This document discusses the need for career enhancement and just-in-time skill training for technicians working in innovation economies. It outlines a nanotechnology training program with courses on nanomaterials, characterization tools, and fabrication methods. The program aims to reskill both recent graduates and more experienced transitional workers by providing hands-on training on instruments at NASA's Advanced Studies Lab, in order to fill skill gaps in local high-tech industries and keep the innovation workforce competitive.

1. Career Booster =>
JIT Skill Enhancement
Robert D. Cormia
Foothill College
Michael Oye
NASA-ASL

2. Overview
• Technicians in innovation economies
• Two student audiences
• Career preparation vs. enhancement
• Just in time / rapid skilling
• Putting SKILL to WORK
• US competitiveness in manufacturing

3. Innovation Economies
• Are dynamic
• Industry clusters
• Silicon Valley
• Computation / networks
• Materials engineering
• Biomedical device
• Clean energy technology

4. Innovation Economies
Silicon Valley is home to
innovation through the hard work
of people bringing ideas, talent,
and capital. In this equation,
human capital is a critical factor.
In Silicon Valley our innovation
workforce is multidisciplinary,
with foundations in science,
engineering, and technology. Our
skilled workforce takes decades
to develop, and the talent is
highly refined. When start-ups
come together, the most difficult
task can be finding people with
strong backgrounds in bringing
innovation to reality. These skills
are valuable, but atrophy quickly
when companies fail suddenly.

5. Three Problems
• Underutilized physical capital
– Instruments sitting idle
• Underutilized human capital
– People sitting idle
• Problems that need to be solved
– Falling behind in key industries
– Energy, materials, advanced
manufacturing

6. Putting Skill to Work
• Valuable work experience
– Advanced materials, instruments
• Start-up / big company environments
• Emerging / complex industries
– Biomedical device / diagnostics
– Clean energy / cleantech
– Thin film coatings
– Smart materials

8. Career Booster: 3 Stages
• Stage one – LIFT OFF
– College degree / BS/MS
• Stage two – Career GROWTH
– First two => three jobs
• Stage three – REINVENTION
– Transitional workforce
– Dislocation => adaptation

9. Younger technicians rise through the ranks
quickly
In stage two of technical growth, new graduates pick up very specific
skills and knowledge related to local innovation economies, especially
industrial clusters from energy to biomedicine to semiconductors

10. Career Enhancement
• Meeting changing demands in a
company
– Core technical competency evolves
– Need to understand / master materials
• Overcoming an existing ‘skill deficit’
– Materials knowledge / instrument skills
• Transitioning into a new / related field
– Clean energy bridges two disciplines:
– Energy and Advanced Materials Engineering

11. Filling the Missing Skill
Companies in high speed growth need people to acquire new skills quickly

12. Nanotechnology Program
• Four course program to develop
technicians for Silicon Valley
• NANO51 – Nanotechnology Applications
• NANO52 – Nanostructures /
Nanomaterials
• NANO53 – Nanocharacterization Tools
• NANO54 – Nanofabrication Methods

14. Nanomaterials Engineering

15. Two Student Audiences
• Transfer student (18-21)
– Some science foundation
– No industry experience
• Returning student (30-55)
– Science / engineering degrees
– Significant industry experience
Our two student audiences are completely different We have changed strategy
to deliver training to our students, and reached out to transitional workers

17. NASA-ASL
Lab Curriculum
• Thin film deposition
• Nanocarbon synthesis
• Characterization tools
– FE-SEM / TEM
– AFM / SEM / XPS
• Design of Experiments (DOE)
• Materials safety / nanomaterials

18. Integrating Curriculum
• Online support materials
– Nanostructures
– Nanocharacterization
– Nanofabrication
• More skill / less lecture
• References for learning
• Nanoscience / materials engineering

19. MACS Instruments
• Hitachi S4800 Field Emission SEM
(Scanning Electron Microscope)
– Magnification to 500K x
– EDX (Energy Dispersive X-Ray Analysis)
• Hitachi H4500 TEM (Transmission
Electron Microscope)
– Magnification to 300K x
– EDX (Energy Dispersive X-Ray Analysis)

20. Hitachi S4800 FE-SEM

21. Hitachi H9500 TEM
High performance imaging is
key to understanding
nanostructures and advanced
materials. The Hitachi S4500
at NASA-ASL provides
students with the ability to
image materials and see grain
boundaries, lattice structure
of thin films, and the complex
nature of carbon bonding in
nanocarbon structures.
Through a special
arrangement with NASA-ASL,
we are able to provide 8-10
hours of TEM training for a
students, and give them an
edge on their resume, and get
them ‘back in the game’.

22. Design of Experiments
• Experimental design
• Sample selection
• Factorial design
• Statistical analysis
• Process control

24. Nanocarbon Synthesis
• Nanodiamond treatments
• Graphene / vertical graphene
• Carbon Nanotubes (CNT)
• Multiwall Nanotubes (MWNT)
• Fullerenes and multiwall fullerenes
• Carbon Nanosphere Chains (CNSC)

28. Initial Cohort
• A dozen technical students / professionals
• Six are consultants / industry connecters
– One person consulting firms
– IEEE working group members
– Nanotech organization (Foresight) etc
• Six are transitional / incumbent workers
– Former technology / recently unemployed
– Students transitioning back into high-tech

30. You are Never Too Old…

31. Summary
• Innovation workforce
– Multidisciplined
• Constant reskilling / career enhancement
• Valuable to innovation economy
– Know how to work in start-up environments
• Need to be reskilled quickly
– Get people ‘back in the saddle’ quickly
• Growing segment of CTE programs

32. References
• NSF-ATE Project 0903316
• NASA-ASL Advanced Studies Lab
• UCSC-MACS Materials Analysis for
Collaborative Science
• Hitachi Instruments
• http://fgamedia/faculty/rdcormia/NANO/