Don't Skip the Field Trip

I know we always try to talk about "what it's like" and "how it is," but nothing beats seeing things for yourself. As "the grey haired old man in the front of the room" for ten years now, I've gained a deep appreciation for student revelations when they hear something I've been repeating for weeks come out of the mouth of somebody else.

Maybe it's my sleep inducing baritone lecture voice. Maybe giving students a grade makes them focus too much on assessments over learning. Maybe the campus setting has jaded them into expecting a routine. Maybe the students just don't take lectures and labs as seriously as I prepare them. All I know is, showing students what we've learned in class in an actual industrial environment really opens eyes and minds.

Take this recent field trip for example. It lined up perfectly with what we were lecturing about and what we were doing in our lab course.

Nevertheless, the students said with surprise in their voice, "Hey! That's what we're doing in class!"

As if it a career focused school like ECPI University doesn't make classes and labs purposely like what they will encounter on the job. Go figure...

WHAT WE WERE LEARNING IN CLASS: In the lab class, the students were learning how to wire up programmable logic controllers (PLC's) using Siemens PLC's, Communications Controllers, and Human Machine Interface (HMI) devices.

Special focus was on current sink versus source, NEMA enclosures, Ground Bus wiring, and NO vs NC (emergency stop, etc.) wiring.

In the lecture class they were learning more advanced ladder logic programming skills including blocks, timers, counters, and algebraic functions.

Many of the advanced programming tasks are done on simulators for the Rockwell Automation Allen-Bradley SLC-500 devices. Nevertheless, hands-on work, including wiring, is a major focus of the lab class.

WHERE WE WENT ON OUR FIELD TRIP: We went to Cyberclean Systems (https://cybercleansystems.biz/). They are on the leading edge of offering commercial cleaning robots as a service (RaaS), and boy do they have rooms full of toys! The nice part is that many of the cleaning robots and their docking stations look so much more familiar to our students now that they've taken the coursework.

The field trip was extremely informative because the team at Cyberclean are experts in automating the cleaning process. The folks who gave the tour have decades of experience in both cleaning and mobile robots. They also have unique a robots as a service model which allows customers to get immediate quality, financial and operational benefits. This means they are increasing their revenues and they are hiring!

The fact that they were hiring made our students (some of them near-graduates) very attentive. Company lead, Charles "Buck" Ward, was so kind to answer their questions, which ranged from technical to the simply nervous student about to enter the workforce. Buck had the answers and took so much time out of his very busy schedule - it made a HUGE difference to the students.

One of the selling points of Cyberclean Systems is "Why make a costly capital equipment investment in a single robot solution that is likely to change?" That means employees must embody a giant integration service that continuously monitors, learns about, and can install, support, and maintain all the newest major robotic developments. Customers expect experts who can deploy leading edge technology under a simple monthly agreement.

Students who enjoy learning new systems, how things work, and who don't mind getting their hands-on the insides of equipment - are exactly the kind of employee companies like Cyberclean Systems want. That is definitely our focus at ECPI University every day.

Nevertheless, I know that I can give lectures and teach labs until I'm blue in the face - but everything goes more smoothly when we "Don't Skip the Field Trip!"

Thank you for reading!