May 23, 2024 AZBSN Digital Access Task Force Recording

10:55PM May 24, 2024

Speakers:

Steve Peters

Mala Muralidharan

Drew Garner

Vaughn Croft

Bryan Carter

Peter Costa

Dario Solis

Judy Sulltrop

Alan Kost

Daniel Coxworth

Kevin Huffman

Michael Amick

Kelly Mukherjee

Tyrique Mabine

Keywords:

working

introduce

technology

engage

acp

learning

content

schools

broadband

tsmc

manufacturing

people

grant

talk

asu

give

hear

students

dario

intel

Okay, let's go ahead and get started. And we may have other people joining us, but we have a really interesting program today. We're gonna get actually sent to them. Okay, if anybody's here from the Broadband office, which is fine. We're going to get right into some updates on what's happening at the federal level. I haven't seen drew yet. Is he here? Drew Are you area? Don't see him themes do. Okay. Well, hopefully he'll be here because he's going to be on pretty soon. So in the meantime, let's confirm with him. I did. Okay. I did. I specifically called him about being here today. So hopefully he'll, he'll he'll jump on. So in the meantime, God will just put you on right now. Give us the latest on what's happening in Congress.

Well, and we don't have it, I mean, on the Senate side, and we were still waiting for something to come through. So I sent a message off yesterday to get some updates. And, you know, today at the meeting, I was just going to kind of listen to what everybody else is hearing. You know, on our end, we're we're working on some different issues regarding the border. And, you know, because the senator sits on the Armed Services, and is on a border working group. So that's really what's going on for us. We hadn't seen any significant updates for on the federal side. So I'm excited to hear it because they didn't send anything out to staff. So

okay, that's a report, or you can take it back to them and give them an update.

Right, right. I know. We we have different. We have different liaisons covering our different staffers, our ledge staffers in DC that cover different areas. And Morgan Gillibrand is our Broadband person, and she did not send out anything in the last couple of days. So I'm excited to hear what it is. Okay.

It's the wild wild west up there these days. It

is it is hard to, it's hard to keep up.

Okay, well, glad you can make it today, Judy. So update and chat. Sure. So we have a couple of new people who have joined us today. Daniel, I think you may have been here before, but you want to introduce yourself, please.

I am Dan Coxworth with Cochise County. I'm the Director of Development Services, coordinating these efforts Broadband in the county with Joe Casey.

Great.

Thank you, Daniel. Welcome. Oh, I see. I see. Drew, you are online. So we're gonna get to you in just a minute. Just doing a couple of quick. A couple of quick intros here. Let's see who we have Kevin Huffman. Definitely you may have been here before, but you also want to introduce yourself please.

Sure. My name is Kevin Huffman. I'm with the Town of Oro Valley. And I'm a network administrator there. And I was in that the last meeting as well. Yeah.

I got to remain was familiar. And Michael Amick longtime friend of mine. Michael Amick you want to introduce yourself quickly.

Morning everybody. Michael Amick, Vice President of distance education for Pima online at Pima Community College. Pima Community College just had their graduation last night issuing over 4000 certificates and degrees. And bar enrollment in the spring and fall has been about 50% online. So thank you for everything you're doing to support connectivity for everybody, especially if students. Right. Thanks, Michael. Glad you glad you can make it this morning. I told Michael he has several people that are going to be presenting this morning he had to be here.

Anybody else that we knew that we haven't seen before? Okay, well we have not done that. What else I have on the agenda that I need to?

So just a couple of quick things first Hello, I forgot to say thank you to our sponsors, Kara first healthplan Karen Ziegler consulting services, Valley Telecom Group Kajeet and Triad Wireless. So we thank you guys for your support. And see what else do I need? So just a couple of things. For those of you who had been on the call a few weeks ago, when we had discussions about change up of our formats a little bit on occasion, and this actually worked out well, because folks in the Broadband office couldn't be here this morning. That we excuse me, we're going to be doing some similar things to what we're going to do today, and having some panel discussions and so forth. So the ones we're looking at, don't have mall scheduled yet, but this is what we're, what we're looking at what is municipal networks? What is a municipal network pros and cons? Chris, I know that something that you guys are wrestling with it with the pros and cons and, and benefits and all that kind of stuff. So we're going to do a project on municipal networks. And so that's going to be coming up sometime in the next few weeks, telehealth workforce development, sustainability. And that's an issue I want us to begin to have some discussion about. Some of you probably heard me say it and you probably sick of hearing me say that we have to really start looking at our strategy for sustainability. What we're going to get what $80 million for Digital Equity. That's not a lot of money. And when it's here and gone, it's here and gone. And so how are we going to sustain all these initiatives and projects. So we're going to have some discussion about that in the future. So just a couple of quick things from the Broadband office. Again, kawaii has submitted a Broadband office newsletter, if you have not received that, if you want to put your name in the chat, I will kick I will save that and pass that on to her. It's a good newsletter, and you definitely want to be on their mailing list. And let's see what else Nicole I don't I haven't seen you yet. Oh, you want mine? Don't think so. Okay, so we're gonna get into kind of a really important discussion. And I'm glad I invited drew Garner Drew, many of you knew drew when he was with common sense, and is now with the Benton Institute, the Director of Policy engagement. And Brenda Leasor. I don't know if she's on yet with common sense. And we just heard from Judy Sultrupp with Senator Mark Kelly's office. And so there are a lot of stuff happening in in Washington these days. And so we're going to get an update on what's going on. So with that, first of all, I'm going to stop sharing here. Do you brian is on the call to Okay. So I'm going to put a brand on it? Yeah. Yep. There you go. And where did he go? And Drew, you're here somewhere?

They are Drew. Okay. So anyway, Drew, thank you. And Brenna, I'm glad to have you here today also. So you guys are kind of keeping keeping up on what's happening as preventative care. We're turning our teams from day to day and hour to hour, but on what's happening in Washington these days, certainly with ACP, but there's cybersecurity. There's just lots of stuff happening. So Jerry, you want to lead off please?

Brenna, give a quick update, because I know, being Ilena have sort of been watching this to Ilena putting a bunch of good information in the chat. But Brenna, if you want to sort of lead off and then I'll fill in anything I know. Yeah,

yeah. So on Sep. I think even since the update I gave last week, not a ton has changed. And since that time, there was a markup scheduled last week for Kent Wales Bill that was that includes the additional funding for ACP. Eu through camel spectrum bill, but it was pulled, the entire markup was cancelled. So since then, there hasn't been a ton of movement. There's been some amendments that have been introduced. I think I spoke about last week as well. Or different amendments or different ACP proposals. Have some or have similarities that like the majority of at least the coalition's that like the common sense are people are fine with. But there are some proposals to just like Cruz Senator Cruz's proposals that severely restrict eligibility for ACP and also provide or include a lot of provisions in there that are kind of non non starters for a lot of people who would want to see an ACP extension. But the most recent proposal was the Williams ACP extension, which essentially includes it's like a mishmash of different provisions from other proposals using national verifier. It just prohibits the ISPs themselves from using their own eligibility pathways. And then it provides additional funding 6 billion additional funding through like some recisions, and different avenues like that. But since it was introduced, or I guess, publicized, I haven't heard of any movement on it.

Yeah, I'll think that's pretty comprehensive. The main bill right now, though, I think most people are focused. Well, first, to be clear, like the Senate is now in recess, as of today, and they're out next week. And then the ACP ends. So like, we're almost certainly going to have the ACP end, at this point in time. Like starting June 1, everything will go to zero, all the benefit will go to zero. And it's unclear, like, what the, this is a technical aside, but like, if people will still technically be in the program, or if there'll be an enrolled, we want them to stay in the program, because then if we get funding later on, we can stop, it comes right back. If they're already enrolled, then we have to re enroll 23 million households again, which would be hard, especially after we burned them. So that is being considered. But the main, the main bill right now, is led by Senator Luhan, New Mexico. It has, notably bipartisan co sponsorship, and then would appropriate money for two things, rip and replace, which is that program that would remove foreign equipment from telecommunications networks, and then also $6 billion dollars for the ACP. That one has some notable bipartisan co sponsors. But again, the Senate's out of work right now. So we're still pushing for it. We just need to get probably to 10 Republican co sponsors. I don't like there is hope, like this language that Luhan has introduced as Brenda said, it was introduced previously as an amendment to an FAA bill. And when it was introduced as an amendment, it got seven Republican co sponsors. So it had a lot of support. But we just have to get it to 10, we can get 10 co sponsors on this standalone bill 10 Is that 10 Republicans mean 16 total votes, which is that magic, filibuster proof number. So if we can get 10 Republicans we have, we have a much better chance. But that's sort of the goal now, but it's going to require us to stay focused, even after the program ends. That's sort of then there's all the Brown mentioned all the other little noise. Other people are making

lots of noise.

Yeah, we can cover that if if it ever becomes more realistic. But we any questions?

So Mala you have a couple of things you want to talk about?

No, I actually wanted to ask Drew and blender about the the eyes on board? Has there been any progress on that?

Exam? probably heard the latest? Yeah, yeah. I think you've probably heard the latest from the Shelby call. Yeah, but it's on the board act. Yeah, I think you do you want to explain. Does everyone know what is on the borders? I don't have any new updates, which

I can explain what it is. But I don't have any further updates. After they shall be called which was more than a couple of days ago. Okay. This was introduced by Senator Schatz, Democratic senator to actually be the Healthy Kids Act to prevent social media platforms from allowing children to set up their own accounts, which was a good thing. You know that you did? want the kids to be able to set up their own accounts if they were younger than 18 years old, but then it kind of morphed into this, Senator Cruz's proposal eyes on the board Act, which was modeled after the CIPA, the children's internet Protection Act, to require schools to certify plans for blocking social media access to qualify for E Rate funding. And that's something that I think Shelby and several others are kind of dead against. Because we don't want one more hurdle to get the era dollars. Although there are genuine concerns about social media and its impact on children's health, but generally, you know, social media has been used by schools, productively, you know, for YouTube lessons and things like that to upload their projects from for different groups to see to collaborate with folks from other school children from other schools or even other countries. But blocking access or, you know, requiring schools to certify that they have plans for blocking social media is kind of what several groups are kind of challenging. So that our deliberations about this, but I don't know where it's going. And so far, that's all I know.

Yeah, I keep an eye on it. Because it's also this is Senator Cruz and Senator Schatz, are both on this bill. And so it's it's tangentially related to the ACP funding, because there's a standalone eyes on the board bill, then there's the ACP funding bill. And then there's this third working group for Universal Service Fund reform, which would do both things. So like Universal Service Fund reform also has eyes on the board, and it has ACP, and that a Universal Service Fund reform? That's going to be another discussion that we started having more of in the coming months. So these things might be looped together a little bit. Right.

What else? Any other questions or comments?

Um, real quick, we did get an update from Morgan. And what she said was that the commerce committee was set to markup, the spectrum reauthorization a few weeks back, and that was the FCC reauthorization that would have helped. It would have given FCC authority to borrow money to fund the ACP for another year. But the bill got pulled from markup concerns related to the FAA. And it hasn't been rescheduled. And so our office is waiting for the text from the USF reform working group that that was just referenced. So that's kind of where we see it. I think the other references are some of the house bills, but it's really hard for the House to come to agreement on anything right now. So I think, you know, our office is really waiting for the USF reform working group.

So are we positive can have any positive feelings about the USF? Well,

she said they're still waiting for the text. So they said they're working on it, the committee but you know, we're kind of standing by and like they said, The problem is, is that even if it does come out, it's it'll be after a CP ends. So it's, you know, not looking good, really, for that to be reauthorized right now? I don't know. I don't know. I think we've already spoke in these meetings before that, once it ends, it's gonna be really hard for the people that are enrolled to get them to re enroll or how that is dealt with. So that's what we have in our office.

And also, just for people like outside of like the federal bubble, in terms of like a common congressional timeline of things. As like Drew mentioned, the both House and Senate are going to be out next week because of the like long Memorial Day week. And then essentially until like through the end of July, there's I'm just ballparking maybe 1520 days where both chambers are in session at the same time, and then they have the full month of August offer August reason And then there, you will kind of be concerned with more of a election timeframe for those who are. I mean, even those who aren't up for reelection, but um, so it does constrict the timeline not to be too negative. But something to keep in mind of, we're kind of running up on that, on that timeframe. And especially if if how the election plays out, we enter more of like a lame duck period of there might not be a lot of incentive to move on things.

I just the good thing is that at least people are talking about it, which is better than doing absolutely nothing. Well, wait to see and our fingers crossed. Okay, any other questions or comments? About all that before we move on?

Later, Ilena has posted something in the chat for us. That is the the FCC draft order on the cybersecurity pilot project. Has does everyone know what that pilot project is about? Yeah, we've stopped. We've talked about it in our earlier meetings. But for those who didn't attend those, it is the FCC has, has something called learning without limits. And there were three projects that they had introduced programs that they had introduced, cybersecurity is one of them. Wi Fi on school buses is the other and hotspot lending through the internet program was a third one. Now there is some movement in the cybersecurity pilot program. It is $200 million is the funding cap. And that they say comes from the unused ERate funds, the rollover dollars from prior funding years. And they say that specifically because they don't want to set aside fresh money to do. Cybersecurity currently, the the draft order has been put out now and they have the meeting on sixth of June to take a vote on this the funding cap, the way the font, the budget would be decided would be about $13 $30.60 per student for school. And that's topped off at 1.5 million as the max for schools with more than 110,000 students with schools tour that have fewer than 1100 students, it's a flat budget of 15,000. That's the same budget for every library that applies also 15,000. While this seems like a lot of money, it is really spread over three years. So it's not that much of money. And you know, it kind of makes it it makes it ridiculous in some cases to think about, oh my goodness, 15,000 is all they're giving us 5000 a year to do. Cybersecurity may not be enough. But again, this is a start. This is a pilot, they're trying to figure out the rules. And how it can work. There is an eligible services list that they have posted, the eligible services list is in four categories, advanced and next generation firewalls. Endpoint Protection, that's number two. Number three is identity protection and authentication. And the fourth is monitoring detection and response in case of an attack. So this is a lot more in detail. If you look at the the order. It's about 100 and something nearly 120 pages of text to go through. They say that they have divided the participants into two, two parts, part one, the application will collect a general Cybersecurity Information from the people who are applying, so this is the the end, the goal now is to collect data on what kind of attacks they've had, but at a general level, then, because this is going to be posted online, and they really, you know, the identity of the school or the library and the attacks they've had will, you know will compromise the school or the library. So the applicants so they will collect only general responses in this category of evaluation. But if one Have these participants is selected for more in depth study in year two and year three, they're going to have that applicant fill and collect more data, more detail information about their cybersecurity posture, the policies and the threats that they have faced, so that they can model the program based on this, and that data will not be publicly available. So this is the process will be exactly the same as E Rate, you know, they have to go through the bidding process. discounting, I mean, the discounts are based on their ERate discounts, if the money runs out, which it surely will. So those schools that are at 90% discount will get 90% of the money and they have the 15,000. And they will have to have the 10% as their skin in the game, they will have to sign that they are participating in CIPA, or they have policies for support. It will have the same reimbursement of forms that it has. So it's going to be a complex, complicated process because it is, but it's at least a familiar. What shall we call it the known devil? You know, rather than something totally new and totally unknown. So that's all I know about it right now, because I'm still working my way through the document.

me any questions from our Going once, going twice. Okay. So before we get to our main attraction here, a couple of quick announcements Kelly, do you want to do the I know you put information in the chat, but you want to just tell quickly about about easy one.

Thanks, Steve. I'm Kelly Mukherjee. For those who we haven't met yet, with Arizona State University's enterprise technology, I work with CIO love Gonick. And last year, we put up a web portal called AZ 1 with the intention that we should all work together as one in the Broadband and Digital Inclusion space to help fill the digital divide together. We have also published a Broadband map so we invite you to come check it out. And then all of your logos as everyone here is working on Broadband and Digital Inclusion, we invite you to come and join us and we're happy to amplify your work as well as one web portal, so please feel free to reach out to me. Thanks, Steve. So

I did put her contact information in the chat. And we'll of course share the chat later. And then Tyreke I don't believe we met you yet. Would you like to introduce yourself?

Yes, sir. Good morning. My name is Tyreek. I am the site coordinator down here at the Dunbar I'm very blessed to have the opportunity to work under this grant. And I've learned so much already from Dr. Carter and his freedom, Melissa. Just like to say thank you. Thank you guys. And I love where the direction that everything is headed in.

Great, thank you. Well, welcome. Glad Glad to have you. Join us this morning. Okay, I think that's all. Yes. So I think we're ready to move on to our main attraction today. We have four people who are going to be talking about where education and workforce development and the focus of this actually give me just a second I'm gonna get them

right. See where everybody else

How

is Alan? Yeah. And who am I missing the Alan, Peter, and somebody else?

We've got Briyan. And

Bryan, of course. I know you're here, Bryan. I know I saw you. somewhere up there you are at the spotlight, okay. So we have four really amazing people that were doing really incredible stuff in education and workforce development. But this focus is not going to be so much what's the content? I think I put in my note when I sent it out yesterday. that we often talk about content this chain. But I'll tell you what, I've been talking about this for a long time. And looking more and more that engagement, and students looking for engagement and new technologies and ways to participate is becoming even more and more critical these days. So we can have great content. But if people can't engage and can't be excited about what they're trying to learn, then it's not very helpful. And so we have four people here, and I've asked them to really talk about some of the new technologies and the things that they're doing. That will be that will be of interest as we move ahead and talking about education and workforce development. So with that, I'm going to rather than me doing the introductions, I'm going to let them introduce them introduce themselves. So Daria, you want to start, please. Absolutely.

And thank you so much for the opportunity. I was talking about my presentation next week. And then then the conversation about the workforce development came up, and they decided to ask me to join, so sorry for crashing, crashed in your party. I'll go last because my last name starts with S M, that also leads Director of Business Development at the Fulton schools of engineering at ASU. And I'm in the middle of catering to large relationships with companies and industries. And of course, workforce development has become the priority we everything we do it be at research innovation, or whatever we do, we think about how we're going to use those activities to prepare the talent of the future to engage the youth, and to make sure that we support economic development, and also support a society as a whole. So I'm happy to be here. I'll go last

two, hear more from Dario next week, where he can talk more specifically about a lot of the other things that he's doing around the cup around the world. So he's going to be more featured next week. And so next up is Peter. And Peter. Well, you you've been a visitor with us for a long time but you want to Peter says so engaged with all the workforce development stuff that's going on, and particularly in the Broadband space. So Peter, on Introduce yourself real quickly.

Yeah, thank you, Steve. And Dario, great to have you as an impromptu. Dario last summer at the semi con, we had we ended up sharing ramen together randomly at some restaurant. And we've been we've been buddies since so. So I'm the CEO and co founder of Balta technologies, our mission at Ball two is to connect education, industry and community through upskilling and training. And really, we're addressing the growing skills gap that exist in many of these industries like advanced manufacturing, semiconductor, aerospace, Broadband and Edie technologies. And so we provide a free training program for individuals to get up skilled, certified, trained, and really placed into these high skilled jobs that are coming down the pipeline. So it's the thing that keeps me going, even when things get rough. You know, it's, it's my drive every day. And so I'm really, really excited to be doing what we're doing. And then my background, kind of eclectic background, I was in the music industry, like, toured around the world for a few years, went to ASU for physics and music composition, then worked in the video game industry for a while and then and then been running a company, kind of different versions of the company for the last about seven years.

Right. Thanks, Peter. How often you want to say hi. Oh,

hi. Yeah. So what do you want? What do you suggest, Steve? That, just introduce myself?

Yeah, Alan just introduce yourself right now and then we'll get back to some more discussions.

Sure. Yeah. My I'm Alan Kost. I'm on the faculty at the College of optical Sciences at the University of Arizona. i My research is in photonic materials and devices and lasers. But I've have a long term interest in innovative education techniques.

So we're going to hear more about that shirt has been doing in that space and in just a little while. Okay, and so returning to Yeah, always glad to see Brian. So Brian, you're on. Hi,

everyone. Bryan Carter, professor in Africana Studies here at the University of Arizona. I'm also the director of the Center for Digital Humanities. And, as Steve mentioned earlier, the pie on the one of the NTIA grants that It's been awarded here in the state of Arizona, working very closely with the Dunbar pavilion. Tyreke is a part of that. And a really talented team of folks that are helping us manage that that huge grant. So can't wait to talk more about what we're doing that.

Right. Okay, so I want to keep this fairly informal. But what I would like to hear from each of you is, is so what are some of the unique and, and kind of innovative technologies and things that you guys are using? And what how do you see being able to use technology to engage learners, and I don't want to say students, because we got adults, and we've got students we've got, and so I wanted to use the term learners instead. And so how do you see this movement and transition to engage learning? So anybody want to jump in? Or do you want me to fix that?

Don't be shy. Okay, well, Peter, you're, you're in the middle here. So I'll pick you first.

You know, I think we so I'll just just kind of run off some comments that come to my head, I think we really take advantage take for granted, sorry. Just the fact that we're having this meeting right now. I mean, seven years ago, you know, Zoom was like this, like really kind of small thing that people that know about zoom, I kind of conservative, like it's an old thing. And so just the fact that we're able to engage really any from anywhere, at any time, is something that has really transformed our society. And it's transformed the way that people have access to different resources, and especially when it comes to education and learning. And so the way I look at like technology, when you look back, I've so a little bit about my background, my dad was an electrical engineer working on supercomputers in the 80s. So when I was, you know, three years old, I was being exposed to computers. And I didn't think any of that. But, but I realized, as I grew older, that that provided me just an opportunity. I was 12 years old, helping my dad's friends businesses, like build their own network systems and build their own computers. Because I was the only one that they knew that had exposure to that. And, and so the fact that we can have exposure to technology at an early age for people across the board, or that we can provide educational opportunities that we're starting to be able to do this anywhere, I think is something that is it's small, it looks small at some level, but it's incredibly impactful at the macro level.

Okay, so Peter, can you talk a little bit about the platform that you're using and how it's being how it's been deployed? And, and so yeah,

yeah. And so I'll just give you like a summary of why we built this. Basically, two problems that we saw existed one was, we were getting called out onto all these different factory floors. And they needed skilled technicians. There's not enough people coming in the door. These are great jobs, they start around 2025 bucks an hour, and you can move up to 40 5060 bucks an hour as a technician. They couldn't find anybody. And they show up to the colleges. And they say, Well, there's only 20 People that are graduating this semester. And there's 20 Other companies, and they're all trying to hire 20 to 2000 people. So there's a huge problem when it comes to the skilled workforce needs on that side. On the individual side, we had family and friends that wanted access to these jobs. And they tried to go down the college route, and it just didn't work for them. And so this is usually because they're working two jobs, they're they got family at home, they got transportation issues, maybe they're living in a rural area, or they're not the classroom learner type. And so there's this huge demographic of folks that want to get to that other side. So what basically we did was look at how do we provide an alternative pathway to these skilled jobs? And so we do we have a upskill platform, that's basically 1000s of micro lessons that lead to certifications and high school job positions. And so people can go through these trainings or these learning modules at their own pace. They can get industry recognized certifications, and then we collaborate with employers, community groups, educators, to facilitate hands on learning at these specified locations. And so we Just got done with a pilot with Tolleson High School and Honeywell. And basically, the high school football teacher was the person. That football coach was the one facilitating the class. He had no idea about manufacturing. But he knew how to get kids through a self paced learning course, once a week, Honeywell aerospace employees were coming to the classroom, and teaching specific hands on activities. And that the very end. So just on Monday, we had about 12 kids that went to Honeywell, they got a tour, they all got interviews. And then we also went to Wei, Mo and some other places. So they could see other like other tech, but so this was just like one little pilot. And so our vision is like, how do we help create these connections to get people to these high skilled jobs, and so the students don't have to go to college right away, they're going right into Honeywell. And Honeywell basically said, we'll pay for your college, if you stay with us. And so just trying to find these other other ways to do that. And so our platform is really just, it's a way to augment the schools, it's a way to augment the employers, it's a way to augment the different nonprofits that we work with to help facilitate training.

So Peters really been getting around, I think you've probably talked to every community college and university and state agencies and just about anybody, I think,

you know, it's, it's, we're all about collaboration and partnerships. And that's the only way that this stuff works. So, at the core, we're a technology provider, and we saw a way that we could use technology to help help close that gap. And so that's what we do. And so we also use, like, virtual reality in some applications. We have like an AI learning assistant. So, you know, I, I, I've been in the technology world for a while I try not to get too hung up in the technology world, because a lot of it is they're shiny objects, but maybe they're not totally polished yet. But there's some there's some definitely cool things that can be done. And then I'll just, I'll just do a plug really quick, because I'm look, we're so we just received a grant from ASU and jobs for the future, to do a fiber optic technician training program. It's in conjunction with city Mason, the Mesa library. And so this will be like a four week course, that's over the summer. And it's basically online learning and then coming in and doing hands on labs that will be taught by an employer partner. So we're starting to look for employer partners to do this grant, we have a we have a few that we're talking with. But basically, this is setting up guaranteed interviews and possibly hiring at the end of the program. So there are folks that need fiber optic technicians, please, please let me know. And I'll put post my information here. But yeah, I would love to find opportunities for these kids. Right.

So we're going to come back later, to talk a little bit some of what you have talked about this hybrid learning. So for some people, face to face, it works for some people online works for some people, a little combination of those things. And so we're gonna come back and talk about that a little bit. A little bit later. Alan, you want to kind of go next, please? Sure.

So I actually thought what I'd like to mention is some of the challenges that that I found implementing the new technology or new technologies for workforce development, engaging, engaging students? Brian, your, your technology, your work, I always found immediately engaging the the, the, the technology or the content that I've been using, not necessarily so now and part of it might be the the nature of the material, it may be more difficult to to produce, to engage people in what's going on inside of an optical waveguide. But I think another issue is there's a wide range of audiences. And we always struggle, like when we're making the this content, like, who are we? Who are we? Who's the intended audience? Is it high school students? Is it are we training technicians? Is it a PhD candidate somewhere? And a lot of times we end up sort of just saying, well, we'll try to we'll try to make Good suitable for everybody. And I don't think this worked very well. You might ask why don't we make different material for each of the different audiences. And I think that brings up another problem is that it's still very time consuming to do for us anyway to do this content. And so we were going to do it once. And maybe that's why we try to cover everybody, because we're gonna say, Well, we, we can only make this content once we'll try to, we'll try to tailor it for anybody that comes across it. And that doesn't work very well, because a PhD student is engaged in a very different way than, than, you know, a high school or middle middle schooler is. i Oh, by the way, I'm assuming that sort of everybody has a picture of what I'm talking about, which is using sort of online technology and interactivity in order to engage people as opposed to traditional textbooks. Oh, I was gonna say the other thing that, that I think I've struggled with is that we've struggled with is we've come up with some some for some things that we're really proud of, that I think really have a lot of key learning in them. And then they sit somewhere in there not fully distributed, or there are people don't find out about it. And that may, because we're sort of naive about how to get material out on the internet to a wide audience. I mean, we sort of figured, well, we'll put it on a website. I've been working with manufacturing, manufacturing USA organization, which is sort of this over oversight organization for a bunch of manufacturing Institute's around the country, maybe we'll put it on their website and say, well, our job is done. And then we find out if we look at the data, nobody's going there to look at our raw material. So we spent a lot of time on it. It's not it's not getting out there. And so I think another challenge, maybe is distribution, getting it to the right places. I think engaging in industry is is useful if it's workforce development. Again, I think sometimes the universities just naively think what will will produce this workforce development material, and it'll be used, but what happens is that the companies just make if the company is big enough, they just make their own material and they don't pay any attention to what the universities are doing. There was a an NPR report. Well, chi Rizal took, what's his name of his show marketplace. He took it to Mesa to talk about the new fabs being built in, in the Phoenix area, and all the training that was going on there. But what struck me is that the the Intel and the TSMC have their own sort of training initiatives. And as far as I could tell, there's no contact with the universities. They're just teaching their own the people separately what they need.

How and I think you're gonna hear differently from Dario. Just a couple of minutes about that

template. Okay. Oh, yeah, that'd be good. Okay. Yeah. So maybe, yeah, I'm a little bit ignorant on that also, but maybe I'm talking about our material. Yeah, and that would be great. Maybe somebody else is a good solution. Anyway, I don't want to be totally negative about this. Because I think we're we've we've got a lot of good material that I've worked with the AIM Photonics Institute. And we've we've done built a lot of good content around sort of training in that area, but I'm talking to you, I just like to point out what I think are some of the challenges. Yeah, maybe I'll, I'll stop there with that.

So Alan, can you just talk briefly about some of the technology that you have been using with your client with the platform you've been doing? Yeah. Could

I share my screen then? Maybe or something? Like,

okay, well, yeah, you can go ahead and share your screen.

Okay, so you're getting them on the screen here. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I did want to mention sort of the the context or where the funding is coming from. So there is this organization called manufacturing USA. It's a consortium of right now 17 manufacturing institutes that have been federally funded around the country in different areas, mostly high tech areas. The one that I've been associated with is called AIM Photonics. And I'll switch their AIM Photonics is a Manufacturing Institute that specializes in the the manufacturing development of integrated chips but that have light on them for that Have photonic or optics applications. I was going to mention that, let's see if I can get it here back here

having trouble getting it

whereas Oh, here it is okay. That there's a new Manufacturing Institute called ships that they're soliciting proposals for right now that is focused on, on manufacturing of integrated circuits. In particular, what they're talking about, what they want to emphasize is sort of a manufacturing technique called the digital twin, where every part in a factory has a digital and online twin that has all the sort of properties or parameters of a real of a real device. And the twin goes through the manufacturing process at the same time is the the real life PARCC test. And the claim is that you can improve yield this way and track supply lines and make sure there's no holdups, the chips, this is a these Institute's are big, I think there's $285 million dollars in funding for this particular institute. And ASU was one of the one of the the organizations it is part of one of the teams that's going for this particular institute. Okay, now, what I wanted to do is show you some of the content I apologize that my zoom window thing is blocking some of the, the my tabs, that's why I'm having trouble here. Okay. So you shouldn't be seeing now sort of what looks like a textbook, with some headings and some material. These this actually something is something called a Jupyter notebook that runs online. And what's different about this sort of content is that in addition to having sort of traditional texts, you can put in integrate interactive material inserted inside the text. And that will give us a greater degree of interactivity. Another plus I think, if this particular technique is for advanced students, not only can they read and see the interactivity, but if they want to, they can go take a look at the actual code that is see if I can pull that up somewhere. They can actually look at the Python code is actually generating these plots. And I find that the the the access to the actual equations and code that are producing the plots that they're they're learning from that advanced students get quite a bit of information out of that and a better insight into what's going on. In addition to these Jupyter Notebooks, we

also have been using a unity software, which is actually a game based it's a software for, for developing games, but we've been using it to to produce some interactive content for looking at optical waveguides. The Unity software allows you to do some fairly interactive and fancy sort of plots that move around in real time like these right here. These are sort of fancier versions of those interactive plots that you saw previously in the Jupyter Notebook. And then finally, we've been doing some more virtual laboratory interactive content, using Unity software to do some training in certain manufacturing areas like this was the manufacturer of optical fiber. And that particular manufacturing process has two main thrusts, making up these sort of so called pre forms, which is these bulk pieces of glass that have all the right properties. And then there's this fiber draw, which where you take this, these chunks of glass and you turn them into thin optical fiber that can carry optical signals long distances. And let me see, I'll show to show you how this works if I couldn't do this, so in this particular content, we walk three people through the manufacturing process. Here, they're their attorney, one of these bulk pieces of glass into optical fiber, and let's see if I get here We're still on them. And so as they are changing parameters, they will actually be taken into the lab and they'll watch, they'll watch things happen here. And we asked them, we set certain goals for them, like, make three meters of fiber per seconds. And if they, if they do that, they get a check mark, if if if the fiber breaks before they're finished, they get a red or red X and then they have to start over again. Okay, I think I'll stop there. Okay. Okay.

Thanks, Alan. I'm gonna move on, but then we'll come back with some questions. But so, Brian, you're up.

Hi, everyone. Great conversation earlier, we're taking a slightly different approach whereby we're not teaching any certified content or anything like that, or we're working with that. Our collaboration with with the Dunbar pavilion has allowed us an opportunity to work very closely with this community anchor, which Dunbar is for those aren't that aren't familiar. Dunbar's is the historically segregated school here in Tucson, Arizona, turned into a public school and then later on turned into a community anchor, there are a community partner for the NTIA grant. And that's where we were able to build in some level of programming into that grant in order to engage the community very differently. And so we're using information from a needs assessment that the executive director did not too long before the grant began, in order to develop the various types of programming that will ultimately be offered and of course expanded upon during the time that we're that we're working with them through this grant and hopefully on a long time after, but we're using this idea of leapfrogging the, the this this community using various tools in order to not only teach and learn differently, but also engage the community and introduce them to new to new opportunities with regards to learning how those technologies actually work. So for instance, one of the tools that we're using is volumetric capture. And if any of you have a cell phone and would like to to to scan and

read the last year volume, your audio Brian? Cheerio.

All right, how about now is back? Yes. All right, fantastic. I'm going to share my screen one more time, so that those of you that didn't get a chance to see that would be able to scan this with you. Yeah, you can scan this QR code, and you'll be able to see an example of volumetric capture. So I've always been in the, in the in the ball camp of, of once we have some idea of programming, once we have some idea of content, we're able to then present that in very different ways, using the most by revolutionary technologies that we can in order to engage students. I think that, that a lot of these could, you know, be be referred to us, as you know, bells and whistles and things like that. But some of them, I think, are very, very engaging with regards to addressing different learning preferences, not styles, but preferences. Because I think by introducing people to a lot of different styles, then they can decide what their preference is for learning and engaging with content. So we're developing content based on the needs assessment that covers things like workforce development, health care, financial literacy, creative and and productivity tools, but presented using tools like this. You can imagine with with students having say a headset on and being able to see a person standing right in front of them, we're able to then maybe then present other augmented information in front of them as well, which will then lead to a different level of interactivity. So when we think about engaging people Yes, it's one thing to use a gaming engine which is fantastic. It's another thing to to engage them in their real space, which is yet another technology. Another technology you know, using volumetric capture immersive technologies, things that will be more tactile like printing something out using a 3d printer. So here's where it's just really a matter of, of knowing what those technologies are, knowing who your audience is, and then knowing what what what the content is, and then, you know, sort of figuring out how to how to use the the most recent technologies in order to deliver that content and engage your audience, but not stopping there. We want to teach folks how to actually record in, you know, volumetrically, how that technology works. And so there's where once we find out what that interest is, we can begin developing additional content. I think that yes, we do have to, you know, focus on different types of content for different audiences. Because, as you said, Alan, a PhD student is going to learn and engage very differently than a middle school student, right. And so I think it's very important to create those introductory lessons or experiences that will ultimately get folks interested in photonics. But you got to do that in a way that as an eighth grader will be like, Oh, wow, I'm blown away, maybe doing some cool activities, and then incrementally increasing the complexity so that by the time just Eater is a perfect example, Peter, when you say you were introduced to computers, when you were a kid, that was hands on stuff that you can imagine that if that were presented in a textbook, it might not have come off the same way or your interest might not have been the same. But you had these these these really interesting engaging activities as a youngster that then enabled you to, you know, find that interest, when you became an adult, we got to use that same tactic, when we're thinking about introducing young people to very complex ideas, that we can maybe interest them in getting into when they get to college. So TSMC, and all these other chip manufacturers, I don't know why they're not developing content that will, that will start at the middle school, and introduce middle school kids to what a fab, you know, factory is, and then in and then progress on to there. That will, that will do so in a very, very engaging way. But you got to start young. And that's why they're having all these shortages, because you can't just get people into that, that that that field, when they're, you know, a sophomore in college, most people aren't going to, you know, be as successful as if they were to start when, when Peter at Peter's age when he was younger, and was introduced to these things. So these are some of the tools that we're using at Dunbar where we're introducing the community to these tools. But also when you know, through this grant, we were able to install and purchase a lot of these demands tools that hopefully will be engaging for the community.

And Brian, maybe I'll just add to that, because i i in that. I totally agree. Actually, what's what's something interesting, talking about the multimodal learning preference. My assumption was that, you know, this generate the Tick Tock Instagram generation of like my kids, and the kids that are graduating, I thought everybody wants short form video content. And actually talking with these, you know, 20 plus students that were going through our upskill program recently, kind of doing a post assessment and saying, Hey, what was the material that you felt like was most effective for learning and engaging? And, and I said, it wasn't the video content, because we have small, like, two minute videos. And they're like, No, we just want to read something like all of them single, like no one raised their hand about video content. They said, I we really liked the short form, like it's their micro lessons. So it's maybe like, two to three paragraphs. They said they really liked that. And they we have like interactive assessments. At the end of it. They're kind of like little video games, just like mix and match, like gets the word. And they like, we all love that. And it was interesting to see this whole class like simultaneously raise their hand like, this is what we love. But what I have found is that with different demographics, so like, maybe it's an adult population that maybe doesn't have as much comprehensive, comprehensive learning, reading skills, they prefer the video form, they prefer something that they can watch over and over again. And so you, we don't know. And so you just kind of have to deliver it as like a buffet style, and say, Okay, you choose what you'd like. And this is I think the way that we just started commenting is different learning styles. And then for the VR learn, sorry for the career awareness thing that you're talking about. A program that we've done, we we worked together with Chicanos Por La Casa and Maricopa community colleges, and we developed a VR experience that brings people into an aerospace manufacturing facility and into a semiconductor fab. And so while we're building this we're trying to get because it's like a video game. It's it's the we built in Unity. And so, you know, when we're first trying to understand more like the issue it was, we'd go to these high schools and ask them when I say the word semiconductor manufacturing, what comes to mind? And I'd say almost everybody, and they still to this day, maybe people in the room think it's like, I'm in a dark warehouse on like stamping circuit boards, or like putting circuit boards together and a computer. And it's like an assembly line. And I'm like, No, it's opposite of that. And so then we put them in the VR experience. And they're in this futuristic factory with robots going over their head, and it's fully automated, and a person never ever touches the chip. And they're blown away. And, you know, I've said this thing, so many times, it's like, they all say like, it looks like Star Wars, it looks like it's from the future, I want to work there. And so just that awareness around what these jobs are, and the technologies that need to be used, is incredibly important. And so there's a lot of I think there's a lot of like patchwork grassroots efforts that are happening across the state and across the country, to get people aware of those jobs. But I do believe that as we continue need, we need to continue to come together to, to create awareness around all these different opportunities. Having people kind of, I think, when you're a kid, growing up, you have this very black and white view of the world. And you're just like, Well, I'm gonna go study engineering, that means I'm going to be they have some thing in their head, around what engineering might be to them. And the more that you can have people come in and talk about this is what an actual engineer does. You know, I'm traveling to these different sites, I'm making sure they're quality. I mean, just there's so many, there's probably 1000s of different types of jobs that engineer can do.

I'm gonna cut you off, because we're almost out of time. segue to Dario, Dario, we don't have a lot of time, but we're going to get your own show. And a couple of weeks, but I was probably going, Yeah, but we're doing all that stuff.

That's actually perfect, perfect. That's a perfect introduction. And I am blessed with having access to hundreds and hundreds of scientists and engineers and practitioners in all the areas that have to do with learning, knowledge generation, manufacturing, testing, production. So the good thing about that is that you can take a couple of steps back and have an abstraction of what the whole system is. And going back to what was said before about the different learners in the that's a fact. So we don't have the luxury of you're simply saying, we're going to do technicians or we're going to do engineers, or, or research or researchers or PhDs, we need to cater to all of them. And what is happening now is that the growth in content and technologies and skills is growing exponentially. So so how can we discover on the research side and trickle that information down depending on the level of skill and knowledge that is required? Is this cannot be done systematically, but it's got to be done. Even the TSMC is relationship for ACU or Intel they want I managed Intel, there's somebody else that they used to the mangosteen, CMC, well, we come together every month, to share what works, what doesn't work. And every question is important. If you have when somebody is a learner in the street and says, Hey, Dario, I used to have this job. I lost it now. Because you can do that with AI. You know, that's a valid question, that we're addressing that question the same, the same way we are addressing the question, a Dario from Intel, I hired this engineer, but it takes two years for them to become productive. So all those questions have an answer. And we can assemble a team, an Agile team to respond to that question. Like, for example, education in the school districts, we were talking with that and wireless communication companies and said, Hey, we would like to give more of more gadgets to these kids in the schools. So we have, for example, different school districts, we actually manage some of the school districts, we manage a digital Prep Academy, we have the teachers, teachers training, we have the research and education, we have the research and technology. So we have all the components. So the idea was to put a framework together, that you can gather data, you can test learning to the points made earlier, you cannot assume just because I give you an iPad with something that moves, but you're going to learn better. I mean, it's exciting, but you need to measure it. So my whole point and I would love to tell you much more but it's just too much to say just in a few minutes, but I would love to show you how the system looks from where I'm standing And if you want to talk to a specific person that does the the material science or the heterogeneous integration in semiconductor manufacturing, or the advanced robotics, we got those guys. But then we need to be able to connect those dots and align with whoever needs the talent and what the talent needs to learn and upskill and rescale and get the degrees and the need for, for being able to be productive and contribute to the different opportunities.

So Dario, you are, it sounds like you are working with Intel and TSMC?

Absolutely. And can I can just talk for hours about, let's just say that the interrelationship, we have like two dozen different ways of engaging, we have 4000 alumni on that site. So we have people that every time they have an ID, that they just contact somebody that is you, my job is to capture those interactions. But then there is our precedent with the CEO of Intel talking about the big picture. And then we have the lieutenant's are in the middle. And then we have the engineers and the scientists and the guy in the manufacturing floor that says, I need a solution for this automation challenge. I mean, we have multiple ways of connecting. But there is somebody on both sides, that we sit down once a month, and we distill all that interaction into something that allows us to innovate in the way that we communicate. So we are more effective in doing that. And we learn we learn we are learning as we are providing the support in both directions.

Now has it gone beyond the discussion? Well, our ASU faculty creating content that has been used to train people for the boundaries? Yeah,

absolutely, absolutely. And there are things that are formally done. Like for example, they sponsor faculty to create courses in an area that is defined, well defined. So that it could be part of the of the coursework, you just take that course, to all the other engagements or content that are not necessarily well defined. And we need to go to the to the research, and then take it from research to graduate courses, to undergraduate courses, to technical introduction and to something you can teach in K to 12. So all those processes are in place, the thing is, somebody has to put them together, because they happen in an organic fashion to your point, it's a complex system, challenging, but it's happening. And it takes people like me and others here at ASU to pay attention to all those, all those innovations,

well, you guys are going to do a good job. And I guess that's why ASU keeps growing and grow. You're given a yeah, you're gonna run down, you have a making us here you have a run to keep up.

My next meeting is on semiconductor manufacturing, where the lead company is making the tools to talk about their science, of course, we cannot afford it. The machines but Intel can and we need to prepare the people that understand those machines. So see, see how they trilogy works. Okay,

actually. And of course, this relates certainly to optical sciences, as Dario knows, my son works for a company called ASML. And for people that don't know who ASML is, they're basically the only company in the world that that makes the machines that makes digital chips, they don't make chips, but Intel, and TSMC and Samsung, and all those companies buy those machines, they're like three, as he he alluded to, was a $300 million machines. So they're all just bought by what off the rack. That's all there there in the process right now of installing those machines at Intel and TSMC, and so forth, that will hopefully be up and running. But if but optical science, I mean, that's what they're, that's what that's what those machines are as optics. Well, they're a lot of things, but, but certainly optics may have a training program with ASML to train ASML people. So anyway, is there's just a lot of stuff going on. But I think that the point is, and I know we're we're kind of out of time at the moment today. But one of the things I'd like to just take two minutes, if anybody Well, two things. Miko. amic, do you have anything that you want to add or contribute? I know we talked a lot. But you know, this certainly falls in your bailiwick to

know I'm just very thankful to be able to hear all the dialogue and learn more about what I all these panelists are up to. It's really great to be connecting to the details and hope to continue to intersect with all that you're doing.

Thank you. Sounds great. Kelly, you have a quick comment.

No, I just really enjoyed everything today. So thank you, Steve, for arranging.

Great, well, so one last thing and I know we're really out of time. We're over actually over time, but I wonder if you guys want to just take a quick Second, the talk about one of the things and you've sort of have dressed it in different ways, which is hybrid learning that for some people, on him in person, some online and some combination of both. And so I don't know if you guys want to just take a minute to, we don't have a lot of time. But just to comment briefly about that.

Steve, I've been enjoying this conversation. So I can just drop a couple quick lines. This is a very visual learning population we're dealing with and I liked all those comments made about the visual to touch the field, even the smell and the look of what can be done with with the experience. And that that young age experienced I think, is very critical. I was very involved at the middle school level with a previous assignment at the county school office. I think there's a lot of growth takes place in that age range, because puberty is is in motion and things start to really happen and develop. So thanks for the discussion today.

Okay. Anybody have any closing comments? So one thing if nothing else related to this, I just want to take a minute. Michelle, are you still online? Michelle, are you still there? Yes, we lost her but and Mark put a comment. Also in the in the chat that Michelle Simon with Pima County was recognized by NTIA. They just had a webinar. And they highlighted three folks who had gotten NTIA grants, and Michelle Simon and Pima County Office of Digital Inclusion and the fiber ring that they're putting down because of that NTIA Grant was recognized. So I'm sorry, Michelle was already gone, but I didn't want to just acknowledge her. Okay, is there anything else?

So is there anything else that anybody would like to share? Before we're done? I'm going to stop recording and then anybody wants to stay in Kibbutz. You're welcome to