Forsyth Tech Shows Off Transportation Technology Center

Forsyth Technical Community College showed off its new Transportation Technology Center at 4255 N. Patterson Ave. to the Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce’s Technology & Innovation Series Tuesday.

Using funds from a $15.7 million Forsyth County bond issue, the school converted the old Pinebrook Shopping Center into a 139,000-square-foot facility with dozens of classrooms and computer laboratories and open bays for teaching all aspects of transportation technology.

The new center will “create jobs for the people in this community,” said Dr. Gary Green, Forsyth Tech president. He said the long-term vision was to provide “all transportation technologies.”

Green listed five programs as currently available:

• Automotive Systems Technology.
• Collision Repair and Refinishing Technology including sheet metal and new finishes)
• Heavy Equipment and Transportation Technology for large trucks and over-the-road tractors.
• Recreational Vehicle Maintenance and Repair Technology.
• The Richard Childress Race Car Technology program. This center will feed students into the $6 billion auto racing industry.

Students are on three levels – in certificate programs to meet the specific state certification  requirements of automotive sub-specialties  diploma and two-year associate degrees. The campus also has English and math and other traditional college classes – many of which are transferable to a four-year college degree and various remedial programs such as English as a Second Language.

Graduates will find good jobs at auto dealerships, trucking companies, RV dealerships and other sites. The school has sophisticated computer equipment to check whether auto realignment on repaired cars meet factory specifications or what a car will look like after repainting.  Special painting booths enable state-of-the art repainting of cars, and one instructor said that such auto painters typically make more than $100,000 a year.

Chris Harvey, Technical Training Manager for Southeastern Toyota, a five-state region including the Carolinas, said Toyota is partnering with Forsyth Tech. “We have to start  with good people,” he said, and backing the program at Forsyth Tech will assure a supply of technicians for the 20 Toyota dealerships in the area.

“The students get the necessary skills to get a job,” Harvey said.

He said that Forsyth Tech was one of the only T10 level certified programs in the Southeast. Many of the cars in the shops at the school were Toyotas.

Joseph Sakowski from Snap-On Tools said his company was also a partner with Forsyth Tech, and serves as an East Coast train-the-trainer site for Snap-on.

U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-5^th) also was present and gave brief remarks.

Deputy Sec. of Labor Seth Harris to visit Forsyth Tech

Deputy Secretary of Labor Seth D. Harris will visit Forsyth Technical Community College in Winston-Salem on Thursday, Sept. 27 to tour the college’s state-of-the-art bioscience labs and observe students and faculty in action.

Forsyth Technical Community College is leading a nationwide consortium of schools that has received nearly $15 million in grants through the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College to Career Training initiative. The funding will enable the consortium’s bioscience credentialing program to prepare trade-impacted workers and the long-term unemployed for high-quality, high-wage jobs within the bioscience and health care sectors.  Read more.

Forsyth Tech SciTech Lecture Series

featuring Doug Drabble, Director of BioNetwork and Life Science Initiatives

“Career Success in Life Science”

4:00 p.m., September 20, 2012
Ardmore Auditorium
Forsyth Tech Main Campus
2100 Silas Creek Parkway
Winston-Salem, NC 27103

To reserve a seat, contact Mona Cofer
at 336.734.7205 or mcofer@forsythtech.edu.

All lectures are free and open to the public.

Let’s Go Racing! – Transportation Technology in Winston-Salem

Technology & Innovation Series

Tuesday, October 2
8:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
Forsyth Tech Transportation Technology Center
4255 North Patterson Avenue, Winston-Salem

Don’t miss this opportunity to visit and tour Forsyth Tech’s new, state-of-the-art Transportation Technology Center. As one of the premier centers of its kind in the country, the facility offers all of the computer labs, simulators and high-tech equipment needed for today’s highly complex, computer-controlled vehicles. A remarkable example of adaptive reuse, this modern LEED-eligible building is on the site of the former Pinebrook Shopping Center. It houses all of the college's Transportation Technology programs, including the Richard Childress Race Car Technology program. Plan to come early or stay afterwards for coffee and conversation. The event is free, but registration is required.

Register here.

Sponsored by: Cook Medical, B/E Aerospace, Kilpatrick Townsend and Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center

Triad Community Colleges to Train Long-Term Unemployed Through Back-to-Work Program

Davidson County Community College, Forsyth Technical Community College and Guilford Technical Community College have been chosen as three of the 10 North Carolina community colleges to receive funding for the North Carolina Back-to-Work program to help the long-term unemployed find employment and new careers.

The $5 million program, a partnership between NC Community Colleges and the NC Department of Commerce, will focus on providing job training and retraining; employability skills, including a Career Readiness Certificate, and third-party, industry-recognized credentials to the long-term unemployed.

As part of this initiative, Winston-Salem's Forsyth Tech will receive $711,682. Read more.

Forsyth Tech acquires nano-fabrication technology

Forsyth Technical Community College, which was one of the first community colleges in the country to offer an associate's degree in nanotechnology, is expanding that program through a new system that will give its students more direct, hands-on experience building structures at the nano scale.

The NanoInk NLP 2000 Desktop NanoFabrication System allows students to learn to build custom-engineered nanoscale structures with a wide variety of materials, from biomolecules to metal nanoparticles, according to an announcement from the vendor of the system, Illinois-based NanoProfessor.

Forysth Tech nanotechnology program coordinator Kevin Conley said the system will allow more direct, practical learning by his students. Read more.

Forsyth Tech Key to Landing Caterpillar

Forsyth Tech’s offer to train workers for Caterpillar Inc. was the key element in landing the huge plant.

“That is what sold Caterpillar on Winston-Salem,” said Rusty Davis, operations manager of the 850,000-square-foot plant nearing completion on Union Cross Road.

In a talk to the Tech Council’s Technology and Innovation Series, Davis listed a number of “project drivers” that were under consideration as the company chose from among several sites.

He said that 57 percent of the contractors who built the $426 million plant were from the Triad and 70 percent in all were from North Carolina. The company also plans on using local service providers once the facility is in operation. The plant will employ about 500 people with a payroll of $19 million.

“We’re no Dell,” he told a crowd of about 200 people at the Milton Rhodes Center for the Arts. “We’ll be here for a long period of time and hopefully we can grow.”

The plant will build front wheels and rear axles for the mammoth trucks that can carry 1.3 million pounds fully loaded and move at speeds of up to 42 miles an hour. The axles themselves weigh 100,000 pounds and for now will be shipped by truck from the plant.

The plant will be LEED certified, using geothermal heating and cooling, solar panels to heat water, extensive skylights to cut down on electric lighting and numerous other green initiatives.

Davis pledged that the plant would quickly become part of the community, already sponsoring the “coin-toss kid” at Wake Forest football games.”

Center for Design Innovation's Idea Exchange Examine Significance of Illustrations

Sometimes centuries old artforms such as drawings can be timeless when combined with new technologies. Actually, it’s happening quite often in today’s fast emerging creative business and technology scene.

Last night three illustrators presented passionate and convincing cases for the importance of imagery at the Center for Design Innovation’s Ideal Exchange discussion on how mind, eye, hand and computer techniques combine to produce powerful illustrations. The artists produce computer-assisted drawings to communicate volumes about the complexities of life, the human body, technology functions and more.

Why do we still need illustration compared to photography? The artists took separate approaches to demonstrate the differences through power point slides, drawings and personal stories. The presenters were: Jennifer Gentry, Jennifer McCormick and Kyle Webster.

Gentry, is a certified medical illustrator and founder of Gentry Visualization (www.gentryvisualization.com), a studio specializing in the visual communication of medical, scientific, and technical concepts. Her complex anatomy illustrations are featured in medical journals textbooks and posters. She is also a lecturer at Wake Forest University.

McCormick, (www.artforlaw.com) also a medical illustrator, is owner and founder of Art for Law & Medicine, a company that produces custom medical illustrations of injuries for complex litigation. Her CSI-like artworks peer inside the human body similar to MRIs, CAT scans and x-rays exposing the dramatic stories and critical information about injuries and how they may have occurred.

Webster, owner of Kyle T. Webster (www.kyletwebster.com), has produced editorial illustrations that have graced the New Yorker, The Washington Post, USA Today, ESPN Magazine, Time Magazine, The New York Times, BusinessWeek, The Atlantic, Entertainment Weekly, The Wall Street Journal and many other major publications in the United States.

While each artist has a different specialty, all agree that illustrations are very effective in communicating complex opinions, issues and functions in a concise and impactful way. This is quite helpful for many people who are too busy to read abstracts and book chapters.

Whether appearing in a magazine, textbook or courtroom exhibit, their works clearly demonstrate that in this time of hi-definition computer animation, there is still room for old fashioned drawings enhanced by technology to effectively communicate emotions, business models, concepts or opinions in one glance. Such illustrations are useful for an array of applications from smartphone apps to ads that present business services similar to the well-known UPS ads featuring an artist producing fast-pace drawings to explain how its business services are successful.

As technology continues to advance, it appears that illustrations will still be in demand, enhancing the communications for the need, use, findings and implications of new technology.

Earlier this year CDI officials announced acquisition of land to construct a 30,000 square foot building in the South District of the Piedmont Triad Research Park. The facility will serve as the permanent home for the CDI and its dedication to discovering, inventing and developing new knowledge.

The CDI was established in 2005 as a multi-campus research center of the UNC system with an Advisory Board appointed by the Office of the President of UNC. Its mission is to create an environment that supports creative thinking as a means of fostering the growth of education, research and commercial enterprise.

The CDI began initial operations in 2007 at an interim site in Winston Tower and represents an inter-institutional partnership between Winston-Salem State University, the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and Forsyth Technical Community College. On a project basis, collaborations also include a range of individuals and organizations involved in supporting the Center’s interdisciplinary agenda.

For more information, visit: www.centerfordesigninnovation.org

Targacept CEO & President to speak at SciTech Lecture, March 17th, 2011.

Forsyth Tech Community College and the National Center for the Biotechnology Workforce present in celebration of Forsyth Tech's 50th Anniversary, the SciTech Lecture Series.

Dr. Don deBethizy CEO & President of Targacept will speak on "The Targacept Story: From the Bench to the Clinic". 4PM March 17th, 2011 in the Ardmore Auditorium, Forsyth Tech Main Campus - 2100 Silas Creek Parkway, Winston-Salem, NC.
This lecture is FREE and open to the public.

Hear scientists, researchers and industry thought leaders explore how science and technology are combining to change our world.

For further information please contact Mona Cofer or call her at 336.734.7205.

Forsyth Tech and Student Mentioned In State of the Union Address

Not once but twice did President Obama mention Forsyth Tech in his state of the union address. http://www.wxii12.com/video/26619249/detail.html

Kathy Proctor , a Forsyth Tech biotechnology student, has a story to tell as Obama learned when he visited the campus in December 2010. She had been laid off from her job in the furniture industry and seized the opportunity to reinvent herself " I saw it as a door opening not as a door closing" said Proctor.

Proctor was able to hear her story during the State of the Union address on Tuesday January 25th while seated with First Lady Michelle Obama.

National Manufacturing Institute and National Center for the Biotechnology Workforce join forces to create a future pipeline

WASHINGTON, D.C.– The Washington-based Manufacturing Institute (the Institute) and the National Center for the Biotechnology Workforce (NCBW) at Forsyth Technical Community College in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, announced a formal alliance today to jointly develop a highly-skilled and educated 21st century biotechnology and pharmaceutical production workforce.

Read more...

SciTech Lecture Series - Ideas in Action

Forsyth Tech Community College and the National Center for the Biotechnology Workforce present in celebration of Forsyth Tech's 50th Anniversary, the SciTech Lecture Series.

Dr. Frank Torti from Wake Forest University Health Sciences Comprehensive Cancer Center kicks off the series with "Advancing Cancer Treatment through Technology Innovation".

This lecture is free and open to the public and will be held on Forsyth Tech's Main Campus in the Ardmore Auditorium at 4 P.M., September 29th, 2010.

Hear scientists, researchers and industry thought leaders explore how science and technology are combining to change our world.

For further information please contact Mona Cofer or call 336.734.7205.