Introducing SMART FL
Florida
State College at Jacksonville (FSCJ) is leading a newly formed statewide
consortium, SMART FL (Statewide Manufacturing and Applied Responsive Technician
Education in Florida), submitted to the National Science Foundation's Advanced
Technological Education (ATE) program under its Track 3 Consortia for
Innovations in Technician Education. Building on FSCJ's track record of 13
prior NSF ATE awards totaling over $7.5 million, SMART FL brings together five
Florida College System institutions, the University of Florida, and industry
partners representing more than 300 companies to modernize Engineering
Technology education across the state.
Why It Matters
Florida's
manufacturing sector grew nearly 68% between 2014 and 2022, and the state is on
pace to become one of the nation's top five manufacturing states by 2030. That
growth is being driven by automation, robotics, artificial intelligence, and a
resurgence in domestic semiconductor production — but Florida's community
colleges are not yet graduating enough technicians with the skills employers
need. Demand for skilled semiconductor and advanced manufacturing technicians
is running roughly 40% ahead of the students being prepared to fill those
roles, and nearly half of today's manufacturing workforce is expected to retire
or leave the field by 2030. SMART FL was designed to close that gap before it
widens further.
A Statewide Consortium
SMART
FL is led by FSCJ's Department of Engineering and Technology, in partnership
with:
• Daytona
State College – developing AI in Manufacturing modular curriculum content
• Palm
Beach State College – designing and scaling Raspberry Pi–based automation labs
• St.
Petersburg College – hosting statewide faculty professional development events
• State
College of Florida, Manatee–Sarasota – leading Programmable Logic Controller
(PLC) training
• University
of Florida – leading micro-credential design, applied research, and program
evaluation
FLATE will serve as the
statewide backbone for coordination, dissemination, and faculty professional
development, working alongside strategic collaborators including Florida's Statewide Engineering Technology Industry Advisory Board (SETIAB), the
Florida Semiconductor Institute, FloridaMakes, CESMII (the Smart Manufacturing
Institute), CareerSource Florida, and NSF's National Center for Next
Generation Manufacturing (NCNGM). SETIAB in particular will play a central
role, serving as the statewide forum where employer-validated skills and
competencies identified through local Business & Industry Leadership Team
(BILT) meetings are reviewed before being advanced to the Florida Department of
Education for adoption into Engineering Technology curriculum frameworks.
Goals of the Project
• Goal
1: Strengthen education–industry
partnerships to align technician education with emerging smart manufacturing
workforce needs, including a formal statewide partnership with CESMII and
statewide implementation of the BILT model.
• Goal
2: Modernize and expand curriculum
and pathways in semiconductor, AI, and smart manufacturing across the Florida
College System, including new AI in Manufacturing course modules and stackable
micro-credentials.
• Goal
3: Build statewide faculty capacity
through hands-on training equipment and a three-level PLC professional
development sequence, expanding access to experiential, skills-based
instruction for at least 300 students during the project period.
Expected
Impact
At
least 300 students are expected to benefit directly during the four-year grant
period,and 68 Florida faculty will be trained in smart manufacturing, AI, and
PLC instruction — expertise they will carry forward to reach thousands of
additional students in the years ahead. Project deliverables include over 200
products such as curriculum frameworks, training modules, stackable
micro-credentials, and hands-on labs, all disseminated statewide through FLATE,
SETIAB, and the semi-annual Engineering Technology Forum, and nationally
through ATE Central, CESMII, and the NSF ATE network.
SMART FL
represents a significant, coordinated step toward ensuring Florida's
Engineering Technology programs — and the industry partners and boards like
SETIAB that help shape them — keep pace with the rapid evolution of smart
manufacturing, AI, and semiconductor technologies.
