Northwest Aerospace News February | March 2018 Issue No. 1 | Page 10

There are dozens of productive and effective organizations
across the region that work together with industry leaders,
government entities, and higher education institutions to
grow and support aerospace and avionics in the Northwest.
There are few, however, that have been integral in nurturing
the Pacific Northwest’s newest international resource to
life—a highly trained, technically savvy, aerospace manu-
facturing and advanced technology workforce.
Washington’s Center of Excellence (COE) in Aerospace & Ad-
vanced Materials Manufacturing (AAMM), one of ten COEs
in strategic industries in Washington State promoting economic
development and education, has been facilitating integral rela-
tionships between northwest educators, legislators, and industry
leaders for more than a decade. It is committed to bolstering
training and education with focused efforts on resourcing fund-
ing, curriculum, facilities, and donations of time, knowledge,
and materials from masters in the field.
Through open dialogues with some of
the largest aerospace manufacturers and
avionics suppliers in the region, higher
education institutions, and federal
and state agencies, the COE has been
involved with obtaining over
$35 million in grants—along with
multiple software, technology, and
curriculum donations—to cultivate current
and future programs offered through the
higher education institutions involved.
In 2014, for example, a consortium of 11 of Washington’s
community and technical colleges, called Air Washington,
received a $20 million U.S. Department of Labor grant
intended to strengthen the aerospace industry through in-
tensive focus on workforce training. The board of directors
on this project is indicative of the level of collaboration it
takes to garner such an award. In addition to the AAMM
COE and several high-ranking community college repre-
sentatives, the list includes representatives from the Office
of Public Instruction, Boeing Company, Federal Aviation
Administration, State Labor Office, Aerospace Futures
Alliance, Inland Northwest Aerospace Consortium, Pacific
Northwest Aerospace Alliance, and the Pacific Northwest
Defense Coalition. Through successful collaborations like
this, Washington has become the poster child by which
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NORTHWEST AEROSPACE NEWS
other states can design similar Centers of Excellence pro-
grams to meet workforce education demands and promote
economic development.
The next phase in the evolution of curriculum development
through partnerships like Air Washington, is a new round
of funding awarded in response to burgeoning robotics,
mechatronics, and machining technologies. The COE—and
key industry leaders including Boeing, Dynon Avionics,
Delta and Alaska Airlines, Panasonic, Fluke Corporation,
and Spectralux—won a Technology Hiring Grant for four
million to specifically address mechatronics curriculums
in advance of the foreseeable revolution. This funding will
be used to launch an Advanced Avionics beta-curriculum
in five FAA 147 schools (those whose curriculum and
certifications are monitored and approved by the FAA) in
Washington State.
Programs producing top quality, technically savvy avionics
and aerospace manufacturing workers are made possible
through such efforts. The results of this work are programs
like these.