Expanding the Engineering Technician Pipeline for Industry 4.0

Automation of manufacturing using smart technology has been called the fourth industrial revolution or Industry 4.0. This automation is making major changes to the workplace as manufacturers deploy a host of connected devices to support smart manufacturing. As a result, new educational programs are needed to prepare the skilled technicians who can implement and maintain these new technologies.

In central Ohio, employers have expressed a need for highly skilled engineering technicians to support their Industry 4.0 efforts. One such effort is implementation of collaborative robots or cobots, which were developed to interact with workers and other digital devices in a shared workspace. The increased demand for cobots in industry creates a need for raising students’ awareness of technical careers and for developing new skills training opportunities.

This project will build on an existing outreach model to help high school students and high school teachers learn about Industry 4.0 technologies through a project-based learning approach. In addition, it will develop collaborative robotics courses, implement a new collaborative robotics lab facility, and create an Industry 4.0 certificate. Overall, the project efforts are expected to increase the number of Industry 4.0-ready technicians.

The goal of this project is to increase the number of skilled engineering technicians who can implement and maintain Industry 4.0 technologies. This project will build on existing learning resources for Industry 4.0 and develop new courses for collaborative robotics. To support these changes in the engineering technology course offerings, a new collaborative robotics lab will be established for hands-on training.

With input from industry partners, the project will expand opportunities for incumbent workers by developing an Industry 4.0 certificate program. Recruitment efforts will bring high school students and teachers from four schools in the region to the College for three Manufacturing Summer Institutes each year, where students and teachers will learn about Industry 4.0 technologies in two separate tracks.

The institutes will help prepare secondary students for technical education programs and help teachers design curricula that include Industry 4.0 technologies. The project will be evaluated through a mixed methods approach, using content analysis and descriptive statistics to assess project deliverables and outcomes. This project is funded by the Advanced Technological Education program that focuses on the education of technicians for the advanced-technology fields that drive the nation’s economy.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.