INDUSTRIAL IS RISING Applying knowledge to the future of the world Pablo Sanchez

Applying knowledge to the future of the world.

Pablo Sanchez, Reporter & Designer

Technology rapidly changes every day and when problems arise those working as automation engineering technicians must apply themselves to see how they can fix the problem.

Hutchinson Community College prepares students going into this field. Students can figure out how to solve real-world problems that are caused by electric or mechanical issues. Robert Blume, Automation Engineer Technology Trainer/Coordinator, teaches them about the field.

“Number one, do you like computers; number two, do you like working with your hands? In our field you use both,” Blume said. “When you wake up in the morning, do you want to go to work and most people would answer no, I don’t want to go to work cause they don’t like what they are doing. For over 40 years I loved what I did, I wanted to go to work.” Students that have a basic understanding of electricity won’t have much of a problem with the program. But if you do not, then chances are it is going to be a rough class, but if students want to learn it and get a promising career, then you’ll do extraordinary. After students finish the program, they can work anywhere in the world.

“We are giving about three to four jobs per student that goes through the program. This year we are pushing to ten jobs per student,” Blume said. “ Pick any place, we got companies that travel. In fact, one of our students rounded up going to Australia, another one has been in China, another one has been in Argentina, Spain, Korea, and Mexico.”

There are tons of job opportunities for this major and students can pick any place in the world that they want to work for and having the chance to travel to place that someone always wanted to visit is available.

“It’s a wide-open field cause the guys that are my age, we’re retiring and we’re the guys who grew up with it, we’re the guys who was in the industry working as in advanced and all of our knowledge comes from doing. A lot of these people didn’t want to share their knowledge cause knowledge is power,” said Blume.

When companies are searching for a student, they are typically looking for attendance. They don’t care what grades you have and who has a good work ethic, who is spending more time in the lab and working more time in the lab learning it. One of the main reasons students fail this program is because of their lack of attendance. Missing one day can severely put a student behind. The instructors within this program are more than happy to help the students, but as long as they put in the time and effort to come in and understand what’s being taught. After Blume retires, he has a full woodworking shop so he plans to work on projects for his great-grand kids, and he will also be doing some 3D printing.

Automation/Manufacturing Engineering Technical Trainer James Shannon also teaches within the AET program.

“First and foremost, because the industry is continually changing and continually evolving, the best thing we do for them is we teach them how to learn, how to take instruction, how to be able to move forward,” said Shannon.

Students that may have a difficult time can come into the lab in the afternoon so that they can have more practice on what they are having a hard time on. Instructors will often see students struggling and will give them more time and will work with them. Being able to work around the student’s schedule and finding a time that works best so that they can come in and still receive help also leads to success within the program.

“So with the AET, EMT, HVAC, the one thing we identified right off the bat is everybody needs more work on is AC/DC circuit is electricity so we start everybody through electricity and they see AC/ DC100 first,” Shannon said. “Motor controls they have one semester and then the next semester we do those first, and we may mix in some of the mechanical maintenance and data communication. A few of the little classes that they

“Knowledge is power”

Robert Blume, Automation Engineer Technology Trainer/Coordinator

Completeing Automation Engineer Technology

• Yearly salary is between $50,000 and $65,000 • You can work anywhere in the

United States or even out of state • Job companies will sometimes come to school often looking for a student to work for them

don’t have to have much of electrical knowledge right off the bat, but again, all these things are building blocks so after you get out of three or four core classes. We got it figured out you have all those back ones to be able to stay up, so AC/DC is really the starting point if you want to learn what the program is about that’s the best starting point.”

Be sure to ask plenty of questions and don’t be afraid to ask stupid questions the instructors are there to help you because chances are someone in that room probably as the same question as you.

“Most of the jobs that students get in the real world it is going to be different job, and there will always be a difficult challenge, and more than likely you’ll run into something new and troubleshooting is problem-solving if you like puzzle solving,” said Shannon.

Robotics is problem solving and students are required to have the knowledge to fix the problem.

Robots are advanced more than our human minds can even know, Dustin Wallace, Hutchinson, is a student that is taking a robotics course and shares his experience on taking the class. “In this class, we have a general understanding of how machines work and computers but robotics, we get into how the controller works and how the robot moves, and from there we start writing out the program and figure out how to use the robot in real-life applications.” Said Wallace.

Coming into this class, Wallace felt overwhelmed in the beginning. It is difficult even if someone has a little understanding of it.

“If you look in the last ten years and I’m almost 30, and I grew up in the 90s where we wrote phone numbers in phone book and in the last ten years we have a big industrial revolution, ten years from now we could have flying cars, and I think it only gets even more advanced and technical. Technology is the future.” said Wallace.

Students that are interested in anything related to mechanical or electric should visit Bob Blume or James Shannon.

▼ Photo by Pablo Sanchez ▼

Dylan Shephered, Hutchinson, tries to code the robot to have it move the sitck and slide it into the holes on the box. In order to move the robot Dylan uses a handheld device to send singles to move it where he wants to.

▲ Photo by Pablo Sanchez ▲

Jason Tuxhorn, Hutchinson, learns to laser engrave a block. The robot could also 3D print.

▼ Photo by Pablo Sanchez ▼

Kaitlyn Tiani and Quentin Kneal, both from Hutchinson, program the robot to move blocks and stack them on each other.

▼ Photo by Pablo Sanchez ▼

Dustin Wallace, Hutchinson, can code the robot to pick up the blocks and move them around to any position that he wants it to. The computer does the work that allows the robot to move.