SUMMER SCHOOL
How collaboration is shaping the education and industry landscape on the Central Coast
It’s no secret we’re huge proponents of collaboration — it’s right there in our mission to advance economic prosperity and increase opportunity for Central Coast residents to thrive. As back-to-school quickly approaches, we’re looking to the region’s higher education institutions for lessons on how working across lines benefits the region.
Expanding regional partnership
Cal Poly + UC Santa Barbara
About a dozen Cal Poly faculty and staff piled onto a bus for a field trip with REACH staff last month. The destination? UC Santa Barbara, for a day of tours and touchpoints with their counterparts on expanding collaboration and innovation across advanced technology, entrepreneurship, climate, the Blue Economy and beyond.
Though faculty sometimes collaborate on ad-hoc research projects, the trip marked the first occasion specifically to advance institutional-level partnership between the two Central Coast universities. A reverse trip for UCSB folks to the Cal Poly campus is already in the works.
“This visit illuminated many opportunities to work across our campuses to drive innovation that ultimately benefits the regional economy,” said Karen Tillman, Cal Poly’s Economic Advisor to the President and interim Executive Director of the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. “Spending time with our colleagues spurred a lot of new energy to move these opportunities forward and we’re excited about hosting them at Cal Poly in the fall.”
Among the stops on the tour:
- A quantum computing lab at the world-renowned Institute of Energy Efficiency, which has made global breakthroughs in photonics, semiconductors, quantum entanglement and beyond
- A peek into the Nanofabrication cleanroom, where researchers and cutting-edge companies across the region — and country — engage in micro and nano-scale processing
- A mind-bending step inside the Allosphere, a three-story metal sphere in an echo-free chamber where complex data can be visualized in immersive and transformative ways
Even more inspiring than the facilities were the energetic conversations on ways the universities could leverage their complementary missions — foundational research at UCSB and applied research at Cal Poly — to spur the region’s advanced industries, producing both field-advancing innovations and the talent to bring them into the real world.
Small groups drilled deeper into potential collaborations such as applying for CHIPS Act semiconductor funding, expanding Hothouse-type programming and facilities, shared access to research facilities and field sites, and driving cleantech innovation at Diablo Canyon and space innovation at Vandenberg Space Force Base.
“This exchange laid the groundwork to build on our complementary strengths not only to advance research capabilities and drive future breakthroughs in quantum computing, climate solutions and beyond but also produce the skilled talent needed to seize the opportunities of tomorrow,” said Kelly Caylor, Associate Vice Chancellor for Research at UC Santa Barbara. “We are energized to continue working across counties to build on these conversations.”
As these seeds take root and begin to sprout, others at the region’s three community colleges are already bearing fruit.
Allan Hancock College, Cuesta College and Santa Barbara City College play invaluable roles in moving students from classrooms to careers — each providing two years free to area high school graduates under their Promise programs, training a significant portion of the region’s nurses, health care workers and public safety officers, partnering with industry on career training pipelines, and working to bring more certificate and degree options to the region.
Here’s a quick look at just a few ways these institutions are working across sectors and education systems to strengthen the region’s workforce and provide the region’s residents with opportunities to enter good-paying fields.
Launching an aerospace pipeline
Allan Hancock College
A dozen Allan Hancock College students have interned at local aerospace companies over the past couple years. But these interns weren’t fetching coffee or filing documents.
One established circuit board printing capabilities at Space Information Labs in Santa Maria. Another advised the company on cooling solutions for a new mill, then designed and fabricated a dust control and mounting system. At San Luis Obispo drone company Zone 5 Technologies, two more facilitated the transition to new manufacturing quality control software, documenting processes, measuring parts and automating data transfer.
“We’re seeing the benefits not only to the companies as far as getting the talent, but to the school from an awareness standpoint, because as soon as you get a couple of really great students in there, the companies are like, wow, this is a potential pipeline for talent,” said Marc Carson, a retired Raytheon director who’s now an adjunct instructor and industry coach at Allan Hancock.
Those projects were funded under grant programs to bolster California’s defense manufacturing, supply chain and cybersecurity resilience. But they are part of the college’s evolving approach to strengthening connections with industry. The industry coach role is a new one and likely to be expanded, aimed not just at preparing students for jobs or internships but at opening doors at area companies, raising their awareness of the talent and resources Hancock offers, and gaining insight on their workforce needs.
“It’s almost like a talent acquisition person for the company,” Carson said. “The more outreach the school can do with industry, the better.”
Other examples:
- Collaborated with Cal Poly to launch a “2+2” sociology program under which students begin working toward a 4-year degree at Allan Hancock
- Recently wrapped up a 2-year program with Cal Poly to help local growers of leafy greens prevent foodborne illness
- Worked alongside industry to modernize the advanced precision manufacturing program, which supports multiple industry sectors such as aerospace, medical device, automotive, agriculture, and consumer products manufacturing, including the creation of certificates that promote upskilling opportunities
Fueling an avionics ecosystem
Cuesta College
SLO-based ACI Jet — like avionics companies across the country — was having trouble finding enough maintenance technicians to keep up with demand. So it approached Cuesta College a few years ago about launching a training program. Thanks to partnership between the company, the college, SLO County and an FAA grant, that program is now reality, graduating its first class with a second already underway.
Students get hands-on experience working with dedicated aircraft at their SLO Regional Airport “classroom,” often ducking into ACI Jet’s hangars next door to see real-world work in action. They come out of the program qualified not just to work on planes, but on drones, helicopters, spacecraft, even large-scale agricultural systems and wind turbines — all fields expected to grow significantly in coming years.
The program fills a gap in the Central Coast aerospace industry, with world-class entrepreneurial and engineering talent coming out of Cal Poly, launch companies expanding operations at Vandenberg Space Force Base, home-grown satellite makers and cutting-edge drone development.
“What we’d been missing is the part that produces the people that actually take the design and put the fan on the rocket and send it to space,” David Jensen, senior vice president of aircraft maintenance at ACI Jet, told Avionics News. “That was the missing component to have a true aviation ecosystem here on the Central Coast, and that’s what Cuesta College is now providing with their AMT program.”
This fall, the program is expanding into high schools. Students — and interested community members — will be able to complete the first two courses at Arroyo Grande and Paso Robles high schools then continue with the advanced courses at Cuesta.
Other examples:
- Bringing a satellite campus to the Dana Reserve project in Nipomo after a 20-year search for a location to better serve South SLO County residents
- Coordinating closely with county high schools on dual enrollment programs, with more than 3000 participants last year across 60 unique courses
- Working with North SLO County industry and community members to expand offerings at its Paso satellite campus, leading to a 23 percent enrollment increase
Cultivating a micro/nanotechnology workforce
Santa Barbara City College
At least 45 Central Coast companies now use micro- and nanotech equipment in their day-to-day operations. That has created new demand for qualified cleanroom technicians.
To meet this demand — and provide area residents with opportunities to enter an industry with good-paying careers — Santa Barbara City College partnered with UC Santa Barbara and local companies to develop a micro- and nanotechnology training boot camp and industry-vetted certificate that focuses on locally employable cleanroom-manufacturing skills.
The Central Coast Partnership for Regional Industry-focused Micro/Nanotechnology Education (CC-PRIME) worked with companies that use UCSB’s nanofabrication facility to design the program, which combines SBCC classes with hands-on learning at UCSB’s Quantum Structures facility. Twelve companies are now actively involved in the program, which has held three bootcamps, with a fourth planned for next month.
“What we’re trying to get out of this is really building a local workforce pipeline that’s broad enough to serve these industry partners, and ultimately gets the students these jobs locally,” SBCC Math and Science Dean Jens-Uwe Kuhn said in an article about the program, funded through a National Science Foundation grant. “The building of the relationships — of the connections with industry — that would not have happened if we didn’t have that existing connection to UCSB … having worked with them for a long time and then getting that connection to the NanoFab, which is the location where the industry partners come.”
Other examples:
- Collaborating widely through the Santa Barbara Ocean Collective to develop new facilities and curricula dedicated to advancing Blue Economy workforce training and entrepreneurship, with a symposium planned for the fall
- Partnering with UC Santa Barbara, the County of Santa Barbara and Isla Vista Community Service District on education and awareness surrounding tragic cliff falls
- Working with Chumash tribe members on new signage to raise awareness of the tribe’s culture and history on campus, once the village of Mispu
