The TechEd Podcast

School funding, teacher pay, CTE, Workforce Pell, competency-based education, technical careers, automation and industry credentials are all part of a changing conversation about education in Wisconsin.
In this episode, host Matt Kirchner sits down with Tom Tiffany, U.S. Congressman and candidate for governor of Wisconsin, to discuss how he would approach education and workforce policy at the state level. Tiffany shares his views on education funding and accountability, teacher compensation, alternative pathways into teaching, federal support for shorter-term workforce training and the role of private investment in schools.
The conversation also looks at what modern career and technical education can include, particularly hands-on learning, robotics and automation, competency-based education and stackable credentials that connect high school, technical colleges, universities and careers. We discuss examples already operating in Wisconsin, including Whitehall School District, UW-Stout and the Smart Automation Certification Alliance, as well as existing state programs that fund CTE and industry-recognized credentials.
Note: The TechEd Podcast does not endorse political candidates. Tom Tiffany’s opponent has also been invited to join the podcast for a conversation about education.
Listen to learn:
How Tom Tiffany would approach school funding and accountability in Wisconsin
His ideas for increasing teacher pay and expanding alternative routes into teaching
How Workforce Pell expands federal support for shorter-term technical training
Why competency-based education comes up as an alternative to fixed-time learning
How robotics, automation and stackable credentials fit into modern CTE pathways
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At IACMI, aerospace companies, material suppliers, startups, universities, and national laboratories gather around the same table, often with the same goal: finding the next composites breakthrough.
In this episode of The TechEd Podcast, Matt Kirchner sits down with Chad Duty, CEO of IACMI - The Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation, to explore the materials, technologies, and partnerships shaping the future of advanced manufacturing. Chad explains how composites are being deployed across aerospace, automotive, energy, infrastructure, and national defense applications, and how nearly 200 member organizations work together to move ideas from research into commercial production.
We also explore innovation in America - from the big OEMs to small startups - and how the U.S. needs to get back to building. Chad describes an innovation ecosystem that includes organizations such as Northrop Grumman, Google, Airbus, Volkswagen, ExxonMobil, universities, national laboratories, and small manufacturers. He argues that manufacturing capability remains one of America's most important competitive advantages, but only if the country continues developing the talent pipeline needed to sustain innovation, production, and economic growth.
In this episode:
Breakthrough innovations in composites and their uses that will blow your mind
Why major manufacturers increasingly look to startups for innovations they can mine
Why early exposure is key to both getting more individuals into manufacturing and ensuring they're successful on Day 1
Where the U.S. has strayed from our roots as innovators and builders, and how we can fix it
3 Big Takeaways from this Episode:
1. Many of manufacturing's most important innovations originate in small and mid-sized companies.
IACMI's network includes nearly 200 organizations ranging from startups and family-owned manufacturers to companies such as Northrop Grumman, Airbus, Google, and ExxonMobil. Chad describes large manufacturers using consortium meetings as a form of "innovation mining," searching for solutions developed by smaller firms with specialized expertise. The result is an innovation ecosystem where breakthrough ideas often move from small manufacturers into some of the world's largest industrial organizations.
2. Composite materials are expanding into industries and applications that most people would never associate with advanced manufacturing.
Learn about where composites are being used in innovative ideas today, from carbon-core transmission lines being explored to meet growing data-center power demands, to corrosion-resistant infrastructure and a composite bridge that can be monitored in real time through embedded sensors. Chad also points to projects such as a lighter composite liftgate for Volkswagen and Army Corps of Engineers applications where durability and corrosion resistance can dramatically extend infrastructure life.
3. A nation that stops making things eventually loses its ability to innovate.
Chad argues that innovation and manufacturing are inseparable because companies learn by designing, building, testing, and improving products in the real world. That belief shape IACMI's workforce strategy, which begins with elementary-school exposure, continues through online learning and boot camps, and extends into internships, apprenticeships, and industry experiences. Rebuilding America's manufacturing capacity, in his view, requires rebuilding the pipeline of people capable of participating in it.
Get all the resources & links on the episode page: https://techedpodcast.com/duty

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In an age where anyone can create content, how do manufacturers (and people in any sector, really) know who to trust?
In this episode of The TechEd Podcast, Kerry Gumas, CEO and Executive Vice Chairman of Gardner Business Media, joins Matt Kirchner for a fascinating conversation about trust, expertise, and the future of information in American manufacturing. As content becomes easier to create and AI transforms how people discover information, Kerry argues that trusted expertise is becoming more valuable, not less. Drawing on nearly a century of manufacturing journalism and industry engagement, he shares how Gardner is evolving from a traditional media company into a platform that connects manufacturers with intelligence, opportunity, and one another. 
The conversation explores the changing economics of media, the growing importance of proprietary data in the age of AI, and the launch of new initiatives such as Manufacturing Connected and Search Point. Along the way, Kerry and Matt discuss reindustrialization, defense manufacturing, entrepreneurship, supply-chain readiness, and why America's ability to educate, connect, and develop talent may ultimately determine its competitive future.
In this episode, you’ll hear:
Why trusted expertise matters more than ever in a world where anyone can publish.
How Gardner is transforming nearly a century of manufacturing knowledge into AI-powered intelligence.
Why America’s manufacturing resurgence depends on more than capital and technology.
The supply-chain realities behind rebuilding the defense industrial base.
Why the future of manufacturing may be limited less by machines than by talent.
3 Big Takeaways from this Episode:
1. Trust Has Become a Competitive Advantage in Media
As content creation becomes easier and distribution channels multiply, audiences have more information available than ever before. Kerry argues that trusted brands, experienced editors, and deep industry relationships are becoming more valuable because they help people separate expertise from noise.
2. Proprietary Data Is Becoming the Ultimate AI Advantage
While public information and generic datasets are increasingly available to everyone, unique data collected over years of operating a business creates a sustainable competitive edge. Gardner is leveraging decades of manufacturing content, engagement, and intelligence data to build AI-powered tools that deliver insights competitors cannot easily replicate.
3. Reindustrialization Depends on Connecting Fragmented Manufacturing Communities
Manufacturing is often treated as a single industry, but it is actually a collection of highly specialized communities that frequently operate in silos. Kerry believes stronger connections between manufacturers, suppliers, technology providers, investors, and defense contractors are essential to accelerating innovation, expanding capacity, and rebuilding American industrial strength.
Resources in this Episode:
Visit Gardner Business Media and learn about all their publications and resources for manufacturing
Manufacturing Connected
Surgepoint
This episode was filmed at IMTS in partnership with the Smartforce Student Summit
Connect with our guest online:
Kerry Gumas - LinkedIn  |  LinkedIn  |  Facebook
View more on the episode page! 
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For the first time in more than half a century, NASA is preparing to send humans around the Moon, laying the foundation for a sustained lunar presence and the eventual journey to Mars.
Just months after the successful completion of Artemis II, Sharon Cobb, Associate Program Manager for NASA's Space Launch System, returns to The TechEd Podcast with a behind-the-scenes look at the engineering, manufacturing, testing, data and emotions that went into the successful Artemis II mission.
Sharon shares firsthand stories, like facing a critical hydrogen leak discovered during testing, how NASA solved the problem without rolling the rocket back from the launch pad, and why the mission ultimately achieved an astonishing 99.94% orbital insertion accuracy. She also explains how breakthroughs in additive manufacturing, digital modeling, and systems engineering are transforming the way rockets are designed, built, and tested.
Looking ahead, Sharon outlines NASA's vision for NASA's Moon Base the infrastructure needed for a sustained human presence on the lunar surface, and the technologies that will make future missions to Mars possible. Along the way, she offers her perspective on the "Artemis Generation," why systems thinking matters more than ever, and how students can prepare today for careers that may not even exist yet.
In this episode, you’ll hear:
3 skills students need if they want to work at NASA
How 3,800 suppliers across all 50 states help power Artemis
Why NASA can now simulate missions that once required live testing
The manufacturing breakthrough changing how rocket engines are built
What it'll take to achievema sustained presence on the moon (and eventually Mars)
3 Big Takeaways from this Episode:
1. Artemis II was the product of thousands of engineering decisions made between launches.Between Artemis I and Artemis II, NASA teams stacked and integrated the vehicle, completed multiple rounds of testing, investigated and resolved a hydrogen leak discovered during a wet dress rehearsal, and modified hardware to improve performance. The mission ultimately achieved 99.94% orbital insertion accuracy, validating years of analysis, simulation, testing, and problem-solving across the program.
2. NASA's success depends on a nationwide manufacturing ecosystem. The Artemis program relies on 3,800 suppliers across all 50 states to provide the components, materials, and systems required to build and launch its missions. Sharon emphasized that behind every launch are manufacturers, technicians, welders, quality professionals, and skilled tradespeople whose work must meet exceptionally demanding standards because many of these components have only one opportunity to perform.
3. The Artemis Generation will build Moon Base and carry humanity farther into deep space. As NASA shifts its focus toward Moon Base, future missions will require the engineers, technicians, program managers, systems thinkers, and manufacturing professionals capable of building lunar infrastructure and eventually enabling missions to Mars. Sharon highlighted multiple pathways into those careers, including internships, two-year technical degrees, certifications, apprenticeships, and traditional engineering programs, emphasizing that there is no single route into a place like NASA.
Resources in this Episode:
Catch up on the story by starting with episode 1 with Sharon Cobb: From the Moon to Mars: NASA's Artemis Program and the Future of Space Exploration
Artemis Program
Space Launch System (SLS)
Get access to NASA Career & Internship resources and more on the show notes page: https://techedpodcast.com/cobb2/
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Innovation doesn’t always look revolutionary. Sometimes it looks like putting shredded cheese in a bag.
For more than 70 years, Sargento Foods has built a business around seeing possibilities in places others might overlook. From pioneering packaged shredded cheese and resealable packaging to spending a decade developing a new natural cheese, innovation at Sargento isn’t a one-time initiative. It’s a pipeline stretching years into the future.
CEO Louie Gentine joins us to share the unlikely story behind the family business and how that same appetite for invention is shaping its future. We get into the mortician-machinist-entrepreneur who helped start it all, the consumer insights behind new products, and the automation transforming Sargento’s factories. Louie also explains why technology should make manufacturing jobs better, what he means by the “gamification of the factory floor,” and why employers and educators need to work together to prepare the next generation.
In this episode, you’ll hear:
The mortician-machinist who helped launch Sargento
Why shredded cheese was once a big idea
How Sargento builds a five-year innovation pipeline
Robots, automation and the “gamification” of the factory floor
Why tomorrow’s workforce needs technical skills and soft skills
3 Big Takeaways from this Episode:
1. The best innovations solve problems so well that eventually they seem obvious. Sargento was the first to put shredded cheese in a bag and the first perishable product to use resealable packaging, innovations that are now grocery-store standards. The common thread is understanding what consumers are doing, where their needs are headed and finding the opportunity others haven’t acted on yet.
2. Automation works best when it makes people’s jobs better. Sargento has invested heavily in robotics and automation to eliminate repetitive, physically demanding work, while committing to move employees into different roles rather than eliminate their jobs. As technology reshapes the plant, Louie sees manufacturing moving toward a more engaging, technology-driven, even “gamified” workplace.
3. A strong workforce needs technical skills and soft skills in equal measure. As manufacturing becomes more technical, employers need people who can build capabilities while still communicating, collaborating and holding themselves accountable. Louie stresses that education can’t prioritize one at the expense of the other: the workforce needs both.
Resources in this Episode:
Learn more about Sargento Foods
Sargento's commitment to food, housing & education
More links, resources & connect with our guest online through the show notes page: https://techedpodcast.com/gentine/

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