Wednesday was the first day of a two-day fusion splicing seminar at Ivy Tech Community College.
Fusion splicing is the process of thermally connecting fiber optic cables and is a process commonly used in data centers.
Instructors say the need for fiber optic technicians has increased as data centers have grown and are now built as complex campuses rather than single buildings.
“Every machine in one building needs to communicate with a machine in another building a kilometer away, so we need to be able to run optical cables from one building to another and even outside the data center. ” said workshop instructor Dwayne Horst.
The workshop was held by Amazon, which is building a data center near New Carlisle, and hopes to increase the local workforce even though participants will be employed by contractors not affiliated with Amazon. This is part of the company’s imitation.
“This two-day class basically puts them in a position where the contractor can send them out, where they get a few months of on-the-job training, and then they’re completely released and start working as a fusion splicer.” said Horst. .
The workshop was open to all ages.
Father-son duo Scott and Thomas Mitchell say the workshop will provide valuable experience.
“I’m actually going to start working in the data center next week, so this will give me some hands-on experience working directly with fiber optics for next week,” Thomas Mitchell said.
“For me, it’s just about comfort and being confident in what I’m doing. Coming back, the comfort level is the confidence,” Scott Mitchell said.
Instructors and Amazon officials hope to hold more such workshops in the future.
