What’s Next for NW PA STEM Education, Workforce and Economic Development

NW PA STEM Workshop with Technology Forecaster Sponsored by In-Kind Contributions from Philadelphia son, Dr. Francis X. Kane, the Military Father of GPS and IDEAS

The Northwest Pennsylvania STEM Steering Committee will host a full day conference on the “Strategy of Technology and Innovation for PA” with technology forecaster and venture accelerator, Jim Brazell of VentureRAMP.com and IDEAS. STEM is an acronym meaning the aggregation of science, technology, engineering and mathematics tools, processes and knowledge to solve problems.

According to Ken Borland, “The workshop was made possible in part by a generous in-kind contribution of Jim’s time in the name of Philadelphia’s Dr. Francis X. Kane (Col, USAF, retired).” According to a U.S. Air Force web site: Dr. Kane is the 50th inductee to the US Air Force Space and Missile Hall of Fame for contributions to the design of the Global Positioning System (GPS).

The day’s activities involving Jim Brazell include: (1) A keynote address to set the tone of the conference. (2) A workshop involving thirty professionals designed to advance STEM in NW PA. (3) A concluding address to report the preliminary findings of the workshop.

In the past week, Jim has announced selection as keynote speaker for Fall 2012 conferences including the STEMtech, League for Innovation in the Community College, the Electronics Technology Association and Spring 2012 keynotes include Tennessee State STEM Transformation Conference, Arizona Leading Change Conference, and the 84th Annual Michigan Industrial and Technology Education Society convention.

“We are we are proud of the historical achievements of Dr. Kane and we are pleased to have IDEAS Orlando’s Jim Brazell help us achieve our STEM transformation goals through planning and design,” explains Dr. Carol Adukaitis.

“Strategy of Technology is Dr. Kane’s contribution to the field of technology forecasting, strategy and thinking,” says Brazell. “We wanted to find several initiatives in Pennsylvania focused on transformative education. We decided to support the work of Dr. Ken Borland and Dr. Carol Adukaitis with resources including a workshop on strategy of technology and concluding report.”