All about the ATE Program

The National Convergence Technology Center (CTC) is an ATE Center.  That is, the National CTC is an Advanced Technological Education (ATE) center funded by the National Science Foundation.  The National CTC, hosted by Collin College in Frisco, Texas, is one of many such ATE centers and projects at community colleges around the country devoted to supporting cutting-edge, in-demand technician training. The ATE program covers a wide range of technological disciplines, from manufacturing and engineering to energy and agriculture.  If you’d like a deeper dive into the ATE program (which got its start back in 1992 through a Congressional mandate), a good place to start is the ATE Annual Survey.

Each winter, all ATE centers and projects fill out a detailed survey of their educational activities, student engagement, and business collaboration.  The results of that evaluation effort – more than 200 surveys were completed last year – are rolled up in a summary report.  The 2017 summary report, which covers activities from calendar year 2016, is available online. In addition to the detailed data the report provides, the ATE “EvaluATE” center also does a great job clearly presenting the numbers with vivid charts and graphic design.

Here are a few highlights.  In 2016, ATE centers and projects helped…

• Educate over 70,000 students (60% community colleges, 30% high schools)
• Create over 1400 curriculum materials, including 130 new courses
• Offered over 1700 faculty professional development events (220 of which were at least a week long) that served 32,000 educators
• Served a student population that was 28% female and 31% racial minority
• Collaborated with over 9600 groups, over half of which was business and industry

The National CTC is proud to be a part of this important and impactful program.  We’ve already started compiling the data for this year’s survey, which is due in mid-March.

If you’d like your school to join the ATE community’s mission to support technical students in your area (and around the country), keep in mind that ATE grant proposals are due in October.  You and your colleagues should consider taking part in a special webinar series hosted by the CCTA (Centers Collaborative for Technical Assistance).

The CCTA will be running four webinars this winter and spring on strategies and resources for developing a competitive ATE grant proposal.  These will update 2017 webinars on the same topic.

Thu Feb 15          “Grants and Innovation – A Great Match”

Thu Mar 8           “Grant Proposal Resources, Roadmaps, and Timelines”

Thu Mar 29         “Developing Stakeholder Partnerships for Successful Grants”

Thu Apr 19          “Final Tips for a Competitive Proposal”

(If you missed the 2017 webinars, you’re urged to view those recordings prior to attending these 2018 webinars. The recordings are here.

The series will be capped off with a special one-day CCTA convening on grant writing in Miami on July 27, the day after the HI-TEC conference ends.

We urge you to consider registering for these CCTA events.  It’s a free opportunity to learn a lot about the NSF grant writing process in a short amount time from those who have successfully been awarded grants. You’ll get many chances to ask questions, especially at the July 27 event which will include NSF program officers.

We’d love to have you and your program join the ATE family.