Best schools to learn ICS

[razmis]

What considered to be the best schools or academies to learn industrial automation control?

 

[Ken Moore]

School of hard knocks.

Seriously, everyone I ever met, that was good at it, went to school for something else. Some Chemical Engineers, a few Electrical engineers, though not many. Technicians of various flavors, that worked their way up the ladder. And in my case, a degree in mathematics.

 

[plvlce]

Agreed.

A good school will give you a solid foundation to start from, but there's far more to be learned out in the wilds of the industry than is or can be covered in a course. You'll learn general principles only to discover that every machine is unique.

Don't get me wrong -- a good understanding of the principles such as the physics of electricity and hydraulics is a huge benefit, but schooling is only the start of a career.

 

[Jim3846]

Looking back i would go to a school that offered some type of co-op experience. Whether at a 2 year technical college or at 4 year university. Also, I would focus on a college that would give you some practical experience in labs. I think labs are offered at a 4 year technical college such as a EET degree versus a EE degree.

 

[diat150]

cant speak for everyone else but my 2 year tech college was about 20 years behind industry. after learning basic ohms law and stuff like that the other 1.5 years was a waste.

 

[joseph_e2]

My first thought, reading the OP, was "school of hard knocks", but Ken Moore beat me to it.

My first time through was at a maritime academy that required time at sea to graduate. That experience was a HUGE deal and helped enormoously with the rest of the course work and gave me a solid head start after graduation. My second time through was the EE program at VA Tech, which had pretty solid labs for electronics and such. It's been so long, that I still think about going back through the labs as a refresher. They also had a decent intern/co-op program that I used after I was laid off. At the co-op, I got some practical experience with board layouts, designing and testing hybrid digital/analog circuits, C++ programming, and system testing and QC. Way beyond what VT could give me. The one thing that bothers me the most at VT's program is that they completely neglected the NEC. I had one professor mention the NEC once in passing on the first day of class and that's it. They didn't discuss PLCs at all.



For sure, you want a school that gets you as much practical experience as you can get. It may be hard to find out about their program in that level of detail, but get as much info as you can get.

 

[TheWaterboy]

Perry in Washington has put out some good folks I've used. Few schools are using current tech but the guys I have used are all competent.

 

[Steve Bailey]

You start by getting a solid knowledge of the things that don't change like math, physics, chemistry, thermodynamics, etc. You can get courses in those at any reputable school.
The rest of an education in automation is based on learning the tools available to get the job at hand done. Those vary among industries and typically aren't taught at colleges or universities, primarily because they change so frequently. I first got involved with PLCs in the early 1980s. By the time I retired in 2016 I had hands-on experience with 3 models of Modicon, 6 models of AB, 10 models of GE, 5 models of Automation Direct, and at least one model of several other brands.
And a PLC is only one of many tools you will need to be acquainted with to pursue a career in industrial automation.
If you're just starting out in a technological field, remember; the job you will retire from probably does not exist today.

 

[plvlce]

Few schools are using current tech

Not everyone in industry is using current tech either, so sometimes it works out.

 

[arpus4KM]

Not everyone in industry is using current tech either, so sometimes it works out.

The best way to start is to start using previous tech as it, in my opinion, requires more setup to get things to work and makes understanding newer stuff easier since new things are set up automatically a lot of the time just by throwing things in a tree and setting the IP.

 

[Jim G.]

My 2 year electronics degree in the early 80's got me into maintenance at a factory. Between OJT and the infrequent "training" the company provided, everything grew from that.
I was lucky to be involved in some of the first migrations from panels full of relays to some of the early PLC's. (AB PLC-2, SLC-100, etc.)
At a later company, got involved with a brand new start-up of an operation, with opportunities to learn different PLC platforms, (Yaskawa, Omron, Automation Direct, Siemens)
No school could have taught me what I know now.

 

[plvlce]

The best way to start is to start using previous tech as it, in my opinion, requires more setup to get things to work and makes understanding newer stuff easier since new things are set up automatically a lot of the time just by throwing things in a tree and setting the IP.

I didn't say it was a bad thing. The lab I first learned in (early '10s) had PLC-5's as part of its setup as well as newer PLCs; I was very glad for it when a few years later a machine with one showed up at work.

 

[diat150]

I didnt even know plc's existed when I got out of trade school. This was late 90's. only thing we did close to plc's was gate logic.



we were still fooling with vacuum tubes and obsolete **** like that.

 

[busarider29]

Most any 4-year STEM program for sure. From the multiple, "less than ideal" hires that I've been a part of, I would NOT hire any Industrial Automation/Controls Engineer that did not have a 4-year STEM degree. Moving forward, that will be the very first filter for the resumes to pass through, at least with me anyways. Secondly, they MUST HAVE a passion for coding!!! It must be something that they love to do. I don't just mean ladder logic. I can teach anyone ladder logic. I'm talking about common textual languages like C++ and Python, even MATLAB if that's what you learned in school because that can port easily to other textual languages. They MUST know and LOVE coding!!! I'm sick of getting these "ladder logic" only guys and that's all they can do. One trick ponies. When I show them something in a textual language, they instantly go dumb. Controls Engineering is WAAAAAYYYYY MORE than just understanding basic electrical and how to navigate a ladder diagram program!!

If it's up to me, our next hire for Controls Engineer will be a software engineer.

 

[diat150]

If it's up to me, our next hire for Controls Engineer will be a software engineer.

Ive hired a few computer science guys and they havent worked out. They can code but have no clue about the end devices, etc. They also seem to want to work where they are writing custom programs from scratch and not work within the confines of commercial programs.