This course is designed to provide hands-on instruction in concepts of industrial automation and process control. It is designed for all technicians, technologists, tradespeople and their supervisors who have responsibility for the installation, adjustment, maintenance and repair of complex motion and process control systems. To get the most from this course a company may choose to send several participants from different levels ranging from operations and maintenance to engineering and management. The learning that can take place among a multi-functional, cross-discipline team in this low risk environment will return added benefits.

Throughout the course, participants will have the opportunity to model their own solutions as well as analyze and troubleshoot control circuits in a safe environment. Using exposed (low voltage) control circuitry participants will develop and apply knowledge and skills in control systems. The course material is reinforced through the construction and testing of electronic circuits at the chip/component level and through system modeling. This highly interactive workshop is taught using simulation software along with hands-on control system training boards with sensors, processors and output devices.

Electronics and advanced math skills along with prior knowledge of a particular proprietary control system or programming language are not prerequisites. One of the primary objectives of this course is to demystify the sometimes abstract and obscure field of electronic controls. As such the instructor will help all participants to experience a measure of success. This is not a passive course taught only by lectures and slide presentations but rather an intense week of problem solving and systems thinking in control technologies. Whether or not you work directly with the kind of technology described in this outline this course will enhance your mental fitness as you creatively work through many if-then scenarios and analyze the effects of change in several variables at the same time.