Local High School Students Compete in Skills Competitions, Win Prizes Donated by Industry Partners

By Rio Hondo College CTE Division
The Rio Hondo College Career and Technical Education Division recently hosted its first Automotive Skills Competition/Mini-Career Day for high school students. The successful event welcomed more than 100 students from six local high schools accompanied by their Automotive Instructors. Read More →

Enrollment rates in four-year colleges declining as young adults join labor force earlier

By Greg Hadley, The Sacramento Bee
For years, the idea of going to college, getting a degree and parlaying that into a stable career was widely accepted as the best possible route for most young people in America.
Now, that might no longer be the case. Read More →

Two Miramar Students Recruited by Delta Air Lines for Paid Internships

By David Tulis, AOPA
Two aviation maintenance students from San Diego Miramar College’s airframe and powerplant program are gaining valuable experience wrenching on the big iron after learning their trade in a challenging five-semester program.
Tevin Nixon was the school’s first student to land a paid internship with Delta Air Lines at its San Diego facility, paving the way for Genevieve Cindrich, who is entering her third weekend on the overnight shift at Delta while balancing schoolwork during the week. Read More →

California Leads Top 10 States in Adding New Solar Capacity

From Renewable Energy World on January 16, 2017
The U.S. added over 25,000 MW of new generation capacity in 2016, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s Monthly Electric Generator Inventory report. Solar capacity additions reached a new record of 7,568 MW, more than double 2015 additions of 3,384. Solar capacity by state varied significantly as detailed in the analysis below.
As a percentage of total capacity, solar increased from 18 percent in 2015 to 30 percent in 2016. Note that the data includes actual additions through October with the last two months of the year based on planned additions. Of the 2016 renewable additions, nearly 60 percent were scheduled to come online during the fourth quarter. Renewable capacity additions are often highest in the final months of the year, primarily due to the timing qualifications for federal, state, or local tax incentives. Read More →

Drone Used to Enhance Public Safety in Variety of Situations

Drone Used to Enhance Public Safety in Variety of Situations

From Unmanned Aerial on January 13, 2017
Now approved by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) is bringing on board an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) to be used in what it calls “dangerous, hostile and life-saving operations.”
At a special press conference, Sheriff Jim McDonnell explained that the drone will be used in situations such as search and rescue (SAR), explosive ordnance detection, hazardous materials incidents, disaster response, arson fires, hostage rescue, and barricaded or armed suspects, according to a press release from the LASD. Specifically, the UAS will be assigned to the Special Enforcement Bureau. Read More →

Twenty Electric Buses Will Provide Clean Rides to Students During 2017-18 School Year

From UCI News on January 23, 2016

Irvine, Calif.– The University of California, Irvine is poised to be the first college campus in the nation to convert its buses to an all-electric fleet. The student-funded and -operated Anteater Express shuttle service is acquiring 20 buses from BYD (Build Your Dreams) for $15 million.
The vehicles are being built at the company’s Lancaster plant to roll onto campus for the 2017-18 academic year, joining a hydrogen electric bus to provide more than 2 million pollution-free rides annually. Undergraduates voted to pay up to $40 per quarter to the Associated Students of UCI to cover the bus purchase and other costs. Individual rides are free. Read More →

ATRE Drone Donation Enhances Learning at Rosamond High School

By Sean Riley, Rosamond High School Robotics Advisor
Thanks to our generous donor, Peter Davis from the Advanced Transportation and Renewable Energy Sector (ATRE), the Rosamond High School Robotics Club has taken flight.
ATRE donated five Phantom 3 drones to our robotics club and high school. With these drones, students will learn many valuable lessons in STEM fields. Through hands-on experience, they will learn what it takes to program, build, reverse engineer and more using the donated Phantom 3’s. In addition to helping students learn, the drones are also great fun. Adding this aspect to education motivates students to learn about drones without even realizing they’re learning. Read More →

On Thursday, January 12, a dozen community college faculty and administrative personnel from around the state were hosted to a tour of the Stone Edge Farm microgrid project in Sonoma, California. Craig Wooster, Project Manager, spent a substantial amount of time with attendees describing technical details of the project and answering questions on operational and economic details. Read More →

Products, Courses and Legal Issues Discussed

The SF Bay Area ATRE program hosted a conference for area faculty interested in collaborative curriculum developments on Monday, January 9, 2017. The event was hosted at Ohlone College and was attended by over 30 participants with interests in diverse Drone applications such as Agriculture, First Responder training, Photography, Repair and FAA Test Preparation. Read More →

New Relationships with Employers Boost Competition and Bring New Internships to MPC

James Lawrence, Department Chair for Monterey Peninsula College’s (MPC) Automotive Technology Department, partnered with Pam Gutman, ATRE-DSN, to plan and facilitate MPC’s 2016 High School Automotive Skills Challenge Day. The High School Skills Challenge is an annual event held at MPC to build pathways with their local high schools’ auto programs. Read More →