In its second year, the experiential summer program is part of a project to build an academic pathway for Logistics Engineering Technicians funded by a National Science Foundation grant under the Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program. The project addresses skills and knowledge gaps found in emerging occupations in the logistics field where automation and sophisticated computerized systems are becoming more prevalent.
Technologies around transportation are evolving rapidly. Staying current is difficult enough for professionals in the field, let alone for young people or the educators who prepare them for post secondary education and to choose their career path. Through a unique project, a suite of lesson plans teaching concepts from intelligent transportation systems (ITS) and connected vehicle technologies has been developed for middle school and high school students. The plans connect educators with the latest technologies and expose students to a modern vision of careers in the transportation industry.
“What kids see in terms of highway workers is a bunch of guys with trucks and shovels. But, we’re doing coding and robotics and communications. There’s a difference between the current perception and the vision of what’s going to come in the future as things are automated and as technology improves, and as the ways that transportation systems are developed, designed or maintained change,” said Richard Claus, Chief Executive Officer of NanoSonic, a company specializing in advanced materials and devices headquartered in Pembroke, Virginia.
NanoSonic is one of very few high-tech companies in a very rural area. Located near a local middle school, the people of NanoSonic were routinely asked to visit science, math or chemistry classes. Four years ago, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) sponsored a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract to develop lesson plans around intelligent transportation systems and connected vehicle technologies. The company’s leadership saw this as an opportunity to get more formally engaged with the education system.
They were awarded the contract and began collaborating with engineers from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s ITS Joint Program Office’s Professional Capacity Building (ITS PCB) Program and Leidos and with educators from local schools. Since the initial project, the company was also awarded another contract for a second phase lasting two years, which is coming to a close, now.
“The contract required us to develop twenty lesson plans. We’re up to about sixty-five, now,” said Claus.
A recently developed lesson plan involves students in the development of clothing that will keep highway maintenance workers safe by sensing when traffic is too close.
From the initial set of lesson plans, the ideas have continued to evolve and grow. One of the plans most recently developed has students utilize e-textile fabrics with embedded sensors and actuators. In this exercise, students develop clothing that will keep highway maintenance workers safe by sensing when traffic is too close. In addition to getting the students to think about how close a vehicle can be to a person without putting them in danger, the activity provides experience assembling electronics, learning about how the sensors work, and programming the devices.
Lesson plans were field tested through a STEM afterschool program serving middle school and high school students. Now in its third year, the program has reached many students, some of whom have returned year after year.
“One of our best success stories comes from one of the students who was with us for a couple of years, graduated from high school, and then, between graduating and going to college in the fall, worked for the Virginia Department of Transportation as a transportation engineer,” said Claus. The graduate returned recently and talked to the kids in the afterschool program about his experiences. “After he talked, enthusiasm among the students went up by a factor of ten. It just has more impact for a student to tell other students, than for an adult to tell them.”
Sensors in the fabric to be used for highway worker clothing.
Transportation is a good field for engaging with students of this age group, according to Christina Martin, who serves as the Giles County STEM Education Program Coordinator. “Students are excited about driving; it’s something they can see themselves doing in a few years. It’s fun for them to think about how vehicles are going to change. They see some of the connected applications that already exist on vehicles and they can start to imagine what that progression is going to look like in several years,” she said.
It was through their interactions with local teachers that the NanoSonic engineers learned that most of the classrooms in the area did not have access to the Internet. “That floored us because we’re engineers and nerds,” said Claus. NanoSonic purchased inexpensive routers and installed them in the science classrooms in all the county schools they worked with. Today, perhaps in part because of this effort, all of the county schools now have wireless Internet throughout. “We think that’s a nice benefit. Certainly, that wasn’t FHWA’s objective, but as a side benefit, we think we’ve been able to move the county ahead a step or two.”
The company has also helped create a regional science fair, launched a Transportation Engineering Summer Camp, and initiated a summer work program for high schoolers.
“We think it’s our civic responsibility to be part of the community,” said Claus. However, he does point out that the company has had one direct benefit from the work they have done with the schools. Through a summer work program for high school students, NanoSonic has hired one person as a full-time, permanent employee.
To view and download the suite of free transportation lesson plans, visit the Education page of the NanoSonic website. Questions related to the plans can be directed to STEM@nanosonic.com .
We know that diversity and inclusion (D&I) are good for business, and some companies have embraced these principles to move their businesses forward. On the other hand, some industries continue to struggle with challenges from a declining workforce, talent gaps, loss of customer engagement, and other trends, despite the clear potential benefits that could be gained from D&I. In transportation, we know that our industry faces every one of these challenges, yet we are among the slowest to adopt D&I principles.
In our recent Virtual Roundtable D&I Summer Series, we spoke with various professionals on proven strategies to build diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace. Together with series facilitator, Tremaine Maebry, guest speakers discussed examples from traditional corporate settings, from healthcare, and from the insurance industry.
From his position as Manager in the Office of Diversity and Civil Rights for a Midwest railroad company, Maebry took some time to reflect on what can be learned from these discussions and how we might effectively bring D&I best practices to Transportation. Below are his eight suggestions for moving the needle for D&I in Transportation.
“As employment professionals, diversity professionals, inclusion professionals, we really need to start talking another language. We need to up our game,” said Maebry. When trying to move D&I initiatives forward, a lot of resistance can arises negative impressions of what diversity means.
Because conversations around diversity can be uncomfortable, people tend to shy away from the topic to the point where many D&I professionals feel excluded in the workplace. In his own experience, Maebry has found that, in spite of his law degree and a dozen years of experience and in spite of his MBA in marketing, people will often disregard his contributions out of hand because of his association with D&I. People assume that someone who is passionate about inclusion is too soft-hearted to do the “real work” of business.
Maebry suggests that D&I professionals talk about what they do in terms that resonate with their coworkers and senior leaders. “I try to use other words that talk about bringing people into the fold. For instance, I say that I am a human capital professional that will help you bring more talent into your pipeline, when talking to organizational leaders about targeted recruiting efforts. Or, I mention mitigating risk factors when developing HR policies and in reviewing current practices. These are things that get their attention,” he said.
In our first roundtable, George Watts and Laurie Blazek talked about aligning communication strategies to match the personalities and interests of the people you are trying to reach. Maebry agrees this is helpful and suggests finding the “shiny penny” topics, the issues that are top of mind for the organization’s leaders. From this perspective, the benefits of D&I practices can be related to the interests of decision makers and be more likely to gain support.
Real progress is more likely when an organization sets clear goals. In our third roundtable, Angela Russell, from CUNA Mutual Group, described how senior leadership at her company made inclusion a priority by rolling it into the corporate vision.
“We need to start tying performance measures for diversity and inclusion to the performance measures for all employees,” said Maebry.
He explained that this should be for employees at every level, not just managers and not just for recruitment. This should be a top-to-bottom mandate. Without a culture of inclusiveness, hiring managers might hire the required mix of diverse applicants, but they won’t necessarily put those applicants in positions of influence.
“This applies in Targeted Marketing. Or, when trying to recruit minorities or people with disabilities into professions that have been historically exclusive. Your marketing and your recruiting has to be intentional. You can’t just put it on LinkedIn or Monster and hope that people are going to come to you,” said Maebry.
According to Maebry, Transit is a good example of a brand that could use an infusion of diverse marketing and recruiting viewpoints. “Traditional marketing and recruiting efforts don’t appeal to millennials. They don’t appeal to women. They don’t look inclusive or welcoming,” he said.
One of the best practices described by Russell is important when writing policies or instituting new practices. Maebry agrees that it is important to be asking questions like, “Does this policy burden or benefit?” And, determine whom might be burdened by it. If it does burden someone, then involve them in finding the solution.
Much of the transportation industry is in the public sector, making some of the strategies that work in the corporate environment less effective. Further, these fields can be highly regulated, throwing seemingly endless hurdles in the way of change.
However, Maebry points out that diversity, equity and inclusion offer powerful tools for repairing and nurturing an organization’s public image, which can be the lifeblood of a public resource’s success of failure.
In our second roundtable, Bridgett Willey from UW Health spoke about the importance for an organization to have a staff with a similar demographic makeup to the community that it serves.
“Transportation professionals, particularly with the railroads, just need to get out of their own way and take some intelligent and calculated risks. It’s such a heavily regulated industry, so I often hear, ‘We can’t do this because we’re heavily regulated, we can’t do that because of regulations.,’” explained Maebry.
“We have to work in a concerted way on our perception and our relationships with the community,” said Maebry.
“Once you become complacent, you’re done,” said Maebry. While goals do not have to be huge, Maebry sits down with his team every year to set new goals. These goals are evaluated every quarter and the team tries to determine which tactics were the most successful. For example, did attending more meetings throughout the organization get the D&I team included in more discussions?
Every year, more goals are added and existing goals are kept. “You have to do that. You have to hit people from different angles in order for these initiatives to take root and develop,” said Maebry.
During his career, Maebry has seen senior leadership judge their organization’s performance against the performance of their peers. When their peers aren’t making huge strides in D&I, then it is almost like an excuse to be complacent.
“My response would be, ‘No. We need to be pioneers,’” said Maebry.
At MTWC, we know that apprenticeship is an important piece of the puzzle for growing the much needed talent for the Transportation industry. We have compiled several resources around apprenticeship available through the MTWC website and on the MTWC Community of Practice Google+ page.