Automation Skills Put to The Test at Campus Competition

SERC Manufacturing and Engineering students from the Bangor campus recently applied their theoretical knowledge of automation, basic pneumatic and electro-pneumatic technologies, and Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC) technologies at an automation campus competition.

During the competition, the students were tested on a range of skills including: designing, building, and testing pneumatic and electro pneumatic circuits and PLC programmes for sequential and non-sequential tasks; using appropriate sensors and actuators to build simple automated systems: mechanical assembly and basic electrical wiring; and giving new functionality and operations to a given application.

First place of the competition was awarded to Chloe Woods and Ryan Hope, second place to Darragh Smyth and Ciarán Kelly, and third place to Jonathan Wood.

Jonathan McEwan, SERC Mechatronics Lecturer says, “The automation competition is designed to test students in their logic, design and fault skills related to automation, in a challenging but enjoyable way. The plan is for the students to progress to the WorldSkills heats next year. Congratulations to everyone who took part.”