The 2026 Advanced Technological Education Principal Investigators’ Conference last week showcased numerous free resources to help community college faculty add artificial intelligence (AI) certificate and degree programs and incorporate AI into a range of courses.
Three Advanced Technology Education (ATE) centers lead large AI-focused initiatives:
- The National Applied AI Consortium (NAAIC) offers free online professional development for community college educators, one-year mentorships to community college administrator-faculty teams as they create AI certificate and degree programs, and a community of practice for faculty that meets quarterly. NAAIC developed the knowledge and skills framework for applied AI associate degree programs with industry. The framework, curricula for multiple courses and other materials are available for free on its resource hub. Since the consortium with Miami Dade College, Houston City College and Maricopa Community Colleges received ATE funding in 2024, it has engaged with 3,500 educators at 480 colleges in 50 states and the District of Columbia. NAAIC is offering 19 free, online faculty training events through mid-November. See the list here. NAAIC also offers national AI Summits annually with its industry partners; community college faculty may apply for travel stipends to attend the summits.
- The National Information Technology Innovation Center (NITIC) offers Working Connections professional development for information technology instructors. Working Connections includes 11 AI-focused tracks. Based at Columbus State Community College (Ohio), NITIC also offers a community of practice focused on AI-powered teaching and coding, along with mini-grants that help faculty develop innovative practices other institutions can adopt.
- The National Center for Next Generation Manufacturing (NCNGM) at the Connecticut College of Technology offers AI in manufacturing resources and videos. It promotes understanding of Industry 5.0, which it defines as a combination of advanced technologies — such as AI and robotics — with “human creativity to personalize production, empower workers, and reduce the environmental impact of industry.”
Coursework lessons
During several conference sessions, ATE principal investigators presented information about how industry uses AI, how they teach students about AI and how they are utilizing AI in their instructional practices.
For instance, Karen Woscyna-Birch, NCNGM executive director and principal investigator, reported the top ways manufacturers use AI are predictive maintenance, product design, safety applications for employees and equipment, training, and supply chain analyses and automation.
Debasis Bhattancharya, principal investigator of the Cyber Data Analytics Education, Curriculum and Workforce Development, provided detailed information about how he used AI to create a Hawaii-themed, pedagogically aligned curriculum for a programming course and a capstone business course at the University of Hawaii Maui College. In each course, he showed students how he used AI tools and required them to explain when and why they used AI while working on class assignments. AI limitations and biases were discussed. For example, AI for research was OK; AI for responses to exam questions was prohibited.
The Empowering Rural Communities: Leveraging AI in Higher Education and Workforce Development project at Marion Technical College presented a series of free workshops for small business owners to learn how they could tap AI. Principal investigator Mike White said during an ATE Connects session that a business owner, who was initially skeptical about AI, used an AI tool to create a customer service system. It saved his company $200,000. The Empowering Rural Communities project has also developed four new courses (Introduction to Artificial Intelligence, Natural Language Processing, Machine Learning, and Applied Mathematics for Artificial Intelligence) and created a micro-certificate that leads to an AI certificate.
