HI-TEC: Process Control Workshop for Operations Technicians

At the annual HI-TEC (High Impact Technology Exchange Conference) last month in Minneapolis, MN, FLATE’s NSF ET Pathways Grant presented a half-day, hands-on workshop focused on the fundamentals of process control. Process Control is typically a feedback control loop that consistently calculates the "offset" value and applies a correction to bring the system being controlled closer to its setpoint (temperature, flow rate, voltage, etc.). The workshop instructors were Dr. Andres Cardenas-Valencia, Sam Ajlani and Dr. Richard Gilbert.

These models are extremely important for Industry 4.0 implementations, including implementations that look like straightforward updates to Industry 3.0 systems.

Eight engineering technology faculty from around the country dug into the details of Proportional, Integral, Differential, and various combinations of these control models and were given ideas on how to explain differentiation and integration to their 2-year AS Engineering Technology students. Typically, calculus is not a required course for A.S. Engineering Technology; however, students in 2-year technician preparation programs can acquire the needed knowledge of how PID models work without a calculus explanation. However, more to their technical skills, they learn how to troubleshoot a system that has a PID (proportional-integral-differential) controller.

In addition to receiving a classroom-appropriate hands-on platform that they used to explore the tuning process for an antenna's position with a PID controller, the workshop attendees were introduced to a TinkerCad (a microcontroller-based simulator) that illustrated the same controls as the workshop platform. Attendees agreed that the workshop was extremely beneficial and that they would be using the materials, the simulations, and the hands-on platform in their classrooms in the coming year.

We are considering offering a 1-day version of this Process Control workshop in Florida this fall. The workshop would be free to faculty and teachers. Please contact Marilyn.Barger@flate.org if you are interested.

FACTE Annual Conference & Trade Show: Continuous Excellence Supporting CTE Professional Development

The 59th FACTE annual conference and trade show, held July 20-23, in Orlando, Florida, hosted 650+ participants, 40 vendors, and over 100 professional development sessions, representing all areas of CTE education. Each year FLATE collaborates with The Florida Association for Career and Technical Education (FACTE), and the Florida Association of Industrial Technical Education (FAITE), to continue supporting Career and Technical Education professional opportunities in Florida.

The pre-conference FAITE Division activities included tours of the most innovative education and industry hobs: Exolith Lab, part of the Florida Space Institute, and the emerging technology labs at the Valencia College-Osceola Campus.

Sessions coordinated by FLATE-FAITE featured:

• Leveraging Summer Camps to Boost CTE Program Engagement
• FLATE Award Winners Best Practices Panel
• Flip the Classroom: Allowing AI and PBL to Reshape the Classroom, and 
• Building Effective Advisory Committees for your Tech Programs.

Best Practices Award Winner Panel:

Judith Deeley, 2025 Manufacturing Secondary Educator-of-the-Year

Dale Toney, 2013 Manufacturing Secondary Educator-of-the-Year

Sophia Watson, 2025 Distinguished Manufacturing Partner Service Award

FLATE Awards Recognition at FACTE

The 2025 FLATE Education Award winners were proudly honored during the Annual FACTE Awards Brunch on Wednesday, July 23, in Orlando, recognizing their outstanding contributions to technical education and workforce development.

From left to right:
Mark Gaudio, DC Jaeger

Judith Deeley

Rod Jaeger, DC Jaeger

Ernie Friend - Executive Director, FLATE

Sophia Watson

Danielly Orozco-Cole - CTE Program Manager, FLATE

Thank you to the FACTE team for hosting such a wonderful event and for recognizing the FLATE Awards. FLATE remains committed to partnering with FACTE and FAITE to provide professional development and to support CTE education for Florida’s students, educators, and business partners.

Special thanks to the awards sponsors Bluegrass Educational Technologies, LLC & Connected Engineering, and DC Jaeger for their generous contributions.

 

A.S.ET Advanced Manufacturing Updated! Now it’s “Automation and Manufacturing”

FLATE’s current NSF grant funding has been used to gather industry input on Florida's Advanced Manufacturing associate in science engineering technology (A.S.ET) specialization. We’d like to thank all the industry partners and all the ET program managers and faculty who responded to surveys to update the Florida Frameworks (Standards and Benchmarks) to meet manufacturing industry needs in the changing technological landscape. 

The task is now complete, and the document will be posted soon on the FLDOE site for the 2026-2027 academic year.  Since the changes are considered an “update” to the existing specialization, the "old" Advanced Manufacturing Framework will be in a “teach-out” period for the next two academic years, and the specialization with updated skills will be called Automation and Manufacturing going forward.

The standards of the new frameworks are shown in the figure below. Industry partners across the state told us that their emerging needs include (1) networking skills, as more equipment and machines become digitally connected, and (2) data skills like collecting, cleaning, interpreting, and visualizing data. These are the two major additions to the old Advanced Manufacturing Frameworks. 

Although we received plenty of input and discussion about cybersecurity skills, ultimately, the industry decided that technicians should focus on practicing good cyber hygiene and knowing who to contact in the company if something suspicious is observed. There is a reference to cyber skills in the Engineering Technology Technical Core standards and benchmarks, where it is mentioned as “…work in a safe and secure…”. This provides flexibility for faculty and programs to incorporate cyber hygiene into the curriculum. 

Please review the new Frameworks for Automation and Manufacturing below. If you have any questions or would like a copy of the new Framework, please contact FLATE at events@flate.org.