University-Industry Co-Operation to Promote Industrial Relevance in the Field Instrumentation Component of Control Education

In every manufacturing process field instruments establish the foundation for control. As a result, field instrumentation is an integral part of the control curriculum for engineering disciplines that support process manufacturing. In the Chemical Engineering curriculum most of the hands-on interactions with field instruments occur in the Unit Operations (UO) laboratory. In order to make these interactions industrially relevant, dialogue and active engagement with industry are essential. In this paper we present eight features of our co-operation with industry that have significantly expanded the breadth of the UO laboratory experiences for the Chemical Engineering students and faculty. In addition to providing financial help for state-of-the-art field instruments, our industrial partners have also shared technical resources and know-how that have enabled us to integrate the technology into the curriculum in an industrially relevant way. The most notable elements that distinguish our UO laboratory are the large number of installed field instruments (173), the distributed control system (DSC), the asset management system (AMS), and the high level of active interaction with field instruments. The end result is that our students are developing a marketable skill set directly applicable to the industrial practice of control. Our faculty are benefitting from the co-operation with industry as well by being provided with various opportunities for professional development.