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Feature Story
Automation Engineers Control the World
Virtually everything—from raw materials to the finished goods we see in stores-depends on automation of one sort or another. Not only does automation control most industrial production, but it is also critical in areas where it is normally not expected. For example, food processing, automotive manufacturing, steel production, power generation, water treatment plants, environmental protection, traffic engineering, agriculture, building engineering, medical engineering, and even trade all depend on automation. Even organic farming is dependent on automation because the diesel fuel needed to run tractors is refined in plants using automation.
Virtually all manufacturing and industrial processes today rely on a series of complex operations, which are regulated using various instruments and control devices. Often these systems are automated using instruments and control devices with programmed responses or actions. Automation and control work together to ensure the highest and most consistent quality from manufactured products. That's why you expect every tube of toothpaste and every light bulb to be of consistent high quality. It's also why you expect your telephone to work and water to be there when you turn on the faucet.
Automation engineering is a cross-section discipline that requires knowledge in hardware and software development and their applications as well as process knowledge. Most automation engineers enter the field with a degree in electrical or chemical engineering. Today an automation engineer must combine the knowledge of a computer scientist, a hardware developer, a control engineer, a motive power engineer, and a communication engineer and possibly, a chemical engineer.
Automation engineers do such things as sending a temperature reading to a computer that then sends a signal to open or close a valve. Some processes are controlled by pH. Depending on the pH of the liquid, a valve or metering pump would control the addition of certain chemicals. There are millions of points of measurement and points of control in any given manufacturing process. Chemical engineers work on controls for wet processes, such as pharmaceutical manufacturing, cosmetics, petroleum refining, food processing, or chemical manufacturing. Electrical engineers are involved in virtually all manufacturing, industrial and municipal processes.
An automation engineer can experience an immediate sense of achievement by leading and working from the production to the realization of complex tasks. Almost no other career is as versatile as automation engineering. Automation engineers are found in all of the following industries:
- Aerospace industries
- Automatic control systems
- Basic measurement
- Chemical and petroleum industries
- Computer networks
- Computer technology
- Construction and design
- Electro-optics
- Environmental applications
- Food and pharmaceutical industries
- Mining and metals
- Power industry
- Process measurement and control
- Pulp and paper industry
- Telemetry and communication
- Robotics and expert systems
- Sensors
- Systems (integration)
- Water and wastewater industries
Four Great Reasons to Become an Automation Engineer
- Variety of opportunities—because automation engineering is used in so many industries you are not locked into just one. In fact, in this field it is often good to move between industries.
- Every day is a different day. You don't do the same thing over and over again.
- With all those different options, you can find a job that will work for your priorities—whether it's time for skiing in the winter, working out, traveling, or flexible hours to care for children.
- Stability—because there are fewer automation engineers within a company, automation engineering positions are less frequently subject to plant layoffs.
A Growing Field
"Now is the time to get involved in the profession," says Kim Dunn, incoming president of ISA, the society for automation professionals. "Automation engineering is rising. Companies are recognizing that they can't meet their objectives without good automation." There is currently a lack of graduates in the United States who focused on automation engineering and most companies have to train their automation engineers.
While most colleges don't offer degrees in automation engineering at this time, there are classes in process controls, and several schools offer minors in instrumentation and controls or process control in chemical engineering. A handful of schools offer degrees in control systems or automation, and quite a few schools have course work in controls and automation within electrical engineering.
Related Links
ISA: The Society for Automation Professionals — www.isa.org.
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