South Texas Advanced Technology Project

Meeting the critical need identified by state industry partners, this project focuses on the development of technician training program components that prepare process technicians or operators where employment demand far exceeds supply and continuously incorporates advances in the technologies of operation. The partnership of five community colleges, industry partners, a state agency, and a university, represents a unique set of capacities, technological expertise and demographic diversity by adapting science, mathematics and communication courses developed by other ATE projects. The project through the development of a continuously adaptive set of advanced process technology operations modules addresses (1) unit operations, (2) process safety operations, and (3) systematic preventative maintenance/quality (including troubleshooting in emergency and malfunction events) for the technician operator. The modules are web-based, multimedia presentations of new content topics with interactive simulation models.