National Geospatial Technology Center (NGT Center)

Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station, College Station TX

Investigators

Abstract

The National Geospatial Technology Center (NGT Center) is a partnership of seven community colleges, a community and technical college system, and a four-year university in collaboration with industry and state and local governments representing all regions of the country. In order to better prepare America's 21st century workforce, the vision of the NGT Center is to provide leadership to community and technical colleges in all aspects of emerging geospatial technology. To help increase the number, diversity, and quality of geospatial technology professionals, the mission of the NGT Center is to improve geospatial technology education at the community and technical college level. Intellectual Merit: The NGT Center has the potential to transform the preparation and continuing education of geospatial technicians to meet national workforce demand through its goals to: (1) create a national clearinghouse of exemplary geospatial curriculum materials, resources, and national geodatabase web services; (2) provide a unified voice for two-year colleges and increase their capacity to educate geospatial technicians through new partnerships and collaborations; (3) increase the quantity, quality and diversity of geospatial technicians to meet U.S. workforce needs; (4) increase the number of community and technical college geospatial faculty and secondary school teachers participating in geospatial professional development; and (5) create a self-sustaining center for geospatial technology. Broader Impacts: The institutional partners of NGT serve a diverse student population and include two Hispanic Serving Colleges and two in the Southeast with significant African American enrollment. These partners continue to expand their networks for Hispanic and African American students throughout their service regions and beyond. Individuals with disabilities, especially disabled veterans, provide an untapped resource for geospatial technology workers. The NGT Center is working with various disability agencies to better meet the needs of this population, including the integration of assistive technology devices. The NGT Center partners are actively presenting at a variety of events to increase awareness of resources available to educators, maintain ties to industry workforce instruction needs, and become a unifying voice for two-year programs. The team is dedicated to reaching not only the traditional outlets, but also to new and nontraditional groups such as the League for Innovation, the Association for Career and Technology Education, the National Association of Counties, the Geological Society of America, the American Geological Union, the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development, the National Institute for Women in Trades, Technology and Science, and the United States Department of Veterans Affairs.