Professor Maksimovic working with a student in his lab. Maksimovic is the co-director of ASPIRE’s Engineering Workforce Development thrust and a professor in the Department of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering.Electrifying the transportation sector is key to addressing air quality and climate challenges globally. However, building the infrastructure needed to make that shift will be a complicated process and one that is essential to get right the first time.
“It is a complicated problem that researchers at the new ASPIRE (Advancing Sustainability through Powered Infrastructure for Roadway Electrification) center are working to address holistically,” said CU Boulder Professor Dragan Maksimovic. The solution, he said, is a highly trained workforce that can not only build and envision the needed infrastructure based on sustainable and environmentally sound engineering principles, but that are also well versed in equity and social justice.
Maksimovic is the co-director of ASPIRE’s Engineering Workforce Development thrust and a professor in the Department of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering at CU Boulder. He said the center will explore a diverse range of transportation research questions, from electrified highways that dynamically charge vehicles, to the placement of charging stations and data security – folding in the workforce development and diversity and equity considerations that are embedded at every level of ASPIRE.
“Convergent multidisciplinary thinking – together with diversity and a culture of inclusion – will be tightly integrated into our curricula and research projects,” he said. “We aim to break boundaries among disciplines and develop a diverse engineering workforce whose members strive for inclusion and equity for all, not only in engineering, but also in the society as a whole.”
That all starts with creating a tightly connected education and research system that encompasses K-12 experiences, undergraduate and graduate degrees, trades and professional workforce learning pathways. Jacquelyn Sullivan, the founding co-director of the Integrated Teaching and Learning Program at CU Boulder, is serving as ASPIRE’s director of K-12 engineering education and heading up that effort. Over the years, she said she has seen how access to education, interconnected activities and inclusive education like what the center has planned can fundamentally change an industry like transportation.
“We're not going to separate diversity and a culture of inclusion from engineering workforce development here. Instead we are going to include those goals and items from the start to create a much richer, more effective, more promising, and more inclusive workforce development initiative overall,” she said. “It's a different way of thinking.”
Building that different way of thinking starts before college, she said. That is where you can create new – and widen existing – pathways into engineering and increase overall engineering and design literacy not just for the innovators of the future, but also for the legislators, lawyers and teachers who will be working with and training them as well.
Jacquelyn Sullivan
To accomplish this, Sullivan said the center will partner with local schools and community organizations in Boulder and Denver to strengthen engineering and climate change education inside the classroom, in after-school programs and in summer engineering design camps at CU. They will also assist with professional development for teachers – particularly those in rural areas – to strengthen their familiarity and confidence in STEM curriculum.
All of these efforts will be backed by a vast, open and continually growing library of high-quality STEM and design curriculum and educational content housed on the existing TeachEngineering.org website.
Sullivan said many of the concepts on that site showcase engineering in everyday life as the context for student learning and have applications in areas of importance for the center.
“Anyone in the world can access that library and use it in their classroom, which is very powerful,” Sullivan said. “The collection also aligns with state and national science, mathematics and technology educational standards, and uses engineering as the vehicle to integrate science and mathematics concepts for K-12 students. It has been active now for 17 years, and we have seen 33% growth in users, mostly teachers, in the last year – even before incorporating it with this center.”
This holistic approach will help grow and foster a talented and diverse workforce that will power the future of transportation.
“This is especially important as it relates to our transit system, which is at a tipping point in need of major repair or reinvention,” Sullivan said. “So I want to create people in all walks of life that have really good decision-making and problem-solving skills, and that understand that we all see the world differently. Those are the people we need in this area right now.”
ASPIRE was founded in 2020 and is funded by a $26 million National Science Foundation grant. It is led by Utah State University and operated through strategic partnerships with several universities, including Purdue University, University of Texas at El Paso and the University of Auckland New Zealand. Additional partners include researchers at Colorado State University, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, Virginia Tech and Cornell University and four national laboratories, including the National Renewable Energy Lab.
