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SEPTEMBER 2026 I I-CONNECT007 MAGAZINE 101 the complexities of PCB manufacturing. Look for people who like to solve problems and are curious about how things work. Those are often your best candidates. Give the Team the Skills It Needs Once you have identified the team, education comes first. The skills needed for this type of pro- gram are achievable, but don't expect everyone to learn everything at once. The goal is to develop enough knowledge of automation planning, sensors, data acquisition, programming, PLCs, and statistics that the team can begin experimenting. I have included a preparation checklist at the end of this column with the training and reference materials I recommend. Programming often makes people nervous, but it shouldn't. Your team does not have to become a group of professional software developers. Someone does, however, need to become comfort- able enough with programming to customize a microcontroller, collect information from sensors, and eventually use that information to control a process. This is where the maker community has changed the game. Inexpensive microcontrollers such as the BBC micro:bit, Arduino, Raspberry Pi, BASIC Stamp, and others give beginners a practical way to learn. They are supported by extensive educational mate- rial, software examples, and projects. The important thing is to start using them. Build by Doing Learning automation should not become an endless training exercise. At some point, you need to build something. A small training setup allows employees to experiment with a controller, connect sensors, collect data, and see what their programs actually do. As their skills grow, they can add data acquisi- tion equipment, PLCs, and other devices that more closely resemble what they will encounter on the manufacturing floor. Additive manufacturing provides another useful tool. A small 3D printer can produce sensor H A P PY'S T EC H TA L K # 5 0 Figure 2: Training kits provide a hands-on way to learn programming and the fundamentals of working with microcontrollers and sensors. H A P PY'S T EC H TA L K # 5 0