BELLE GLADE — Douby Alerte, Mechatronics instructor at West Technical Education Center, has been selected by Florida Power & Light to participate in their Palm Beach County STEM Teacher Externship Experience. Mr. Alerte will serve in a support role working with FPL’s Smart Grid & Innovation (SGI) team. His assignment will be to gain an understanding of what the SGI team is doing to be at the forefront of technology in the utility industry for Power Delivery.

He will get a chance to work with each SGI team member to understand what they do while gaining a better understanding of FPL on a whole. Upon his return to West Tech in the fall, Mr. Alerte will integrate the knowledge acquired through his externship into the Mechatronics Academy curriculum taught to the students enrolled in the high school program.

Special to the Lake Okeechobee News
Mechatronics instructor at West Technical Education Center, Douby Alerte, was honored by FPL.

Topics taught in the Mechatronics Academy include robotics, machines, electronics, hydraulics & pneumatics, electrical motor controls, sensors, computer-aided design (CAD), programming, programmable logic controls (PLC), diagnostics, computer numeric control (CNC), and other topics that together form the basis of “smart” devices used in robotics and advanced automated systems. Mrs. Alerte will have deepened his knowledge in these areas through his STEM Externship Experience given that the SGI team works with drone intelligent feeder assessments, quality and analytics, predictive outage algorithms, image recognition, AR/VR, and smart devices.

High school students that are interested in attending West Tech in the fall as part-time, shared students should contact their school guidance counselor or come to West Tech with a parent to receive additional information and complete the enrollment form. Summer office hours are Monday-Thursday 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Phone: 561-829-4620.