 June 2008 Solutions Newsletter
McEnery Automation Increases Flow in Water Industry
McEnery Automation is increasing its presence in the Water & Wastewater Industry by becoming a Bristol Automation Solution Partner. Our team expanded this relationship by landing a significant project in Indiana to integrate Bristol RTUs into two districtwide SCADA systems.
McEnery Automation began work on a project to integrate Bristol RTUs at two Indiana water districts, including well fields, treatment plants and distribution systems. The sites use a total of 45 ControlWave and 3300 series RTUs. The SCADA system will use Iconics Genesis32 Suite for monitoring, alarming and trending. Iconics WebHMI software will allow remote monitoring via the Internet. A custom reporting system will use Microsoft SQL server to store and report critical data required for regulatory agencies.
Bristol Babcock has been providing remote automation solutions to the oil, gas, water and wastewater treatment industries for years with its Network 3000 and ControlWave RTU and SCADA products. These products bring important benefits to customers including integrated remote measurement and control solutions with seamless communication integration between host networks and remote sites.
Utilizing Bristol's integrated distributed control and communication architectures, McEnery Automation can help customers achieve maximum performance and a competitive edge.
back to top
Country Faces Shortage of Automation Engineers
 Dr. Erickson sees solution in control system degree
Worried about losing your automation engineering job to offshore resources? The presence of offshore resources continues to increase and is now part of our global workplace. While low cost is typically perceived as the primary reason for using engineers from outside the United States, the laws of supply and demand are just as much of a factor.
U.S. manufacturing is increasing its level of automation in an effort to remain competitive globally. Couple that with an existing work force loaded with baby boomers headed for retirement, and the result is an ongoing shortage of competent automation professionals. In fact, ISA estimates that 15,000 new automation engineers are needed annually.
However, U.S. universities are not keeping up with these work force demands. No undergraduate Automation Engineering program currently exists in our country to meet the challenge. Today’s control system engineers typically receive degrees in electrical, computer, mechanical or chemical engineering. Great programs but little to no emphasis is placed on automation in these degree programs.
The industry is addressing this issue. Over the past two years, ISA and The Automation Federation have been working to establish an accredited bachelor’s degree for Automation Engineering. A committee of industry leaders and faculty has met several times to address the issue and draft proposed curriculums. This group also met with Congressional members on May 22 to advance support for the concept.
A member of that committee is Dr. Kelvin Erickson, Department Chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Missouri University of Science and Technology, where McEnery Automation recruits many of its new engineers. Dr. Erickson also is a noted author of PLC textbooks. For more than 10 years, Dr. Erickson has been leading the charge to add automation controls classes at Missouri S&T (formerly known as University of Missouri-Rolla). This has placed the university much further along the path than its peers. In fact, he believes only a few new classes would need to be added at Missouri S&T. Coordinating the classes currently offered by several departments and recognizing the curriculum as an accredited degree remain as the only hurdle to this effort.
Dr. Erickson believes an automation minor for EE, ME and ChE majors would be a good first step. This can be accomplished without adding any new classes, and it would allow Missouri S&T to gauge interest among students. If he proposes this concept to the Chancellor, it could be implemented as soon as Fall 2009.
back to top
Save the Date for Blues, Brews & BBQ4
Grab your tongs and mark your calendar for Sept. 24
As summer fades to fall, two things happen: The leaves turn and McEnery Automation hosts its perennial, premier event for the automation industry. That’s right, Blues, Brews & BBQ returns.
Plan on joining the McEnery Automation gang from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 24, for an evening of soulful music, thirst-quenching lager and mouth-watering barbecue. The Bel Airs will return to rock the house. Anheuser-Busch products will refresh you. And Super Smokers will serve mounds of its world-famous barbecue.
Of course, we have big plans for our BBQ contest so start lining up your team and recipes.
Watch your mailbox and your Inbox for more details.
back to top
A Geek’s Guide to Top Vacation Spots
 An engineer’s paradise awaits
Forget about the beach. Heck with snow-capped mountains. Engineers long for the wonders of science, a world of whirling computers and revolutionary inventions, the sights and sounds of machines and phenomena yet to be explained.
So pack your best pocket protectors and consider these Top 10 Geek Hot Spots for your next vacation.
367 Addison Avenue: Yes, you know it’s more than an address. It’s the location of Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard’s infamous garage turned research lab, development workshop and manufacturing facility that launched HP. Dedicated as the birthplace of Silicon Valley, the Palo Alto, CA, 12x18-foot garage is now a state historic landmark. Keep your enthusiasm down, though. It’s in a residential neighborhood so HP urges you to respect the neighbors.
For more information, visit: www.hp.com/go/garage.
Chips, Ahoy: While in the hood, why not stop by the Intel Museum in Santa Clara. It’s billed as 10,000 square feet of fun and interactive learning, and it’s all inside Intel’s headquarters. Bring your digital camera since photos are allowed. Can’t wait to see your PowerPoint display.
For more information, visit: www.intel.com/museum/visit.htm.
Does Compute: Let’s make it a travel trio by stopping in at the National Computer Museum in Mountain View, CA. See everything from slide rules to mechanical computers, vintage PCs and supercomputers. Ooohhh and aaawww at a display of The Babbage Engine, the first computing engine designed some 153 years ago.
For more information, visit: www.computerhistory.org.
Music to Your Ears: Moving up the Left Coast, stop in at Seattle’s Experience Music Project. You’ll find the world’s largest collection of Jimi Hendrix memorabilia on display. If you don’t know who Jimi Hendrix is, then you really are a geek. If you think we misspelled Jimi, you really need to make the trip. OK, stop in to see or hear the state-of-the-art sound lab. Rumor has it that Kevin McEnery is trying to get his YouTube video of Blues, Brews & BBQ on permanent display.
For more information, visit: www.empsfm.org/index.asp.
Enter Another Dimension: Rod Serling will be inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame on June 21 in the Sky Church. It’s all part of the Science Fiction Museum housed along with Seattle’s Experience Music Project, which is a two-fer for geeks. Visit before Oct. 26 and you can also catch Robots: A Designer’s Collection of Miniature Mechanical Marvels, a rare triple-double for geekdom.
For more information, visit: www.empsfm.org/index.asp.
ET, Phone Home: Forget your practical side and head to Roswell, NM, for the annual UFO Festival from July 3-6. Visit the site of the mysterious flying disk/weather balloon and enjoy all the festivities: alien attractions, lectures and even book signings. Come dressed as your favorite alien or you will look alien.
For more information, visit: www.ufofestivalroswell.com/ufo/index.aspx?pk=1.
Blast Off: If you prefer Earth-made products, head to Huntsville, AL, where you’ll find the U.S. Space & Rocket Center. Go to infinity and beyond by marveling at the world’s largest collection of rockets and space memorabilia. Cant’ get enough. Sign up for three- or six-day Space Academy. To the moon, Alice.
For more information, visit: www.spacecamp.com.
Birthplace of the Model T: It’s only appropriate to take a drive to Dearborn, MI, to visit the Henry Ford Museum, which celebrates the centennial of the Model T this year. See it all: The farmhouse where Henry was born and the spot where he invented the Model T. You can also take in Greenfield Village with the Wright Cycle Shop, the birthplace of aviation, and simply glow in Thomas Edison’s lab where he invented the light bulb.
For more information, visit: www.thehenryford.org.
Trains, Planes and Automobiles: Engineers just can’t get enough of the Museum of Transportation in our fair city. Yes, not too far from McEnery’s headquarters, you’ll find one of the largest collections of box cars, tank cars, milk cars, cabooses and locomotives. Oops. Wrong type of engineers! Never mind.
For more information, visit: http://transportmuseumassociation.org/exhibits.html.
Virtual Protection: We searched in vain for a place to see pocket protectors made but simply couldn’t fill our pockets. We did discover that Hurley Smith, an electrical engineer, invented the venerable pocket protector during WWII, and later opened a plant in Lansing, MI. You can take a virtual trip by visiting Dr. Pojman’s Webseum of Pocket Protectors. The University of Southern Mississippi professor proudly displays the world’s largest collection of more than 650 pocket protectors online. And, heck, with the price of gas, it may be your best bet this summer.
For more information, visit: www.pojman.com/PP/pocket_protectors/pocket_protectors.html
back to top
Sunglasses Shopping Guide
Look good while still protecting your eyes
 Now that you’ve planned your summer vacation, it’s time for some serious thought on protecting your eyes. We are talking sunglasses. Do you really know about UV radiation? What about blue light protection? Any idea what the difference is among polarized, photochromic or polycarbonate lenses?
Too many people shop for sunglasses like they shop for clothes: They buy what looks good rather than what suits the purpose.
Of course, engineers would never be so foolish. But just in case buy:
- Sunglasses should block 99 percent of harmful UV rays. You can’t take the manufacturer’s word so buy from a shop or optometrist where you can actually test the UV protection with equipment.
- Check the lenses for uniform tint.
- Hold the glasses out at arm’s length and slowly move them. If you see any distortions, put them back on the shelf.
- Put the glasses on and look into the mirror. No, not to comb your hair but to see if you can see your eyes too easily. If you can, they simply aren’t dark enough. Hint, though, this test doesn’t work for photochromic lenses.
Don’t know a photochromic from a polycarbonate lens? Then you must read the American Optometric Association’s Shopping Guide for Sunglasses.
back to top
Familiar Faces Return to McEnery
Doug Gray and Marianne Harnden rejoin team
Our clients may have a sense of déjà vu. Don’t worry. You aren’t seeing things. Doug Gray and Marianne Harnden have come back to work with the McEnery team.
Doug originally joined us as a co-op and summer intern and took a position with McEnery after he graduated in 2002. After two years with us, he loaded up his truck and moved to Huntsville, AL, where he was a software engineer for a major medical device manufacturer. He recently came back to St. Louis and serves as a project manager, using his computer and control systems skills background to find the right solutions for several of our clients.
“I always enjoyed my time at McEnery, and my return reminds me why,” Doug says. “As a smaller company, I appreciate McEnery’s focus on efficiency and on finding solutions. I also really value the ability to control my destiny.”
Marianne was one of the first employees added to McEnery’s roster. She joined the then fledgling company two years after it opened its doors in 1993. She spent nine years with McEnery before taking some time off to raise her two children. Marianne specializes in developing production monitoring and reporting systems.
"It's been great staying at home while my kids are young but I've always wanted to return to the engineering field. It's just a bonus that I can do this with the McEnery team and with clients that I know and understand," Marianne says.
Please join us in welcoming back two great additions to our team.
Contact Information
email: info@mceneryautomation.com
phone: 636-717-1400
web: http://www.mceneryautomation.com
back to top |
