I remember first learning the fundamentals of process control in my undergraduate courses some years ago. Our professor taught the class with a passion for the subject while impressing upon us, his students, how important the subject would be for our future jobs. He was right. Since then, the worlds of process control and automation have advanced by leaps and bounds. Automation has influenced a much broader scope of operations than process control itself, connecting operations with supply chains and other enterprise functions.
In recent correspondence with Chemical Engineering, Claire Fallon, CEO and executive director of the International Society of Automation (ISA; Research Triangle Park, N.C.; www.isa.org) identified three of the biggest trends in automation expected this year. The following are her comments on these three trends:
Digital deglobalization. “A variety of geopolitical pressures are driving a trend toward deglobalization. Businesses are looking to secure themselves from uncertainty, increase resilience and mitigate risk by re-shoring manufacturing and focusing on diversification and growth closer to home. Automation technology and techniques implemented by knowledgeable, skilled automation professionals can help organizations streamline their digital deglobalization efforts.”
Securing supply chain infrastructure. “Many industries have experienced supply chain disruptions recently, and in fact, they have influenced the drive toward deglobalization. Securing supply chain infrastructure will become more critical in 2025 as cyberattacks on operational technology grow more sophisticated.”
Augmenting people with automation technologies. “Finally, what drives our ever-more-automated and interconnected world? People. At the end of the day, people keep it all humming together in harmony. We must prioritize equipping our workforce with the skills to meet the growing demand for engineers and technicians. The need for qualified staff is already high and will only keep growing as technology, whether automation or AI [artificial intelligence], gets more complex in 2025 and beyond.”
Educating the future workforce
Equipping people with the skills to work with advanced automation technologies is a need that has been echoed by companies, corporate strategists and others. Automation crosses many disciplines and thus can find its place in a variety of academic curriculums and training courses. Many of the large automation companies, for example, offer training courses in automation.
Educational institutions have been stepping up to meet the demand for an automation-ready workforce. The availability of automation and robotics programs in academia is growing, for example at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT; www.mit.edu), Carnegie Mellon University (www.cmu.edu) and Princeton University (www.princeton.edu) to name just a few.
Automation is also being incorporated into chemical engineering programs. Recently, the Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (www.illinois.edu) announced a new undergraduate program that combines chemical engineering with data science. The Chemical Engineering+Data Science major offers a bachelor of science specialization in chemical and biomolecular engineering, along with a strong foundation in data science, to equip students with the data analysis skills that are sought after in today’s workplace. ■
Chemical Engineering
Trends in automation
| By Dorothy Lozowski
I remember first learning the fundamentals of process control in my undergraduate courses some years ago. Our professor taught the class with a passion for the subject while impressing upon us, his students, how important the subject would be for our future jobs. He was right. Since then, the worlds of process control and automation have advanced by leaps and bounds. Automation has influenced a much broader scope of operations than process control itself, connecting operations with supply chains and other enterprise functions.
In recent correspondence with Chemical Engineering, Claire Fallon, CEO and executive director of the International Society of Automation (ISA; Research Triangle Park, N.C.; www.isa.org) identified three of the biggest trends in automation expected this year. The following are her comments on these three trends:
Digital deglobalization. “A variety of geopolitical pressures are driving a trend toward deglobalization. Businesses are looking to secure themselves from uncertainty, increase resilience and mitigate risk by re-shoring manufacturing and focusing on diversification and growth closer to home. Automation technology and techniques implemented by knowledgeable, skilled automation professionals can help organizations streamline their digital deglobalization efforts.”
Securing supply chain infrastructure. “Many industries have experienced supply chain disruptions recently, and in fact, they have influenced the drive toward deglobalization. Securing supply chain infrastructure will become more critical in 2025 as cyberattacks on operational technology grow more sophisticated.”
Augmenting people with automation technologies. “Finally, what drives our ever-more-automated and interconnected world? People. At the end of the day, people keep it all humming together in harmony. We must prioritize equipping our workforce with the skills to meet the growing demand for engineers and technicians. The need for qualified staff is already high and will only keep growing as technology, whether automation or AI [artificial intelligence], gets more complex in 2025 and beyond.”
Educating the future workforce
Equipping people with the skills to work with advanced automation technologies is a need that has been echoed by companies, corporate strategists and others. Automation crosses many disciplines and thus can find its place in a variety of academic curriculums and training courses. Many of the large automation companies, for example, offer training courses in automation.
Educational institutions have been stepping up to meet the demand for an automation-ready workforce. The availability of automation and robotics programs in academia is growing, for example at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT; www.mit.edu), Carnegie Mellon University (www.cmu.edu) and Princeton University (www.princeton.edu) to name just a few.
Automation is also being incorporated into chemical engineering programs. Recently, the Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (www.illinois.edu) announced a new undergraduate program that combines chemical engineering with data science. The Chemical Engineering+Data Science major offers a bachelor of science specialization in chemical and biomolecular engineering, along with a strong foundation in data science, to equip students with the data analysis skills that are sought after in today’s workplace. ■