Month: December 2021

Designed to encourage students to solve real-world problems with innovative solutions, the Altec Innovation Challenge returned to Elizabethtown, Kentucky, for its second year.

Founded at Altec’s Birmingham, Alabama, headquarters, the Innovation Challenge brings local students together to identify a challenge and solve it with a STEM-based approach that involves science, technology, engineering and math, exposing the students to careers in the field.

“Employers are dependent on this next generation of talent as we look for opportunities to increase economic development efforts in our region,” said Chad Sarver, corporate training manager at Altec’s Elizabethtown facility. “From team building to verbal and written communication skills, to strategic planning, the Altec Innovation Challenge serves as an excellent example of an employer-led effort to advance the skills of our future workforce.”

Thirty-two teams from local school districts participated in this event, submitting their proposals to their school leadership team. From those, 10 teams were selected to provide a final presentation for judging based on degree of impact, feasibility, implementation and sustainability, with the winning team taking home $10,000 to implement their project.

This year’s winners from John Hardin High School are using their prize to give back to their community in a meaningful way.

Addressing Food Insecurity Through Aquaculture

For their project, freshmen and sophomores from John Hardin High School focused on food insecurity. Their plans were to create two aquaculture systems that would be used to grow and harvest aquatic organisms as healthy protein sources for the Warm Blessings Community Kitchen.

Agriculture Education teacher and FFA Advisor Jeremy Hall said his students spent a tremendous amount of time preparing for the competition.

“For more than three months, our students have worked in preparation for today, and to have a group of young men and women that’s been able to handle this kind of pressure, is just unbelievable,” said Hall. “I’m so proud of them and look forward to seeing this project come to life.”

Schools from all districts were broadly represented, delivering projects that addressed conservation, pollution, renewable energy consumption and more. After completing research and arranging conversations with local officials and professionals, various teams also presented prototypes for reference.

“We’re so proud of all our students who participated in today’s contest and thankful for partners like Altec for their investment in our community,” said Hardin County Schools Superintendent Teresa Morgan. “Through collaborations like this, we’re bridging the gap between classroom instruction and career enrichment opportunities.”

The 2022 Altec Innovation Challenge

Plans for the 2022 Altec Innovation Challenge are in the works, with plans to expand to more locations. Stay tuned to our website for more details to come in the next few months.

How can you impact your community? That’s the question the Altec Innovation Challenge has asked Birmingham, Alabama area students for the last four years.

The challenge, which began in Birmingham and has expanded to the company’s Elizabethtown, Kentucky facility, encourages students to solve a problem with a STEM-based approach.

The challenge not only exposes students to the science, technology, engineering and mathematics field— the fastest-growing occupations in the United States—but it also encourages critical thinking, problem-solving and persuasive and effective communication.

Competing teams identify a problem they would like to address and create a project plan. The Final Four present their ideas in an oral presentation to a panel of local judges who evaluate their proposed solutions based on impact, feasibility and sustainability. The winning team receives $10,000 from the Altec Styslinger Foundation to implement their plan.

“The Altec Styslinger Foundation is very proud to support this annual challenge encouraging students to use STEM skills to solve real-world problems,” said Altec CEO Allen Ritchie. “The goal of the challenge is not only to encourage innovation but also to develop an understanding of how to make those ideas a reality.”

As Birmingham prepares to host The World Games in 2022, this year’s competitors were also encouraged to consider how their project could contribute to the event. The winners from Ramsay High School did just that as they addressed the spread of COVID-19 through surface transmission.

Stopping the Spread of COVID-19

The average individual touches 300 surfaces every 30 minutes, and many do not wash their hands before touching these surfaces after coughing or sneezing—this was the premise of the Ramsay IB High School Radiant Rams’ proposal. To reduce the spread of COVID-19 and other viruses through surface transmission, the Radiant Rams proposed the purchase of 24 Purify One UV lights to disinfect shared surfaces and personal items that students may not clean as frequently.

By reducing the spread of COVID and other viruses, the team said, students would be able to remain in the classroom instead of missing valuable instruction due to illness or exposure. The team also proposed using the wands at the World Games in high-touch areas and for sports equipment.

The Radiant Rams took the top spot in the challenge not only for their idea, but also for their thoughtful and creative presentation.

“Competing in the Altec Innovation Challenge was extremely rewarding for our students,” said Jennifer Gilbert, Ramsay’s career academy coordinator and math and engineering teacher. “They had the opportunity to display their creativity, as well as use skills learned in their engineering classes, to develop a feasible solution to a problem that impacts our community.”

The experience is one the students will remember, Gilbert said.

“Having the opportunity to actually implement their proposed solution is the icing on the cake,” she said.  “Students will carry this experience with them for many years to come.”

The 2022 Altec Innovation Challenge

Plans for the 2022 competition are in the works. Stay tuned to our website for more details to come in the next few months.

Linemen are used to battling the elements—heading out to do their job when many are tucked safely in their homes.

“What you can do during the daylight during a nice, sunny day, you have to be able to do at 2 a.m. when the wind is blowing and it’s snowing,” said Matt Hegarty, superintendent at Fairport Electric. “You have to do your job under any condition at all times, and you have to do it well.”

Doing the job well requires not only skill but also reliable equipment. Fairport electric utilizes a fleet of Altec trucks to help keep the lights on when their community needs them most.

When the COVID-19 pandemic brought the world to a standstill, it brought a new challenge for these linemen to take on—a higher volume of work with new pandemic protocols changing all aspects of their job.

A New Way of Life

During the early days of the pandemic and shutdowns, the volume of work for Fairport Electric rose exponentially. One of 46 electric municipalities in the state of New York, Fairport Electric serves around 18,000 customers across 26 square miles—many of whom were now working and learning in their homes full time.

“Trying to get a schedule to line up where everyone is willing to let you shut their power off when every kid is on a Zoom call … this made it really difficult, and we had to find alternative ways to do what we needed to do,” said line foreman Brent Losey.

Fairport Electric did just that, though—finding ways to keep the lights on and keep their customers connected in a new world.
“We had to create ways to keep the power on,” Hegarty said. “Even during COVID, the poles had to be replaced. Jobs had to happen. We couldn’t just stop.”

Navigating Pandemic Protocols

Fairport Electric was not only facing larger than normal demand, but also new safety protocols to mitigate and minimize the spread of COVID-19.

The power company’s 18 linemen were divided into groups. The groups were to remain completely separated with typically only one group working at a time, ensuring that if one group was exposed to the virus, there were still healthy teams ready to keep the lights on.

“We had to take our fleet and divide it into thirds and say, ‘This group is going to this garage; this group is going outside,’” said Hegarty. “We didn’t interact between each other, and we sanitized the trucks at the end of every shift.”

Serving the Community Together

Despite the challenges that come with the profession, pandemic or not, Losey wouldn’t have it any other way than working as a lineman at Fairport Electric.

“I come here and give my heart and soul to this place, and I go home at the end of the day and give that to my family,” Losey said. “This is a really great job, and I wouldn’t change it for the world.”

Altec takes our support of the electric utility industry seriously, and we are proud to support customers like Fairport Electric who impact their community so greatly. At Altec, our focus continues to be meeting the needs of this industry with products and services that keep the operators that use our equipment safe and productive.

Just as our customers are committed to serving in all conditions, we’re committed to doing our part to help the best way we know how—by listening and working together to make a tangible difference in the lives of both our customers and communities at large.