Itron Inspire

Developing the Next Generation Utility Workforce and Inspiring Leadership

October 17, 2017

Today marked the second day of the #IUW17 Knowledge Conference and we started the morning with another great general session.

We heard from Sharelynn Moore, Itron’s senior vice president of networked solutions and Dr. Michael Webber from the University of Texas at Austin. They gave us an update on the Resourcefulness App, which Itron launched through a partnership with Dr. Webber to improve energy and water literacy, encourage conservation and resourcefulness, and inspire the next generation of innovators with the app.

The interactive digital curriculum combines text with multimedia components, such as audio and video along with dozens of interactive exercises, maps and games. By working with community partners nationwide, we made the app-based curriculum available free of charge. We’re also excited to announce today that the Energy Institute High School here in Houston, a STEM-focused magnet program, has adopted the app as part of their curriculum. We are happy to provide the app for the school and believe it’s a great example of how a public/private partnership is helping to shape the next generation workforce.

Our second speaker and keynote for today’s general session was retired Colonel Mike Mullane of the U.S. Air Force and NASA. An inductee to the International Space Hall of Fame, Colonel Mullane completed 134 combat missions in Vietnam and logged 356 hours in space. He is also the recipient of many awards including the Air Force Distinguished Flying Cross, Legion of Merit and the NASA Space Flight Medal.

Colonel Mullane spoke with our conference attendees about teamwork, leadership and safety. Colonel Mullane truly inspired attendees by drawing on his experience as a pilot and astronaut. He left us with the notion that teamwork, leadership and safety are not final destinations, but rather, continuous journeys for our organizations. We challenge all of our blog readers and conference participants to take this notion back to their respective organizations and apply it to their daily operations.

Thanks for following along on our blog! We’ll be back with our final conference blog this afternoon discussing real-time load disaggregation. Don’t forget to follow the conversation online on our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.