Members

Founding Sponsor:

Charter Members:

Working Group:

Educational Curriculum

Automation Federation has identified the need for an Automation & Engineering Curriculum as a key focus area as the lack of such a program presents a challenge to manufacturing as a whole. One key factor in the ability for manufacturing to compete in the global market is automation. Automation engineers working in industry today are typically degreed in the electrical, mechanical, or chemical vertical engineering disciplines where little to no emphasis is placed on automation in the degree program. Today, the expertise necessary for the job is usually gained over years on the job through mentoring, available training courses, individual certifications, and trial & error with a significant time lag from hire date to useful productivity. U.S. universities are not keeping up with these workforce demands by not offering an undergraduate Automation Engineering program to meet this challenge. Students preparing for a career in automation are receiving a better education outside the US where programs are developing on a broad basis. Without this key ingredient, the automation engineering expertise available today cannot be sustained into the next generation. Creating new university programs has proven to be cumbersome and difficult for many reasons, not the least of which are budget and human resources restraints.

It is our intent to actively work to establish an accredited Bachelor of Science undergraduate degree program in automation that would give students the multi-disciplinary educational and practical background necessary to begin performing automation engineering work in any industry as a more useful employee at the outset. Our members have been working on assembling draft curriculums for both a four year automation engineering degree and a two year engineering technology degree.

Members of the Automation Federation discuss Automation Education Curriculum ideas with Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama.

• Public Policy Synopsis Summary

If your company, organization, institute of learning, or agency is interested in being a part of our Educational Curriculum efforts, or wish to share your efforts with us, please contact Kim Belinsky at kbelinsky@isa.org.

For more about AF’s government relations programs, visit our Government Relations page.