The ElevateAI Program Awarded Grant to Help Younger Folks in Getting ready for Jobs in Colorado’s Expansive Tech Trade – Information

SparkFun’s headquarters is positioned in Niwot, Colorado, which is simply outdoors of Boulder and about half-hour from Denver. Our headquarters is the place we ideate, design, and manufacture our boards (we additionally ship all around the world from this location). Colorado is house to one of many quickest rising tech communities with a mixture of massive corporations (Lockheed Martin, Ball Aerospace, Arrow Electronics…), smaller corporations like us, and startups all over the place. In a 2023 report, the Computing Expertise Trade Affiliation (CompTIA) discovered that Colorado is predicted so as to add the best whole of internet new jobs in tech and that, at the moment, greater than 8% of the state’s workforce is employed by tech corporations, which is the fifth highest focus nationally.

SparkFun’s headquarters in Niwot, CO

To assist this neighborhood, the Colorado Workplace of Financial Growth and Worldwide Commerce (OEDIT), is concentrated on driving future innovation, strengthening the state’s financial place, and addressing fairness gaps within the workforce. Alternative Now is a program managed by OEDIT that funds initiatives that assist partnerships of {industry}, schooling and coaching suppliers to create new expertise pathways.

Alongside the Colorado Schooling Initiative (CEI), MagicSchool.ai, and the AI Schooling Venture (aiEDU), SparkFun submitted a joint proposal for an Alternative Now Seed Grant – and, yesterday, it was introduced that our submission, ElevateAI, was awarded. We’re so very excited and honored to maneuver ahead with this impactful challenge over the following couple years. We’re additionally happy that a number of different {industry} companions will probably be supporting this challenge.

ElevateAI is designed to equip educators with expertise to leverage AI of their observe and higher put together college students for a future the place AI is integral. Given Colorado’s designation as a Quantum Tech Hub, ElevateAI additionally creates a novel alternative to discover the mixing of quantum computing into Okay-12 profession pathways in partnership with statewide efforts. Core program parts embody:

Growing a shared imaginative and prescient for competencies, together with AI literacy expertise

Integrating alternatives for college students to develop AI literacy and join studying to profession pathways

Getting ready educators with AI certification programming

Supporting faculty leaders in creating methods to assist education-to-industry partnerships

Connecting faculty districts, {industry} and schooling coaching companions to implement a blueprint for AI in schooling

As a part of our dedication to this grant, SparkFun will guarantee give attention to the competencies that college students and educators have to be ready for an AI-future; take part within the statewide AI in Colorado Schooling Steering Committee; present mentoring with {industry} companions; assist form a program for scholar internships, job matching, and job placement; and supply high-quality STEM supplies, such because the Experiential Robotics Platform (XRP).