Industry Supports Rocket Science
AutomationDirect SpotlightIssue 53, 2024Notebook IssueStudent SpotlightStudent Spotlight

Industry Supports Rocket Science

Industrial-grade products provide a path for this student organization to develop a space-capable rocket. Byline: Oleg Khalimonov, Space Concordia Many are familiar with the phrase “it isn’t rocket science.” But today more than ever, sometimes it is rocket science. SpaceX and other organizations have made rocket launches and space exploration commercially viable and almost commonplace,…
2025 Digital Animation Award
Education/DIYStudent SpotlightStudent Spotlight

2025 Digital Animation Award

This FIRST award, sponsored by AutomationDirect, celebrates the art of digital animation and its close relationship to STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics).  NEW FOR 2025: Separate competitions for FIRST Robotics Competition and FIRST Tech Challenge teams. The 2025 Digital Animation Awards are offered to help encourage students to cultivate skills in design and creation of animation…
Harnessing the Power of Play: Engaging PLC Students with a Vehicle Simulator
AutomationDirect SpotlightIssue 52, 2024Student SpotlightStudent Spotlight

Harnessing the Power of Play: Engaging PLC Students with a Vehicle Simulator

Students in Belleville, Ontario, Canada, have found a way to combine their passion for video games with the industrial controls coursework they are studying at the Centennial Secondary School. The team  of 11th  and 12th year students was guided by their instructor; John Harpell, an electronics and automation controls veteran with thirty years of experience….
Student Spotlight: OSU Students Save Dying Fish
AutomationDirect SpotlightIssue 48 -2022Notebook IssueStudent SpotlightStudent Spotlight

Student Spotlight: OSU Students Save Dying Fish

A team of engineering students from Oklahoma State emailed Automation Direct last year with a disturbing problem: Fish were dying! These engineering students had been contacted, in turn, by students in the nearby Culinary Arts program who run an aquaponics farm.  Aquaponics combines aquaculture (raising fish and other marine life in tanks) with hydroponics (growing…
EMMA wins Design Competition at Georgia Tech
Issue 47 -2022Student SpotlightStudent Spotlight

EMMA wins Design Competition at Georgia Tech

By Michael Probst, BSEE ’22 The Georgia Institute of Technology Engineering Department requires two semesters of design experience, with a course known as “senior design”. Students divide themselves into teams of 4-6 students, often comprised of members from within a single department, or students can form interdisciplinary teams. The projects themselves come from three sources:…
Copley High School's Automation Success
ApplicationApplication StoriesAutomationDirect SpotlightEducation/DIYIndustryIssue 38 - 2017Machine ControlNotebook IssuePLCProductProgrammable ControlSimple PLCStudent SpotlightStudent Spotlight

Copley High School's Automation Success

The Innovator team at Copley High School in Akron, Ohio needed to design a piece of equipment to snap caps together for Weaver Industries ProPak, a company that has been employing people with disabilities for about 40 years. With the existing assembly method, Weaver was struggling to meet production and contract requirements for component assembly.