Welding Education Smart Technology Program

This project will contribute to the national need for a highly skilled workforce by producing qualified welding technicians that meet the needs in today’s Advanced Manufacturing Industry sectors. According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, the need for welders is expected to grow 8 percent from 2020 to 2030. This project will address this workforce need by incorporating significant improvements to an existing Welding Technology Associates of Science degree program.

Improvements include incorporating advanced technologies and certification requirements across the program curriculum, use of nontraditional instructional deliveries (virtual reality and hybrid flexible, or HyFlex), performance assessments, faculty professional development, and program outreach. These improvements are projected to increase the number of students who successfully complete the program by 7 percent each year of the project.

The goal of this project is to provide a model for two-year colleges to integrate smart welding technologies into their certificate and degree programs so students are prepared to build successful careers in advanced manufacturing sectors. The project will modernize two existing instructional labs to facilitate use of smart technologies inside each welding booth and into each robotic cell.

These smart technologies involve use of live weld process control and monitoring software and virtual reality systems. This creates a platform from which students can gauge their own progress in addition to providing instructors valuable data analytics to identify and assess students’ progress. This assessment-driven approach is expected to contribute to the development of standardized welding education practices.

Faculty teaching in the welding technology program will earn certifications offered by the National Coalition of Certification Centers to facilitate administering the required performance exams. Students earning these certifications will be prepared to enter the workforce upon completion of the program. This project will consist of significant outreach by hosting live events at local junior and high schools using the program’s existing welding roadshow trailer.

The project will also leverage existing agreements with secondary education to build a K-14 pipeline of skilled technicians using conventional and HyFlex instructional deliveries. Summer manufacturing camps will be offered that focus on providing entrepreneurial skills training along with hands-on project-based activities in the welding and metal fabrication labs.

The project will develop partnerships with area welding companies to collaboratively design course offerings and curriculum with input from an Industry and Business Team. These efforts are designed to result in a robust program that facilitates hands-on learning experiences centered on aligning student ability with employment opportunities in the field.

This project is funded by the Advanced Technological Education program that focuses on the education of technicians for the advanced-technology fields that drive the Nation's economy.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.