Five Kilgore College educators attended the High Impact Technology Exchange Conference (HI-TEC) July 27-30 in Austin, marking the college’s largest delegation to the national conference.
HI-TEC brings together educators, industry leaders and workforce professionals focused on high-demand technical fields, including electric vehicles, biotechnology, industrial automation, advanced manufacturing and advanced air mobility.
KC’s participation is supported in part through its National Science Foundation (NSF) Advanced Technological Education (ATE) grant, Reducing Barriers to IT Technician Education (RBITTE), with Dr. Ginger Dennis serving as principal investigator.
The three-year RBITTE project has expanded its partnerships and provided additional opportunities for KC faculty to participate in national professional development.
Curtis Ivory, associate professor of biology, and Danny L. Darden, associate professor of Computer and Information Technology (CIT), attended through the Community Colleges President’s Initiative on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (CCPI-STEM) Fellows program, an NSF-funded initiative supporting community college educators pursuing graduate degrees and conducting research related to STEM education and workforce development.
The National Information Technology Innovation Center (NITIC) sponsored Karl Riley, assistant professor of CIT. Riley received a $10,000 mini-grant in Fall 2025 to implement artificial intelligence computing infrastructure for KC’s CIT program.
At HI-TEC, Riley also led a workshop highlighting the project, which included KC CIT students installing a server known as “KC-Claude” to run native AI workloads.
Funding through RBITTE, NITIC and CCPI-STEM also supported the participation of Don Baker, KC’s lead instructor of Industrial Maintenance and Technology.
This year, Dennis, Darden and Riley presented “Industry to Instructor: A Practical Framework for Workforce Faculty,” a session focused on backward course design, student learning outcomes and authentic assessment. The presentation expanded on an internal RBITTE workshop developed earlier in the year and shared the concepts with community college faculty from across the country.
“Being active at HI-TEC for a fourth straight year — and bringing our largest team yet — reflects the momentum of the RBITTE project and the strength of our partnerships with NITIC and CCPI-STEM,” Darden said. “Our faculty came home with new ideas and a stronger network, and our students will be the ones who benefit.”
KC has participated in HI-TEC for four consecutive years and has presented as a funded ATE project for the past three years. The college first attended through Mentor-Connect, an initiative that helps prospective ATE projects develop competitive grant proposals. KC later presented a poster at the conference in Kansas City, Missouri, and delivered conference sessions in Minneapolis and Austin.
For more information about CIT programs at KC, visit www.kilgore.edu/cit.
About CCPI-STEM Fellows:
The CCPI-STEM Fellows program supports community college faculty and administrators who are pursuing graduate degrees and developing leadership in STEM-related education and workforce technologies. Fellows engage in research focused on STEM education and workforce development.
About the National Information Technology Innovation Center:
The National IT Innovation Center is a collaborative network of educators and industry leaders working to prepare technicians for emerging technology careers, including cybersecurity, cloud computing and artificial intelligence. Led by Columbus State Community College, NITIC works to strengthen and diversify the nation’s IT technician workforce.
About the NSF Advanced Technological Education Program:
The National Science Foundation’s Advanced Technological Education program supports the education of technicians for high-technology fields that drive the nation’s economy. The program emphasizes partnerships between two-year colleges and industry to strengthen the skilled technical workforce.
PHOTO ATTACHED:
Four of five KC educators who attended the HI-TEC conference in Austin are pictured, from left: Curtis Ivory, associate professor of biology; Danny L. Darden, associate professor of CIT; Dr. Ginger Dennis, professor and department chair of Business and Information Technology; and Karl Riley, assistant professor of CIT. Not pictured is Don Baker, lead instructor of Industrial Maintenance and Technology.
Photo courtesy of Jodi Darden