Issue date: 11/26/08 Section: The News

Media Credit: Yolanda Ramirez working students in the Mechatronics-Electronics program working with machines similar to what they would find in their chosen career field.

The Career Technologies division offers a new certificate program training students to work in the highly-automated Mechatronics-Electronics industry.

Mechatronics is another way of saying intelligent mechanical systems and is the foundation of many 21st century technologies. Mechatronics involves the integration of mechanical and electrical systems with control systems and information technology.

Eastfield offers both introductory and intermediate-level courses that will satisfy requirements for completing a

Mechatronics Certificate. The courses are an introduction to electrical and electronic principles utilizing automated manufacturing processes.

Program chairman Chuck Dale said the idea for the program came from a convention he attended.

"They were talking about mechatronics, and I realized the local industries needed professionally-trained workers," he said. "Then I came back, and I proposed the idea to the other faculty members and everyone started to research it."

Others, including instructor Arch Dyes and Career Technologies dean Gerald Kozlowski, looked at other mechatronics programs before bringing the degree plan to Eastfield.

"We went to the district office to ensure we could offer the program," Dale said.

"Mechatronics is one of the state-recommended programs because they know there will be job opportunities."

Kozlowski said students with a mechatronics degree have many job opportunities without leaving the Dallas/Fort Worth area, because any kind of factory involving manufacturing would hire people with this degree.

Dale said he has witnessed the demand for workers trained in the mechatronics field because factories need people to maintain equipment. According to Dale, some of the local factories at which graduates could get jobs are, The Dallas Morning News, the Forney power plant, the Coca-Cola Bottling Co. and the American Marazzi Tile manufacturing plant in Sunnyvale.

"Basically anything that is highly-automated," he said.

Halliburton technical manager Layne Hamilton said his company is working with Eastfield to hire program graduates at this
moment.

"It really depends on the clients and what they order from us," he said.
Hamilton said they do have positions open right now, it just depends on the economic conditions. To get a job with Halliburton, he said new hires don't have to have experience.

"It'd be nice if they have electrical or mechanical experience," he said. "It usually helps if they have management experience and good communication skills."
Starting at Halliburton fresh from Eastfield with a two-year mechatronics degree in hand, new hires will receive a starting salary of around $50,400.
"The job pays well because it's demanding," Hamilton said. "It's kind of a caveat, whether you work in the electrical field or the oil industry with us, we ask a lot of our people."

American Marazzi Tile's human resources coordinator Cheryl Davis said they hire at a starting salary of $17-18 per hour. And while potential employees don't have to have a degree, they do require electrical experience.

With the unemployment rate as high as it is, and many industries laying people off, Dale said he thinks the program is a good way to give back to the community.
"We can help our local citizens get retrained and get new jobs," he said.
Davis said while Marazzi Tile isn't laying off a lot of people, they really aren't hiring that many either.

The Texas State Technological College Web site states that many existing jobs categories currently require or will soon require mechatronics skills and problem solving ability from workers who presently design, implement, manufacture, service and repair a wide array of equipment.

Mechatronics technicians are involved in robotics, automated manufacturing and packaging, automobiles, airplanes, gas pumps, vending, gaming, ATM machines, heating and cooling systems and renewable energy systems.

Because this is the first semester the courses are offered, Dale said the classes aren't filled, but he expects the enrollment to increase.

Kozlowski said they are working on an ad campaign, including a program Web site, to help increase the enrollment.
Mechatronics major Carlos Celestino said Dale told him about the program, which interested him, so he decided to enroll.

"I was looking into something with electronics, and Dr. Dale told me that this was going to be a new and upcoming program that is going to be a wave in the future," he said. "It surprises me that we are the first ones to do this here at Eastfield."
Dale said Eastfield is the only school in the Dallas area that offers a mechatronics program.

Amadeo Lopez, Antoinette Spencer and
James Casarez contributed

corrine.asbell@gmail.com

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