LU College of Engineering partners with Emerson Automation to host Industry Training

The LU College of Engineering partnered with Emerson Automation, a manufacturing and training company, in a four-day training on DeltaV hardware and troubleshooting, hosted at Lamar University’s Center for Innovation, Commercialization and Entrepreneurship in the Emerson Advanced Technology Center. This multiple day training provided industry professionals and educators hands on training offered by an Emerson Certified Trainer.

“The DeltaV System is a leading control system for anything related to petrochemical plants. This training gives clients the opportunity for a hands-on experience,” said David Strebe, Senior Instructor of Education Services for Emerson. “I like that the students are asking me questions and engaging with each other. Each group is talking with each other and comparing notes of what they are learning. There is good communication among the students.”

Many organizations have or will be migrating to the new DeltaV System. This gives a chance for industry partners to reskill or upskill on this advanced control system.

“This has answered a lot of questions I had,” said Arlin Sterling, Eni Tech. “This has helped sharpen my skills. We have this equipment at Eni and we are just now getting to it, going from an older PLC to this. The best part of this training is having an understanding of this hardware and how it works from a software standpoint.”

Emerson Automation brought systems for guests to have a physical simulation for a better experience with the system using a detailed, hands-on approach. Representatives from Eni, International Paper, Motiva, and Lamar University attended this 4-day training. 

“I loved this! It was like electronic Legos for grownups!” said Donnie Sims, Process Control Engineer at International Paper. “I’ve been in several DCS and PLC classes over the years but this training was the best I have ever been in. Instructor David really helped me comprehend and understand the DeltaV hardware from setup to configuration. International Paper is intending to convert the facility to DeltaV and I will be covering a part of this in the future.”   

This training was not limited to just industry partners but extended to educators who are teaching future industry workforce. A couple of LU COE faculty members were excited to jump at the chance to attend this training. 

“We had a very experienced instructor and he helped us with any questions we had,” said Dr. Qiang Xu, Professor, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. “I teach students about hardware but I don’t have much hands on experience, so this helped me learn a lot. I can take this back to my courses I teach, so students will have a better experienced teacher in touch with the industry. I even asked the instructor to send me slides to show in my classes and I will incorporate some materials I learned in these trainings, since this is close to what I teach.”

Dr. Brian Craig, Dean of the College of Engineering noted, “The LU COE recently was able to open the Emerson Advanced Technology Center thanks to the generosity of Emerson and is working with our regional industry to strengthen and develop new industrial partnerships to provide reskilling and upskilling to incumbent workers while enhancing our capabilities to help prepare more job-ready engineering graduates.”

The LU COE was thrilled to be a part of such a thorough and well received training. We look forward to collaborating with partners like Emerson Automation in the future and offer additional industry training to support the regional process industry’s digital transformation.