In This Issue
- Location, Work Force Keys to Success Brownwood retains, grows manufacturing base
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From Comptroller
Susan Combs - TEXpansion/
Texas Transparency - Mechatronics Brings Efficiencies to Texas Industry
Read how comptroller grants are training Texans - Partnering
for Impact:
Business, industrial parks coming up roses in Tyler - Enterprise Programs Seal the Deals
Combining state, local incentives to attract manufacturing investment - Sunshine Stimulus Powers Training
SECO renewable energy grants spark solar growth 
Diverse Industries Drive State
Manufacturing success comes from ingenuity, hard work
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Mediation services for agricultural producers
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Mechatronics Brings Efficiencies to Texas Industry
Every Chance fund bolsters Lone Star College’s multi-disciplinary engineering program
“Mechatronics” may sound like the next blockbuster popcorn movie coming to theatres near you. But it’s not a summertime diversion served up by Hollywood; it’s a job discipline in growing demand by all sorts of Texas businesses. And at two Lone Star College System campuses in the Houston area, students can now better prepare for careers in today’s – and tomorrow’s – manufacturing industry.
“Mechatronics combines mechanical, electrical, computer and control engineering disciplines,” says John DeLeon, dean of Career Technology at Lone Star College-North Harris. “The mechatronics technician has skills that span all the disciplines.”
Put another way, it’s gaining an understanding of the various technologies that go into more effectively designing and more efficiently manufacturing products Texas companies are producing.
In January, Lone Star College-CyFair received a $245,000 grant from the Comptroller’s Every Chance Funds to purchase training equipment that will significantly enhance its mechatronics program. Jo Fey, dean of the Mechatronics Department at Lone Star-CyFair, reports that the school is using the money to buy a Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) trainer. CIMs replicate the actual programming, equipment configurations and fabrication processes of an automated system found on the floors of many Texas manufacturing companies. The grant will allow Lone Star College students to gain hands-on experience with conveyor belts, sensors, and other automated components used to create parts and assemble projects. It also enabled the school to purchase two industry-standard robotic arms. Both pieces of equipment will be in use by early summer.
Lone Star College taps the insights of an advisory board whose members represent a diverse variety of area firms including oil and gas companies and a cosmetic business. The advisory board helps the school design curriculums appropriate to various levels of certification. The shared goal of the companies and the school is to create graduates who can “hit the ground running and are trainable employees,” as DeLeon says, and who will find career opportunities with area businesses.
More than 100 manufacturing companies within Lone Star College’s region employ mechatronics technicians. Many of these jobs have starting salaries of $40,000, and some employees in this field earn six-figure incomes as they gain experience and hone their qualifications.
Visit EveryChanceEveryTexan.org to see the qualification guidelines and application timelines for the Job Building Fund, Launchpad Fund and Career and Technical Scholarship Fund programs, which offer grants totaling $25 million during fiscal 2010-11.
Lone Star currently offers level one and level two certificates in mechatronics as well as a Marketing Skills Award. The certificate programs enable a student to become a multi-skilled technician with the basic knowledge needed to set up a modern manufacturing line, troubleshoot problems and make repairs. The school also is developing an associate of applied science program, which it hopes to offer in the coming year. TR
The Lone Star College System offers mechatronics programs at two of its campuses.