerators can peer deep into molecular structure and the ultrafast timescales of chemistry. Dr. Graves is working toward a compact version that can fit in a room. In this webinar we will look briefly at the history of the development of this type of laser and then explore the science, physics, and technology behind the operation of this very unique device. These short x-ray laser pulses can capture the motions of molecules and can look at the molecular structure of living systems.

The National Science Foundation's (NSF) Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program grant proposal writing process can seem daunting to those new to the ATE program. Each year, Mentor-Connect offers a detailed cost-free technical assistance webinar highlighting all aspects of the budget and budget justification for those building competitive grant proposals for ATE. 

Building enrollment in a STEM program is challenging on many levels. Industry is vitally interested as their future workforce emerges from these programs. Educators want to open these programs to new generations of students and increase access. This webinar will feature three experienced nanotechnology educators who will describe their strategies, collaborations, discuss their results, and share their experiences.

When it comes to getting the word out about your project or center, it seems like there are infinite options for communications channels you could use. But with limited resources, which channels are worth your time? Should you use Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, or Facebook--and how? Beyond social media and other channels, we’ll zoom out and talk about what strategy is and how you can better define what your project or center’s outreach or marketing strategies should be so you can better determine which tactics are worth your time, and which you can put on the shelf. In this live webinar, we will be joined by Farra Trompeter, Vice President of Big Duck – a communications firm that works exclusively with nonprofits based in Brooklyn NY, and Rachael Bower, Director/PI of ATE Central, who will build off the conversation we started at the ATE PI pre-conference workshop. We’ll discuss how you can use your target audiences as a guide and answer your questions related to strategies and tactics.