Green Energy encompasses a wide variety of technologies.  From hydroelectric, to wind energy, to photovoltaic paneling, creating a clean and renewable energy source has been the hot topic in recent news.  Therefore, the University of Hawaii Community Colleges and Johnson Controls, Inc. have partnered together to host a Renewable Energy Training Summit that will focus on workforce preparedness as it relate to solar energy production.  This two-day event will be held at Honolulu Community College on October 25-26 and will consist of guest speakers, industry representatives, and best practice solutions for solar applications.  The cost is $150 for the 2-day event and includes lunch for both days.  PCATT has joined in the effort to offer and promote Green Training through the courses that are currently offered by PCATT at Honolulu Community College.  Call 845-9296 or click here for more information and to register. 

PCATT has recently been the hub for much of Honolulu Community College's continuing education Green Energy Training Program.  Preshess Willets-Vaquilar, Program Coordinator, has worked closely with PCATT to offer course such as PV Training, Introduction to Green Building and Energy Management, LEED Green Associate, as well as the certification exams that go along with each course.  These courses were highly successful and usually resulted in a wait list.  Current courses being offered in the fourth quarter (Oct.-Dec. 2011) will include Introduction to PV Design and Installation, Home Energy Survey Profession, and Introduction to Refrigeration and Air Conditioning which will prepare participants for the EPA 608 certification exam.  During the Spring of 2012, the program will expand its course offering to include a PV Sales course, Advanced PV, Solar Thermal, and more.  There are entrance requirements for some of the courses so please check with our registration office for information regarding the courses. See more green training offerings here.

Soon after the devastating tsunami in Japan last March, PCATT Professor Wayne Lewis visited Fukuoka on Kyushu island, far from the effects of the natural disaster. PCATT has had a longstanding relationship with Japan in the context of the Cisco Academy. Cisco Systems has funded Dr. Lewis (Wayne) to travel to Japan for training the first cohort of instructors in multilayer switching (Tokyo) and network troubleshooting (Fukuoka), as well as for conference keynotes on network security (Sapporo) and leadership in networking education (Hiroshima).

       It is always an honor for PCATT/Honolulu CC to have faculty invited to provide international Cisco Academy instructor training on site in various countries - so far in Taiwan, Singapore, China, Japan, Mexico, and Italy. This last trip to Fukuoka was close to home in a sense for Wayne in that Wayne's wife, Leslie, has relatives right outside Fukuoka in Okawa. Wayne's family has visited these relatives in Okawa a few times.

       When Wayne was teaching the first cohort of Cisco Academy instructors in Japan the CCNP TSHOOT course, leveraging the NDG NetLab solution for performing Cisco Academy labs remotely, he was approached by Director Miyuki Matsuda at Aso College (Aso College was the venue for the instructor training). "Miyuki-san" asked Wayne if PCATT/Honolulu CC would be interested in starting an exchange program between our colleges, since both of our schools focus on information technology education. Of course, it was not a stretch to see that it would be beneficial to both their students and our students to participate in such an exchange. In record time for academia, Miyuki, Wayne, Beryl Morimoto (PCATT), Jerry Cerny (PCATT), and Saori Sato of the Honda Institute, via multiple Webex conference calls, organized a one-week visitation to PCATT/Honolulu CC/Kapiolani CC/UH Manoa of four students and their chaperone from Aso College. Three of the students had never been to the U.S. before, so you can imagine the excitement for 20-year-old students visiting Hawaii the first time! They toured the networking facilities at UH Manoa, at Honolulu CC, and at Hawaiian Electric. They had several English language training sessions, multiple platform discussion led by Jim Uyeda from Apple, a Cisco networking session, several Hawaiian cultural sessions, and a final "graduation" event at Kapiolani CC where they presented in English their impressions of Hawaii, comparing and contrasting the cultures and the implementation of technology in day-to-day life in Japan and Hawaii. The Chancellor of Kapiolani CC, Leon Richards, joined Jerry and Wayne and the students from Japan for an aloha dinner on Friday.

       So began and so ended the first annual Aso College - PCATT exchange! It was an exciting event for all involved and we look forward to next year's exchange. We hope this will grow into a program that will allow more of our students to experience each others' cultures and learn a little language and technology along the way.

And finally, you must be wondering how Beryl is doing, and what she's been up to. Here she is to tell you something about it, "I was recently traveling and wanted to share photos I took on my digital camera with my iPad. I didn't have wireless access and knew beforehand that this would be the case. Of course, I didn't bring both my laptop and the iPad; it's one or the other for me. With the iPad Camera Connection Kit, I can use the camera SD card connect the digital camera to the iPad to view my photos. It's a convenient, low tech solution." If you have tips to share, we'd like to hear them -- both high tech and the not-so-high tech.