Industries for control/instrumentation engineering career
Jason Hsu
University, and my specialty is control systems. I will study DSP and
adaptive signal processing next semester. I will acquire DSP, PLC, and
DCS kits to practice what I learn. I will gain practical experience
from some combination of work experience, a formal research project,
formal independent studies, and informal personal projects. I am
seeking a career as a control or instrumentation engineer, and I am
not waiting for my last semester before graduation to get going.
What industries you you recommend? I am open to working in any of a
variety of industries, and I am open to relocation. What industry do
you work in? What products does your company produce? How did you
get into your industry? What are the special conditions and pitfalls
of your industry? What specific parts of control systems and signal
processing have special importance in your industry? (I have already
learned from you that certain industries prefer PLCs, certain other
industries prefer DCSs, and control theory is more likely to be
important for fast-response systems and less likely to be important
for slow-response systems.)
Some of the industries I have thought of:
1. Government: A position at the NIST would be a logical choice, as
this organization is THE group for instrumentation work. There's also
the CIA, FBI, Naval Laboratories, etc.
2. Defense: Control systems and instrumentation are used heavily for
navigation, guidance, and other applications. Autonomous vehicles are
especially prolific users of controls and instrumentation. We have
heard in the news about the use of a variety of devices in the War On
Terrorism, and there are probably even more that they won't tell us
about for security reasons.
3. Automotive repair equipment: When you bring your car to the repair
shop for service, the technicians use engine analyzers and other
equipment for diagnostic purposes. A special machine is used for
alignment work. There are many parts to be tested or monitored. And
unlike the demand for new cars, the demand for car and truck repairs
does not go away during recessions. The same should apply to the test
equipment vendors.
4. Oil industry: The oil industry is a prolific user of
instrumentation to find oil deposits. Control systems and
instrumentation are used in the drilling and refining processes.
5. Natural gas industry: See above.
6. Oil shale industry: See above. Of course, any drop in energy
prices would be particularly fierce to this industry.
7. Fuel cell industry: Fuel cells generate electricity by combining
oxygen and hydrogen into water. I truly believe this technology will
eventually replace the internal combustion engine when costs drop low
enough. This is a case of a risky industry with the potential for a
very high payoff.
8. Food processing industry: Everyone has to eat.
9. Fluid flowmeter industry: Many industries (such as the oil and gas
industries) use flowmeters to measure the flows of liquids and gases
in pipes.
10. Medical device/instrumentation industry: Medical devices like
artificial hearts and pacemakers are examples of control systems. The
medical industry is a prolific user of instrumentation for measuring
anything from blood sugar to heart rate to brain activity.
11. Security equipment industry: Anything that has an alarm is a form
of instrumentation. I know that there MUST be a boom in this
industry.
12. Nuclear equipment industry: The War On Terrorism and concerns
over the proliferation of nuclear material surely must have driven up
demand for Geiger Counters. The same applies for devices used to
detect biological and chemical weapons.
13. Transportation industry: I believe that rail systems must be
prolific users of control systems. So I could work for the CTA
(Chicago Transit Authority) or DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit).
14. Factory automation
15. Robotics
16. Mining instrumentation
17. Power instrumentation/controls
18. Water treatment
19. Waste management
Are there other industries I have not thought of?
Jason Hsu, AG4DG
usenet@@@jasonhsu.com
"Jörgen Tegnér"
> As I mentioned before, I am pursuing my MSEE at George Mason University,
> and my specialty is control systems. I will study DSP and adaptive signal
>
<snip>
> Are there other industries I have not thought of?
>
> Jason Hsu, AG4DG
> usenet@@@jasonhsu.com
I think you forgot at least these areas:
Pulp and paper
Steel industry, and also manufacturing of other metals like aluminium, copper
Both of these two gives lots of chances to see the world, and meet other
cultures far out in the countrysides.
And of course, where one wants to measure a flow, one would like to
control it too. Valves is high tech, a big business, and used everywhere.
Do consider both sides of the industry of your choice: the actual industry
and also the providers of the equipment.
One thing you could add to your list of things to consider when choosing
field is whether you are comfortable working with stuff controlled by
political decisions, like defense industries, desicions which are likely
to be changed at elections and whatelse, or if you are more into the
manufacturing of consumer goods.
Good luck,
Jörgen
--
Heisenberg went for a drive and got stopped by a traffic cop. The cop
asked, "Do you know how fast you were going?" Heisenberg replied, "No,
but I know where I am."
Fred Marshall
It looks like you're being suitably ambitious regarding the learning
process!
The government labs are a great place to combine technical work and
relatively early project responsibility if that's what you want. There's
less political influence (i.e. program decisions) there than you'll find in
the defense industry - because the labs tend to deal with things in a mixed
way that's somewhat half way between industry and academia. You can be a
"scientist" or an "engineer" or a "project leader / manager" or all of the
above.
You might also consider Machine Vision as an industry - ableit relatively
smaller than others. That would encompass the food industry, semiconductors
and others in this specialty. Image processing would be an underlying
technology. Control systems also. Robotics also.
I don't think of Fuel Cells as an "industry" so much as a product area.
Now, the systems that employ them might be part of an industry.... like
automobiles.
Water treatment is a possibility although I think it's less a growing
technology area - so your PLC experience would fit in nicely but might be
used less frequently than you'd like. I could be wrong on this. The firms
are relatively small so you'd be doing a lot of other things.
Fred
"Jason Hsu" <jaso...@my-deja.com> wrote in message
news:f7d9a152.02120...@posting.google.com...
Walter Driedger
news:f7d9a152.02120...@posting.google.com...
> What industries do you recommend?
Jason,
You didn't mention composition analyzers. For most industrial processes
there are really only two measurements that are of fundamental significance:
flow rate and composition. All the others are just means to an end. The
complexity and variety of problems related to analysis are endless and so is
the scope for further development. There isn't a single process industry
that couldn't be improved by a reliable analyzer for its key composition.
You mentioned oil shale. I think it's pretty dead. The real progress is in
the Canadian Oil Sands. They are kind of similar except that they do
produce in the order of 300,000 barrels per day. We have more oil that all
of Arabia. The only problem is that it's expensive oil. And that is good
for engineers.
Walter.
hugh pearce
>
> Are there other industries I have not thought of?
>
> Jason Hsu, AG4DG
> usenet@@@jasonhsu.com
Power generation Nuclear power stations etc
Rgds
Hugh
Kunal
> news:f7d9a152.02120...@posting.google.com...
From what I've seen of my friends who have worked in companies like
Honeywell, B&R and Emerson, most of the work done in this field is
configuring commercially available DCS systems and programming PLCs.
You don't get to apply much of control theory at all, altho' you
cannot do without it. If you work in the development of such tools,
then I guess you will get to do a lot more core work.
Another aspect of control engineering is embedded systems. Along with
DSP and PLCs, learn something of microcontrollers and peripherals... a
lot of embedded control applications around. Personally, I find that
sort of work much better than configuring some software tool ! :-))
kundi