2023 Q2 ICT-DM Newsletter

Introduction

It’s the end of another school year, and many of us are breathing a sigh of relief. It feels good to to be working in person again, and we’re starting to see enrollments recovering after the pandemic-induced declines. In this newsletter, you’ll hear about the BayICT Partners quarterly meeting, and read updates on the major Bay Area projects in the ICT sector.

One of the most important things we’ve been working on is creating ways to bring new initiatives to fruition more quickly. And we’re getting better at it! For example, when you learn about the I2W Workshops below, keep in mind that AWS and BACCC decided to put together the 80-hour student version on December 15th, and ran the first one at SJCC the end of March. We decided to do the 1-day I2W for Educators version in mid-April, and ran the first one on May 19th for the Silicon Valley subregion. All materials for these workshops are available for replication–anywhere in the country!

I’m hoping you are able to catch your breath over the summer, and look forward to hearing about the next chapter in BayICT’s evolution next Fall. –Ray

QUARTERLY MEETING RECAP

Review what’s really happening in the tech job market and how it may be influencing career education programs and student employment
Share how BayICT partners are responding to the trends
Discuss opportunities to collaborate in those responses

Check out the Key Takeaways

I2W Update

🌲 The Internet Infrastructure Workshop (I2W) is a project that introduces participants to various careers that power the internet, such as HVAC, electrical, plumbing, technology, manufacturing, and operations. The first version–an 80-hour student workshop–includes a kit with all the materials and instruction needed to replicate. We just delivered an I2W for Educators 1-day version for faculty and counselors in the Silicon Valley subregion. Offered by the Bay Area Community College Consortium (BACCC) in collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and other industry partners, the workshop consists of lectures, hands-on activities, and field trips to local infrastructure and training sites. Let us know if you’d like to do one of these in your area.

Here is a quick video of the 2-week workshop for students that was developed and delivered in March 2023, designed to expose, engage, and propel students into the full range of careers that comprise the infrastructure side of the internet.

AIDA Update

🎉 The AIDA project team is delighted to share the news that the state has approved our first batch of courses. Our goal has been to design and deliver AI and Data Analytics courses that align with industry demands. This approval is a major achievement that we are extremely proud of.

Laney College will offer MATH 118: Foundations in Data Science (lecture #43476 and lab #43477) and CIS 96F: Introduction to Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (lecture #43596 and lab #43598) this Fall 2023 semester. Enrollment is open now!

Starting this Fall 2023, Laney College will be able to offer:

🌲Curriculum Update: AI Courses offered under Engineering.
To streamline the program, Laney College made the decision to move the AI courses out of the Computer Information Systems (CIS) department and into the Engineering Department (ENGIN) starting from Spring 2024. The introductory course, “Introduction to AI,” will be offered this Fall as CIS 96F, and all other courses will subsequently be offered as ENGIN courses. Laney College has requested new course codes for AI-related but CIS will be used in the meantime.

🌲Laney Faculty Present During AACC in Denver
The AACC Annual Conference concluded on a high note after four days of inspiring sessions, workshops, and networking opportunities. More than 2,000 community college leaders, educators, and partners gathered in Denver to share best practices, innovations, and challenges facing the sector. The conference theme, “Reaching New Heights”, reflected the AACC’s vision of advancing the community college movement and empowering students to achieve their academic and career goals. [read more]

🌲AI – Peralta Equity Conference Debrief
BayICT had a successful participation in the Peralta Equity Conference, where Dr. Ray Kaupp, Regional Director for ICT, presented alongside his son, Ben Kaupp, who is a Product Manager for an AI professional services company. The conference sparked valuable discussions among attendees, including those who don’t support AI, those who are curious about it, and those who are eager to embrace it. The concept of “prompt engineering” was introduced to shape AI’s outputs according to desired outcomes, and examples from the legal sector, such as engineering information for lawyers through e-discovery, were discussed.

🌲Stanford Data Analytics Faculty Development
Our team has been working on developing a professional development program with Stanford Digital Education (SDE) and Grow with Google in data analytics with the goal to help faculty support students in applying their technical skills in Data Analytics through Google’s Data Analytics Career Certificate. This program provides professional development and resources that equip faculty with the skills and knowledge to deliver the asynchronous certificate content in a more active, hybrid format to community college learners. The program has successfully recruited 10 faculty from across BACCC colleges and will run through the end of summer. Thank you to all interested faculty and supporting administrators. We appreciate you!

🌲AWS Deep Racer Kit at Laney College
AWS DeepRacer is a service by Amazon Web Services that lets developers explore reinforcement learning using a 1/18th scale autonomous racing car. The car is equipped with sensors and a camera and can be programmed and controlled through AWS. With DeepRacer, developers can train and optimize their reinforcement learning models by running simulations in the AWS cloud. The platform offers a visual interface, a leaderboard for competition, and a community for collaboration. It aims to provide an accessible and gamified way to learn about autonomous driving and reinforcement learning. The DeepRacer kit will be piloted at Laney College this Fall and a white paper will be produced to share our findings with the region.

🌲Future Collaborations
We are actively exploring potential collaborations with Kaiser and Mission College to expand the scope of the AI program. These partnerships will enable us to leverage industry connections and enhance our curriculum. As we move forward, we are committed to providing quality education and staying at the forefront of AI and data analytics advancements. We appreciate your support and look forward to sharing more exciting updates in the future. Send a message directly to the AIDA team through our contact form.

🌲Be sure to read Laney College’s President – Dr. Rudy Besikof’s Report on Laney College Named Bay Area Community College Consortium (BACCC)’s Center of Excellence for Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics Education

Cybersecurity Update

🌲1F – Cisco CCST Cybersecurity and Networking Pathways

Workshop Overview:
How can you as instructors help prepare your students for excellent career opportunites in a field with growing demand, exciting challenges, and above-average pay? Cisco Networking Academy has launched new curriculum aligned with the Cisco Certified Support Technician (CCST) Cybersecurity certification. We’ll dive deep into the course offerings, structure, and practice examples with the hands-on lab activities, instructor’s resources, and other features that help you bring your students to their first stepping-stone on the cybersecurity career journey.

🌲1G – BACCC Hands-on Cyber for Classes

Workshop Overview:

This week-long intensive course will provide attendees with plenty of hands-on keyboard time working through various cybersecurity challenges together. The course will provide materials, resources, and practice environments that can be utilized in any classroom to introduce and up-skill students to various cybersecurity topics.

Day 1: Overview, System Familiarization, Operating System Security

Day 2: Infrastructure Defense and Monitoring

Day 3: Attacks

Day 4: Utilizing the latest Tools

Day 5: Live Exercise

🌲2C – Cybersecurity (Security+) & P4 Programmable Switches

Workshop Overview:

This workshop will cover two virtual lab libraries available for NETLAB+ systems: 1) “Cybersecurity Tools and Applications,” and 2) “P4 Programmable Data Plane Switches.” The “Cybersecurity Tools and Applications” library covers the main concepts needed by learners who may want to be introduced to cybersecurity and/or want to obtain the Security+ certificate. The “P4 Programmable Switches” library covers how to write cybersecurity applications targeting programmable data plane switches, thus running at terabits per second (Tbps) rates.

Partner Spotlight

🌲Cyversity CC Cybersecurity Panel Recap

Cyversity Engage helps underrepresented groups get into cybersecurity. They work with Next Gen Cyber to offer training, mentors, and leadership for cyber candidates. This video has a panel of cyber pros who share tips for community college students. For example, the importance of community colleges, competitions, and conferences as good ways to learn, practice, and network. The panel concludes with an invite to attendees for their October conference.

RVPA Updates