All right. Hey, everybody. Good afternoon. Thank you for joining. It's uh a good afternoon from where I'm speaking from. I'm joining here from Dallas, Texas and um uh welcome to my session.It's going to be a brief uh session on introduction to controls engineering and um I have been in this space since 2017. Um So I've gathered, tried to gather some of that experience and put it into a presentation to introduce this field and, you know, walk through what kind of um what does a day to day look like for a controls engineer and how you could uh possibly pursue this field as well? Um I see a chat here from Tapaswi. Um Hey, thank you for joining and I'm gonna get started. Uh Please excuse my voice. I'm still a little, I'm still recovering from a real, real bad sore throat that I had. But um hopefully you enjoy the session and let's get right into it. So, um in the next 20 minutes, I am going to go through a super quick personal introduction. I'm also going to talk about exact definition of what does a controls engineer do? What does a typical workflow for a controls engineer look like. And then I'm going to talk about some of the skill sets that you can start acquiring or start looking into to continue pursuing controls engineering if this seems like something you're interested in. All right.

So let's get into the personal introduction that I have put up here. Um I hope you were able to get a glimpse into my bio before you join the session. Uh My name is Apurva Hagley and like I said before, I have been working as a controls engineer since 2017. Um in December 2016, I graduated with my masters in electrical engineering. I attended the University of Texas at Arlington to get that degree. And uh ever since then, I have been with a couple of employers. Um and my current position is my third job actually since graduation. Um all of my jobs, um you know, my employers changed, but my nature of job remained the same. I have been working as a controls engineer and my projects varied from different industries, but they were primarily automation, industrial automation projects. So I did projects from, you know, the dairy processing plants to the material handling systems like um your UPS and fedex projects where huge conveyor belts were involved. Um I was able to work on a large scale project that involved dairy processing. And uh finally, now I have uh taken up a position as a hardware engineer with um Microsoft and I am working on their data center monitoring and controls engineering team.

So, um my nature of work has changed a little bit uh since joining Microsoft, but I'm primarily drawing from my experience while working with systems integrators to talk about controls engineering today. All right. So like I said before, I am going to do a brief introduction about on who is a controls engineer. Um controls engineers primarily deal with industrial automation projects. And if you see if you look at the term industrial automation automation is basically ingrained into all sorts of industries around us. Um Primarily controls engineers can see, you know, different projects uh in their domain from different industries like the material handling industries, the manufacturing industry, it can even be the dairy processing plants, it can be, you know, air handling systems, it can be robotic systems.

So industries around you that require automation automation lines, you know, such as conveyor belts, running robots, working to assemble products or it can even be some kind of testing that is uh done during, you know, uh in an automated manner. So all of these fields would require the contribution of a controls engineer apart from working with software, which is, which is a primary tool that every engineer uses today. A controls engineer deals with a lot of hardware. Now for a controls engineering job, hardware and software go hand in hand. So when I talk about hardware there, I have listed a few typical hardware that a controls engineer might interact with on their, on their day to day work. It can be hardware like PL CS which stands for programmable logic controllers. It can be HMIS which stand for human machine interfaces or basically um screens that operators interact with. Uh the screens can depict uh you know the plant status. It can depict the status of the machinery around. It can depict certain different statistics about the products that are being manufactured, et cetera. So these screens are a vital part of uh any controls engineering plant that is uh employing different hardware also includes drives motors, VF DS basically uh it a controls engineer will interact with a lot of hardware that actually controls the motion of the mechanical uh devices that may be, you know, in installed in the plant.

So it can be huge conveyor belts, it can be, you know, interacting with temperature sensors, humidity sensors, it can be uh interacting with different motors that's controlling motions of robotic arms, et cetera. So that's the typical kind of hardware uh that a controls engineer deals with.

Um I already went through the different kind of, you know, industries that um a controls engineer may work in. And um I have taken uh the fifth point here as that a controls engineer may work as a desk job or as well as an on-site job by this. I mean that a controls engineer may be primarily involved with development which is done in an office environment or he or she may also be involved in the on-site job which actually is dealing with deploying the work that's being developed in house, deploying it to the actual hardware that's present on site.

And both of these duties may be done by the one controls engineer as well. So, um please feel free to type any kind of questions you may have during uh when I'm speaking, I will try to address them in the chat. All right. So moving on, uh the reason that I have this next slide prepared is that uh since my talk was going to be aimed for uh individuals looking to get into controls engineering, I wanted to give you a good highlight about what are some of the keywords or what are some of the positions that uh controls engineer is addressed by in the industry?

Um The reason I thought this slide is uh super essential. It's because when I was trying to get into this field after completing my master's degree, I did not know what to even search for when I was trying to apply for a job. So basically, I wanted to make sure that I, I um don't harp on using the word controls engineer too much because in the industry, controls, engineers are also referred as systems engineers. Automation is engineers, uh process controls engineers. And some of the other terms that I have listed here. I think it would be, uh, you know, uh really useful to note these down and, um, they will prove super useful when you're trying to look for a job. Um, in your job hunt when you kind of want to search for open positions at different companies. All right, the main motive of my next slide is to go ahead and speak about the typical workflow that a controls engineer actually goes through in their day to day work. This kind of workflow may be, you know, may last for several months, it may last for several years. Of course, depending on the kind of project that he or she is working on. So the very first step for um a job to commence for a controls engineering or an automation job to commence is requirement gathering. Um as with any engineering job, it is essential and vital to know and fully understand what the project is set to achieve.

What is the end goal? What is the kind of automation that is expected by the client um that you're, you know, taking up the project for and the requirement gathering also uh involves not just understanding the project fully, but also it may also involve traveling to the site to do a survey. If it is a new site, you know, going down there and surveying where equipment will be installed, uh you know, trying to understand the layout of the entire plant, trying to um look at the make and model of the hardware that's getting installed in the project. All of this is a part of requirement gathering. It also involves, you know, studying data sheets for different kind of hardware that's going to be installed to make uh the next steps such as programming and designing easier for the controls engineer. Um Once the entire uh project has been understood, once the end goal has been clearly defined, um the design phase comes into action now, the design phase would typically uh involve either programming which is the next phase, of course, like I have mentioned here, but it can actually involve, you know, uh designing the project on paper.

By that, I mean, electrical drawings may need to be generated where typical layouts of the plants will be finalized where the typical positions of the hardware will be finalized. Um The typical network topology will have to be finalized before all of that can be programmed. So the design phase is typically related to multiple electrical drawings, network drawings, hardware drawings, connections, uh physical um you know, um M make and model uh fixing the make and model of the hardware. Now, the design phase may or may not be done by just the one controls engineer. This all of these phases are of course efforts of a team of controls engineers. Um You would not be expected to excel in, you know, all these domains. Um there ha there are special specializations to, you know, kind of excel in net understanding network better, or understanding hardware design better or understanding um the layout or the uh efficiency of the hardware that we are going to be using all of that. So uh when I am trying to, you know, uh talk to you guys about um what are the different um responsibilities of a controls engineer? It may or may not mean that one person does it, it's a team that does it. And um you know, during, if you decide to pursue this field, you may find yourself excelling at one particular area within the controls engineering. Now, moving on once uh the design phase is completed, we move on to actual programming.

Now, programming is uh a part where the hardware that has been finalized um that needs to go on to the floor and do the job. It needs to be controlled. All of this control comes through PL CS uh which is programmable logic controllers where you can hard code A PLC, you know, through uh different Softwares for it to control your hardware. For example, you can uh you can program motors to make conveyor belts go faster or slower.

You can control um sensors to, you know, start and stop a particular piece of machinery on the plant for you. So all of that programming phase is where all the software that is particularly going to interact with the hardware is used. We are going to program the software do multiple test runs or simulations. Um The part that I had mentioned earlier where apart from PL CS, you have hm I screens that are a part of some of these huge large manufacturing plants that uh you know, convey statuses of the hardware that's uh being installed or they convey the statuses of the health of the product that is being produced.

All of the programming of even those screens comes into pro comes into question here during the programming phase. So you program your hardware, you program your screens and typically programming is um a larger phase in the project as expected. Um Once you program, you know, you of course, need to test the development that is going on, this may be done, you know, at the complete end of the programming phase, it may be done during uh bits and pieces where the program is being uh developed in phases and it's being tested out in phases and all that is a part of the planning and the design phase that goes on where you need to plan how to program and how to test it.

But definitely for the entire development is, you know, commissioned on site to the actual hardware, you need to test it. And this may sometimes be done in house through the use of a simulation or it may also, you may also be required to travel on site and test it on some, some part of the hardware uh being installed after your testing is done. Oh, is my voice audible? All righty. Uh I'm gonna continue. Hopefully, my voice is back. So after the testing has, all right, great. After the testing has been done, uh The next part of uh this process is to actually commission this testing. The word commissioning is heavily used in the, in the industry.

It's um it's a word that's been associated with actually deploying this product on uh on site or in the field. Um Generally software engineers, you know, refer to it as go live or, you know, different kind of terms that um generally other engineers use. But commissioning is something that uh controls engineers use heavily and it would mean de deploying the product on site. Um So it would mean actually downloading the program to the PLC which is um installed on site, actually running the entire equipment, uh controlling it through the PLC, controlling it through the screens, making sure that your screens are interacting and showing the correct statuses of the hardware.

And uh typically, um this is, you know, sometimes a time sensitive step because it may be done uh on a, you know, you may, you may need to deploy your product on a site which already has equipment running and it, you know, there's just some new equipment being added that you're commissioning or it may be a scratch.

Uh you know, it may be a project that's been done from scratch for a new site. Um So this phase is typically uh a tedious phase. I have been in projects where I have had to deploy the program. That was the programming that was done within a span of four hours. Make sure that the project worked as expected, make sure that the hardware on site was reacting as expected because it was a project that was being, you know, um I it was a project that was expanding the current facility so they could not keep the equipment down for too long.

And um i it all needed to start up and fire up at the same time and function. So um commissioning is a project uh is is a phase in the workflow that uh is also long um and tedious time sensitive at times. And uh it requires a controls engineer to think fast, act fast kind of fix problems on the go and make some changes on the fly and make sure that the hardware functions as the software is written to um once the project has been commissioned and um it and the project is um at the end stage and you know, the results have been achieved.

Um a controls engineer also uh needs to provide support for a certain amount of time to make sure that sorry to make sure that the project is functioning as expected and there are no more troubleshooting required. Sorry, excuse me. So um that is the typical workflow of a controls engineer. Uh like I said before, each and every phase may be completed by one controls engineer. It may be completed by a team of controls engineers who specialize in a particular phase and their expertise. But um this is what uh encapsulates the life or the job or the profession of a controls engineer. So I hope I was able to convey it. Uh I, I know I wasn't um you know, speaking with a particular example, but typically industrial automation projects do work in the same um flow. Um So the next thing that I wanted to talk about is I, you know, kind of touch base upon who is a controls engineer. I touched touched base upon a typical workflow for a controls engineer. And now next, I wanted to actually talk about getting into controls engineering. So pursuing controls engineering. Um since my experience has been for a few years now, I have generally seen graduates with a double E degree or an industrial art uh or a industrial engineering degree um that are part of this field.

Um Like I have been mentioning, uh you can have uh a knowledge of either hardware software system design that can get you into this field. So when I say hardware, you could be knowledgeable or you could be you could be an expert in uh a great understanding of the devices and wiring and different kind of sensors and people, L CS and actual hardware drives and motors that um you know, perform and can give the expected output.

You can have knowledge about creating specs, creating network architectures, creating test plans and kind of project, managing controls engineering project. Or you could actually have knowledge on the software development part that goes into controls engineering. So developing the HMIS, developing the code, testing the code, um you know, developing functions and simulating the systems. So uh pursuing controls engineering can be broken down roughly into these three areas um which you might find yourself interested in and that could kind of get you into these kind of projects and into this field. So in summary, I wanted to kind of uh you know, put it in bullet points here that it's usually double E and IE graduates that are a part of this field. Um A general uh controls engineer deals with PL CS hm I different kind of hardwares. Um uh he or she also deals with a traveling job as well as a desk job. And um on the right hand side here, I have uh you know, I tried to note down some of the challenges that uh come with this job. I have seen typically very, very few women in this field. Uh which is why I take it upon myself to speak at any chance I get to talk about this field more and share my experience to make sure women are comfortable with this field.

Um you know, they get to know more, uh they get to know the intricacies in that go into this job and uh can see that if it is a good fit for them to pursue. Um apart from that, um the job is very rewarding sometimes. Uh like I mentioned earlier, there's sometimes sensitive deliverables where it ca it can get intense. But overall the job is rewarding. Um the applications of industrial automation are, you know, a lot. Uh As you all must be aware, automation has taken over all sorts of industries around us, which makes this job extremely um important and extremely contributing to the different uh projects that are, you know, happening around us. So um that was all I had to share. Um I would love to connect further for any kind of questions about this. I tried to put this into a 20 minute talk to make sure that um the word uh or my introduction to controls, engineering gets out and kind of I wanted to speak about um it this field in brief, it has a lot more um I can speak about very specific things if there are some specific questions.

Um I am sharing my personal email here if you would like to get in touch. And um I have also attached my linkedin link in the chat here. Um With that I would like to um sign off and say thank you for joining and giving me your 20 minutes. Um And again, once again, excuse me for my voice, but it was really fun to share a little bit into my day to day life and I hope that I was able to get uh the word out there about controls. So thank you, everybody, take care and enjoy the rest of the conference.