In April, a group of Automation Engineering students from Copenhagen School of Design and Technology went on a trip, partially sponsored by PJM, to visit this year’s Hannover Messe. During their days in Hannover, they immersed themselves in all that automation has to offer while also exploring new and innovative technologies in the field. In this blog, three of the students, Dunia Ammora, Malte Wassard and Pavlin Edrev describe their experiences from the event.
Dunia's main purpose for attending the event was to network with people from the automation industry – her future colleagues and business partners. There was one encounter in particular that sticks out in her mind.
She describes: “It was great for me to meet people with a lot of experience. I met a person from FESTO who has more than 35 years of experience in the industry, and he has built a successful career for himself. He told me what it was like for him when he was new to the field and how he gained many of his skills on the job. It was very reassuring to hear that I don’t have to be an expert when I finish my degree. I get a lot of expert knowledge while studying, but I have plenty of time to hone my skills when I begin working in the field.”
Video: From Hannover Messe
Malte and Pavlin express the same sentiment as Dunia. The days spent at Hannover allowed them to meet people with the same profession but with a bit more experience. They also met some students from Canada who were representing a specific company. The students showcased what they had created during their time at the company, such as a robotic table that was able to move around.
Dunia, Pavlin and Malte all agree that it was very valuable for them to meet people they could see themselves in and who represent their professional aspirations.
Another important reason for visiting the Hannover Messe was to explore the field of automation by experiencing technologies, components and innovations firsthand. And this year’s event didn’t disappoint.
Pavlin elaborates on this: “I wanted to go to Hannover to see the plethora of different products available on the market as well as the solutions that we are going to be using in our line of work. And the expo delivered in full. There were tons of areas and companies to explore, and it was a team effort to cover as much as possible”
Malte and Dunia add that many of the students who went to Hannover were quite overwhelmed by all the possible things to discover. Because of this, the teachers accompanying the students to Hannover had prepared some assignments that helped them prioritise which areas to visit first. Malte, Dunia and Pavlin all agree that these assignments were a great way to simulate a real-life task they could face as representatives of their future employers, while allowing them to experience components and solutions that are not available to them while at school. The assignments also had a clear relation to what they work with back at their school.
Pavlin adds, “I was surprised to see how fast some robots move. The robots we have at our school can’t reach the same speed as some of the robots we saw at Hannover Messe. But seeing these high-speed robots in real life just made it even clearer to me why our teachers emphasise safety as much as they do. And this insight is something I am going to take with me in future projects – in school and on the job”.
Hannover Messe is also known as an expo for innovations and new trends in automation, as well as other areas. And Malte, Pavlin and Dunia all spent a lot of time learning about what the future of automation looks like.
Malte explains: “While talking to a lot of automation professionals and seeing which topics were prominent across the board, it became clear to me that the automation industry I will be entering is going to be highly focused on network security. There is one exhibition that I remember clearly. It was a company that had created a new IO-link safety system that would make it easier to troubleshoot due to a higher number of sensors that provide us with even more data”
All three see Hannover Messe as a great place to get a sense of what is trending right now and what is to come. And as students who are soon to enter the automation industry, they see it as a great advantage that they know what the focus of the industry is, so they can make sure that they are equipped to meet the expectations of their future employers.
Dunia elaborates: “The expo is a unique opportunity for us to get a glimpse of what our future job will be about. It is almost a crash course in automation, but in a controlled environment. It gave us new perspectives on our profession and how we can contribute to big automation projects. It was a great investment in our education and our future as programming specialists. And we are grateful for the sponsorship from PJM, which made it possible for us to participate in the expo”
At PJM, we are proud to be part of the development of the next generation of automation professionals and supporting them in their quest to broaden their educational horizons with insights from the "real world". And we look forward to seeing Dunia, Malte, Pavlin, and their fellow students enter the field of automation and try their hand at their first programming projects.