Empowering the Engineers of Tomorrow
Beckhoff Automation Pvt Ltd has joined forces with the academia to help put Research & Development on the forefront and drive the technological advancements in the industry, opening new business opportunities for economic growth. Learn about its initiative that has to motivate others to follow suit.
The relationship between the industry and the academia in industrially progressive nations has evolved and sustained, which is evident from their technological developments and industrial growth.
However, in India, the scene is quite different despite we having a large number of engineering institutes that produce an equally large number of engineering graduates every year. The onus is on the industries and not on the academicians. R&D is still restricted to premium institutes like IITs and IISc. The quality of engineering graduates available for employment is again dubious, which keeps them poorly employed or even unemployed. This has resulted in the engineers working in fields other than their core engineering for monetary gains.
Since 2014, the Government of India has been aggressive about ‘Make in India’, ‘Skill India’, and other employment generating progressive reforms that also require trained engineering manpower which the institutes are failing to deliver.
Automation is the need of the hour
This applies more to Automation Industry which needs creative thinking for overcoming challenges in manufacturing sector. Automation is an integrated engineering that needs multiple branches like Mechanical, Electrical, Electronics, Communication, Instrumentation Mechatronics, Bioelectronics, and Information Technology etc.
The use of computers for Automation for machine control is a highly efficient manufacturing process. Since it is a new concept, the immediate need is to get young graduates exposed to the latest technologies that involve IT, ITES and
Core engineering.
Beckhoff has extended support
In the attempt to bridge this gap between the industry and the academia, Beckhoff Automation Pvt Ltd, the Indian subsidiary of Beckhoff Automation GmbH - Germany, has taken a small step towards building talent in a few selected engineering institutes to make engineers ready for the industry.
Beckhoff technology is proven in industry for its high-performance automation using Industrial PCs, Fieldbus I/Os and the Windows-based Control Automation Software.
30 years ago, Beckhoff envisioned the Software PLC and Motion functionality on a single powerful PC hardware platform which has today become a global industrial standard. The company has been continuously investing in R&D for innovative technologies in the field of Automation be it Compact IPC or DIN Rail mounted Embedded PC or 36 Core Server IPC or Slice I/Os in Bus Terminal format or Real Time Ethernet fieldbus EtherCAT or One Cable Technology for Servo Motors, 12 mm Compact Servo Drives, One Cable Automation EtherCAT-P, TwinCAT-3 software tool or TwinCAT HMI a virtual visualisation and the list goes on.
“We strongly believe in helping Indian equipment manufacturers to produce world-class equipment using Beckhoff technology so that they can compete in the global market,” stated Jitendrakumar Kataria, Managing Director, Beckhoff Automation (India).
Joining hands with academia
Beckhoff Automation (India) undertakes awareness programs for the undergraduate and post graduate engineering students with the consent of their institutes and offers full-fledged Automation trainings to those taking further interest.
The company shares these technologies with young engineers and encourages them to undertake their final year projects or research projects using them. It also offers training courses for the faculties and research students for their sponsored projects.
The institutes provide the PC-based Automation Lab infrastructure within the premises where students learn and practise the technology.
Many renowned engineering colleges in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Punjab etc. have MOUs signed with Beckhoff Automation (India).
Bringing industry scene to the university
KLE Technological University of Hubli had an MoU with Beckhoff Automation (India) to develop a center of competency in PC-based Automation in the year 2012. Following which a laboratory was set up with all the resources to train the faculty and students in PC-based automation using Beckhoff’s software TwinCAT and its EtherCAT-based hardware.
“The overall experience has been very good with Beckhoff Automation (India) team. We have received excellent support in terms of technology and training from them due to which our students have started developing industrial grade Automation and Robots using EtherCAT technology,” said Arunkumar C Giriyapur, Head, Department of Automation & Robotics, KLE Technological University.
The department has framed the curriculum so that industry relevant subjects are taught to the students. The subjects also have labs associated with them. Industrial grade hydraulics and pneumatics, industrial robots, PC-based automation, real-time embedded systems, etc. are some of the laboratories developed. “Students are also encouraged to visit industries to identify problems. Ready platforms are provided to student teams to do their project work as well as to get research experience. Experts from the industry are members in our Board of studies who review the curriculum and update it from time to time,” he explained.
Beckhoff Automation (India) helps engineering institutes set up industry relevant labs.
Benefits are trickling in
As expected, such association has been of tremendous advantage to the institute. “The final year student teams have done a couple of projects with Beckhoff Automation (India) team. The project ‘Development of a flexible and modular delta robot platform’ was recently exhibited in a project fair in South Korea by invitation and now will also be displayed in IMTEX FORMING 2018,” said Giriyapur.
Another was a research project on developing a new parallel kinematic machine. The students who were involved in the projects have been absorbed by robot manufacturing companies, Fanuc and TAL. A few students have also got admission for Master’s degree in European Universities.
Poonam Pednekar
Chief Copy Editor
Magic Wand Media Inc
poonam.pednekar@magicwandmedia.org
Source: KLE Technological University
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