NEW IT Alliance – July Tech Upload
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NEW Digital News
Happy 4th of July!
Happy July! It’s been a busy month for the NEW IT Alliance. We started June with a collaborative event with Microsoft, finalized our venue for the NEW Connect IT event, started plans for a NEW CS Advisory Board, and booked our speakers for the July Tech Community meeting. What do all these things have in common? They all focus on the value the NEW IT Alliance is bringing to the region by connecting organizations and partners to work on developing solutions to build our IT talent pipeline in Northeast Wisconsin.
On June 11, Microsoft and NEW IT Alliance hosted a Digital Learning Opportunities event focused on the challenges of offering Computer Science (CS) courses in K12 and attracting students to IT careers. The event was well attended by area school district administrators, colleges, and business representatives for a morning of presentations, panels, and discussion among all the participants. While recognizing the importance of providing CS classes at their schools (91% of the schools participating in the survey offer some form of CS class), administrators were surprised to learn of the IT talent shortage predicted for the region. At the same time, industry leaders learned of the challenges schools face in recruiting females into the CS classroom, and district’s struggles in finding and retaining CS licensed teachers. In order to keep the dialogue going and help find solutions to the challenges districts face with implementing CS pathways, the NEW IT Alliance is forming a NEW CS Advisory Board – see below.
At the end of June, Foxconn announced that they are buying the Watermark building in downtown Green Bay to create an innovation center focused on the company’s AI + 8K + 5G Ecosystem initiative. The expectation is to have 200 Foxconn employees working at the facility. At the announcement event, which featured Foxconn CEO Terry Gou, Governor Scott Walker, WEDC CEO and Secretary Mark Hogan, and New North Executive Director Jerry Murphy, it was clear that the work of the NEW IT Alliance played a significant role in attracting Foxconn to Northeast Wisconsin. Many of the roles Foxconn will be looking to fill include hardware, software, firmware, business intelligence, and big data engineers. With both Foxconn and Microsoft investing in innovation centers in Northeast Wisconsin, the need for the NEW IT Alliance and IT talent development is stronger than ever. To learn more about how you can get involved with the NEW IT Alliance, email us at newitallinace@gmail.com.
Coming up on July 12 from 2-4pm, the NEW IT Alliance will be hosting Greg Levenhagen from Skyline Technologies and Laura Schmidt from New Berlin School District to talk about the talent impacts of Artificial Intelligence, and how our schools and businesses need to prepare. Both Greg and Laura are part of the growing Advancing Ai Wisconsin organization. Register NOW! The Wisconsin Tech Council will be holding their next luncheon in Northeast Wisconsin on August 9 at the FVTC Bordini Center. The topic for this event has not yet been communicated. Past luncheon topics have included: New Wisconsin Venture Funds, Wisconsin Portfolio Report, Personalized Cell Therapy, Get Smarter About AI, and many others. Look for details and registration links on our events page. In order to continue the discussions from Digital Learning Opportunities, the NEW IT Alliance is forming a regional computer science advisory board focused on the K-12 schools and is looking for businesses, schools, and colleges interested in participating. The NEW CS Advisory board is designed to help connect local K12 CS advisory boards, as well as provide advisory board dialogue for districts who do not yet have their own.
The purpose is to encourage dialogue between schools, employers, and colleges to help develop and grow a regional K12 computer science strategy and local school offerings to help prepare our youth for a digital future. The advisory board is open to Northeast Wisconsin colleges, and employer representatives, along with superintendents, career and academic planning coordinators, computer science educators, and others interested in helping advance computer science in Northeast Wisconsin. Our first meeting will be held on September 27 from 2:30 – 4:30 at the FVTC Bordini Center. Register here to participate: www.newitallinace.com/events Join us on November 14 at Lambeau Field for our second annual NEW Connect IT event! This event is geared toward connecting the IT talent pipeline from high school through adult job seekers. The NEW Connect IT event is designed to connect job seekers with employers in the Gig Portal (booth) section, while also educating high school students about career opportunities and the diversity of employers needing IT talent. Our Talent Café focuses on the individual careers, with tables staffed by local IT professionals representing the various IT roles. Event participants get to talk to professionals and learn about the careers. In the Tech Marketplace companies can showcase the technology they are building or leveraging to solve business challenges. Registration is open for Northeast Wisconsin companies interested in having a booth, as well as companies interested in sponsoring or providing volunteers for the event. Register today! Hope everyone was able to relax and enjoy the holiday. Happy 4thof July!
Regional News
UW Applied Computing Degree Designed to Help Solve the IT Workforce Gap
Wisconsin’s economy becomes more tech-based every day. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, jobs in the IT field are projected to grow 12 percent from 2014 to 2024, and it is one of the fastest growing fields in the United States. Yet, despite the demand for IT professionals and the fact that these jobs often pay very well, many employers in Wisconsin, and nationwide, have difficulty filling IT positions. UW System’s new online Bachelor of Science in Applied Computing degree program was designed to fill a recognized shortage in the workforce, providing the region with expertly trained IT professionals who can take computer science from theory to practice. “We launched the online applied computing degree to attract more adults into the growing IT field,” said David Schejbal, dean of the Division of Continuing Education, Outreach and E-Learning at UW-Extension, which administers the program. “The online format means students can balance work with their studies, and ultimately, earn a degree that opens the door to new possibilities.”
J. J. Keller Receives THINC! Innovation Award
Neenah, WI – The innovation and reinvention of processes related to the Electronic Logging Device (ELD) mandate earned J. J. Keller & Associates, Inc. a 2018 THINC! Innovation Award from Insight magazine. Rustin Keller, executive vice president and chief operating officer at J. J. Keller, along with representatives from the company’s ELD and Encompass® fleet management system teams, accepted the award in a ceremony on May 10. The award was for innovation in the category of Process. The Insight Innovation Awards are designed to recognize innovation among businesses in Northeast Wisconsin, celebrating companies that make an important, positive impact in terms of People, Process, Product and our Planet. The company was nominated for the award by the editors of Insight magazine. The nomination highlighted J. J. Keller’s IT professionals and the 10 patents the company received over four years for its ELD solution.
Relaunch of Summer Workshops (FREE!)
Because of all the great feedback that we got from participants, we are now relaunching the summer workshop series FOR FREE starting July 11th. Students are more than welcome to attend and learn alongside everyone else. Feel free to do one class at a time, or sign up for all three to receive a personal 1:1 session to go through any strategy work as it relates to your organization.
www.makecode.com provides an easy interface to use to start coding, with or without the pictured Adafruit circuit board.
Local non-profit Women in Technology will be holding hands-on technology sessions at technology event “THAT Conference” August 6-8 in Wisconsin Dells. Billed a “summer camp for geeks”, THAT Conference brings together 1,000 software developers from the midwest to learn and collaborate. The Women in Technology group will be working in conjunction with Microsoft Tech Spark, who is supplying 75 Adafruit circuit boards for hands-on learning. Volunteers from Women in Technology will guide campers of all ages through coding exercises that leverage the circuit boards. Registration for THAT Conference is still open at https://www.thatconference.com/. The mission of Women in Technology Wisconsin is to attract, grown and retain women and girls in technology-related careers.