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.
“Knowledge is power”
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
Robert Blume, Automation Engineer Technology Trainer/Coordinator
6 006-007 AET.indd 6
Dragon’s Tale • AET Program
4/13/21 1:13 PM
