(OAKLAND, CA) – Laney College’s BEST Center has been awarded a $3.6 million renewal grant from the Advanced Technological Education (ATE) Division of the National Science Foundation (NSF) to fund operations of the BEST Center for an additional five years. Laney received its first ATE National Center grant to establish the BEST Center in 2012. The Center’s mission is to support the development of community college career education programs in energy efficient commercial heating and air conditioning, building automation systems, and energy management.

The Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program strengthens the skills of technicians whose work is vitally important to the nation’s prosperity and security. The BEST Center is grounded in ATE’s mission and continues to grow from a passionate, active base of over 60 faculty members from community and technical colleges across the U.S., including Oakland.

“The renewal grant provides welcome support and a beacon of light to remind college faculty across the country that they are not alone. There are exciting times ahead, and building operations is a viable pathway for students to high-paying jobs that make a positive impact on the environment,” said Peter Crabtree, BEST Center Principal Investigator and Laney College Dean of Career and Technical Education. “There is an urgent need to expand the number of technical programs preparing students for careers in a growing industry experiencing both rapid innovation and a workforce where the median age of workers is 55. The BEST Center tries to address the needs of the educators who are charged with meeting industry demands,”

Prior to 2012, Laney College’s Environmental Control Technology Department received two NSF project grants, which helped to provide the foundation for the Center’s work. Since then, the BEST Center has organized annual institutes, regional workshops, and webinars to showcase the work and expertise of team members from Laney College, Milwaukee Area Technical College, Georgia Piedmont Technical College, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

“The BEST Center has proven to be an anchor for Laney College in the world of building operations and energy efficiency. We are proud of the accomplishments of the Center’s team and the collaboration with other educators across the nation,” said Tammeil Gilkerson, Laney College President. “Most of all, I’m grateful that the NSF continues to actively support innovation and is committed to ensuring students in Oakland have access to an advanced, technical education leading to promising careers.” 

About the BEST Center

The BEST Center (Building Efficiency for a Sustainable Tomorrow) at Laney College supports faculty & staff of public, post-secondary career & technical education programs in HVAC, building automation, building performance and facilities/energy management. It receives base funding from the National Science Foundation. For more information, go to: www.bestctr.org.

About Laney College

Located in the heart of Oakland, Laney is one of four colleges in the Peralta Community College District. Laney offers over 100 high-quality academic and career technical education programs to an estimated 11,000 students. To learn more about Laney College visit, www.laney.edu or contact: Dolores M. Bernal – dbernal@peralta.edu 

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This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1700705.

Media Contact: Dolores M. Bernal – dbernal@peralta.edu 

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To kick-off our new partnership with ACE Mentor, BEST Center hosted the Oakland team on the Laney College campus this spring. ACE is a national afterschool program introducing high school students to architecture, construction, engineering and the skilled trades. The ultimate goal of the collaboration is to connect students across the U.S. with community college programs in design and construction as well as building performance, heating and air conditioning, and energy management. 

Oakland students enjoyed their first college experience by meeting faculty and visiting different departments while working on their Tiny House design projects to address local homelessness. The semester ended with final team presentations, judging, and awards including scholarships from ACE that will help support two students at Laney and other Peralta colleges this coming fall. 

Many thanks go to the ACE organizers, professional architects and engineers who generously provided their expertise and time for a successful semester. We look forward to next year’s collaborations both close to home and in other cities. For more info about ACE, see acementor.org. 

Our partner, Berkeley Lab, gave us a nice write-up on their website regarding the Annual Institute that was held at Laney College and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory with faculty from 27 technical and community colleges from across the nation. Visit the 2017 Institute web page for more info. 

If you missed our January 2017 webinar called “ACE Mentor Program – Pathway to Community Colleges and the Skilled Trades”, you can watch it on our videos page.You will hear about ACE Mentor programs at Kirkwood Community College, Cuyahoga Community College, and Laney College. A downloadable copy of the presentation is also available. Enjoy!

Robert Croom and David Stuart at BAS V.

MAKING CONNECTIONS

As 2016 comes to an end, the team at BEST Center would like to wish you a very warm and Happy Holiday season. We look forward to seeing your faces in mid-January for our Annual Institute. Until then, here’s an update on what’s happening:
 

Welcome, Victor Garcia!

Please help us welcome Victor Garcia, MPA, Ed.D., our new Coordinator. Victor has over 10 years of experience in program administration with community colleges, CSU and UC systems. Most recently he has been a consultant to educational and philanthropic organizations like the Marin Community Foundation and the Fulbright Visiting Scholar Enrichment Program. Victor is bringing a lot of expertise in program administration which will assist the BEST Center in managing its activities and College Network.
 

Our Annual Institute is Coming! 

Our annual gathering of members is right around the corner, Jan 11-14, 2017 to be precise. The theme is “Learning by Doing in Building Technician Education: New Technologies, Teaching Strategies, and Lab Applications,” and we are planning hands-on activities, tours, and sessions to support it. We are almost at capacity but the deadline to apply has been extended till Thursday, Dec 15 at 5pm PT. Read more.
 

Webinar: ACE Mentor – Building Pathways from High School to College 

On January 26, 2017 will we host our next webinar that will feature the ACE Mentor Program. Providing after-school activities supported by volunteers from the design and construction industry, ACE Mentor’s mission is to engage, excite and enlighten high school students to pursue careers in architecture, construction, engineering, and the building trades. This webinar will highlight how community and technical colleges can get involved with local ACE high school teams to promote the building trades and  pathways to certificate and associate degree programs; stay tuned for more info. Register here. 
 

New HPBOP Training in January 2017 at Laney College, Oakland

BEST Center has teamed up with SoCal Edison and Building Owners and Managers Association of California (BOMA California) to kick-off an exciting 12-session High Performance Building Operations Professionals training for in-state building engineers and technicians. Emphasis will be on lab-focused exercises that help prepare participants to manage their own buildings to become high performance facilities of the future. If you know individuals who might qualify for this training, please share this newsletter and encourage them to register on the BEST Center website. Read more.

Take a Virtual Lab Tour

Virtual lab videos from GA Piedmont Technical College, College of DuPage and Lane Community College are now available for viewing. If you would like to see the lab spaces, equipment and how they all translate to curriculum, then spend some time soaking in the technical details and teaching philosophies provided by BEST Network members Jeryll McWhorter, Bob Clark, Bruce Alford, and Josh Manders.
 

Equipment and Software Discounts

In collaboration with industry leaders, BEST Center is pleased to extend discounts for equipment and software licenses to our members developing instructional labs. Automated Logic, Honeywell, Siemens and Triatek have all agreed to offer 40% (in some cases more) off their list prices to educational members of BEST Center. Be sure to give a shout out to our awesome industry leaders! Read more.

News to share?

Please add info@bestctr.org to your email lists so we are in the loop on news in your programs.

Contact Us

As always, please contact us if you are in need of support and/or resources to advance your HVAC and building automation programs.

“This one trend, climate change, affects all trends.”

– U.S. President Barack Obama, December 1, 2015, at the COP21 conference in Paris. He continued to say “If we let the world keep warming as fast as it is and sea levels rising as fast as they are, and weather patterns keep shifting in more unexpected ways, then before long we are going to have to devote more and more and more of our economic and military resources not to growing opportunity for our people, but to adapting to the various consequences of a changing planet.”

From a recent message from the US Dept of Energy:

“In March of 2016, the U.S. Department of Energy released the agency’s first annual analysis of how changes in America’s energy profile are affecting national employment in multiple energy sectors. The report provides a broad view of the national current energy employment landscape and can provide community college faculty, administration and staff, with a clearer picture of how changes in energy technology, systems, and usage are affecting the economy and creating or displacing jobs in the nation and in their region. This includes trends in projected job growth and industry hiring difficulty that can potentially translate into job and career opportunities for students as well as provide useful data for workforce development, and course creation.”

U.S. Energy and Employment Report 2016

We will post the 2017 report when it is made available in early 2017.

BEST Center members developing their own instructional labs will enjoy a virtual tour of the labs at College of DuPage and Lane Community College. Joining the Georgia Piedmont Technical College lab video, these new videos will give you a sense of COD’s micro-sized commercial “building” lab concept and LCC’s “A Building the Teaches” living lab concept. Check out our Instructional Labs for the videos and more information.