visit author page

Dr. Walz has been a faculty member at Madison Area Technical College since 2003, teaching science, engineering, and renewable energy technology. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin in Environmental Chemistry and Technology, while conducting electrochemical research on lithium-ion batteries with Argonne National Laboratory and Rayovac. Dr. Walz is an alumnus of the Department of Energy Academies Creating Teacher Scientists Program at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and he has also worked as a visiting scientist with the University of Rochester Center for Photo-Induced Charge Transfer.

Dr. Walz is the Director and Principal Investigator for the CREATE Energy Center funded by the National Science Foundation to advance academic programs and provide faculty professional development in energy technology. He is a recipient of the Association of Community College Trustees Faculty Member Award, has been recognized as Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, as Energy Educator of the Year by the Wisconsin Association for Environmental Education, and as Clean Energy Educator of the Year by RENEW Wisconsin.

visit author page

visit author page

Ben Reid is the founder and executive director of Impact Allies, which advances STEM education and careers through research, development, management, and evaluation. Federal-grant supported projects that Ben has been involved with through Impact Allies and colleges/universities over the past ten years include the categories of energy, electric vehicles, water, food, manufacturing, cybersecurity, control and data systems, land management, student/career pathways, scholarship programs, and grant ecosystems.

visit author page

visit author page

Dr. Baechle holds a Ph.D. in computer science and has published over a dozen journal, book, and conference articles in the field of data mining and machine learning. Dr. Baechle is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Indian River State College where he teaches courses in programming and data mining, as well as serving on various workgroups and projects related to data analytics. In addition to his academic duties, Dr. Baechle is an active consultant in the healthcare analytics industry where he specializes in the field of natural language processing. Previous to IRSC, he was employed as a software developer for almost 10 years in several private and governmental organizations writing utilities and financial software.

visit author page

visit author page

Kathleen Alfano has a Ph.D. from UCLA in Higher Education with a cognate in administration and evaluation. Her B.S. is in chemistry and she worked as an analytical chemist in industry before pursuing a career in education. She served as founder and Director of the California Consortium for Engineering Advances in Technological Education (CREATE) based at College of the Canyons from 1996 to 2016. At College of the Canyons she is a Professor Emeritus and also served as Dean of Professional Programs and Academic Computing. She currently acts as an Educational Administrator/co-PI for the CREATE NSF ATE National Energy Center (DUE 2201631) and co-PI of an ATE workshop/mentoring program now in its sixth year (Mentor Up DUE 2032835). Dr. Alfano served as a Program Director at the National Science Foundation and co-lead of the ATE program in 2007-2008 and was the only community college representative on the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Workforce Trends in the U.S. Energy and Mining Industries which released their report in March 2013.

visit author page