The ISA New Orleans Section continued to support the annual STEM Fest, with an interactive display that highlighted the technology used in advanced manufacturing and industrial automation as a career path. Special thanks to Brittnie Grasmick, Petrotech, and Wayne Welk, The Reynolds Company, for volunteering and representing the section at the event.
The annual STEM Fest hosted by the New Orleans Saints and New Orleans Pelicans, and sponsored by Chevron, is an event where students can participate in various science, technology, engineering and math activities. Several local high school students also participated in STEM Signing Day, declaring their college of choice on a STEM scholarship. The event was held at the Caesar’s Superdome and Smoothie King Center on October 14, 2023.
For the ISA New Orleans Section’s interactive display, students found it fun to try to use automation to move pallets in a digital twin emulation of a converging conveyor system. The display was powered by a real industrial Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) interacting with the simulated digital twin environment. Students used an operator interface, or OI, to interact with the conveyor system. The interactive display also included real industrial sensors communicating over IO-Link.
Part of ISA’s core mission is to advocate and bring awareness to automation and instrumentation as a viable career. By participating in the annual STEM Fest, ISA is able to show the importance of needing a skilled workforce that can design, program, build, troubleshoot and operate the automation devices that are used in every aspect of manufacturing today.
View more pictures of STEM Fest 2023 at https://www.nba.com/pelicans/photos/photos-pelicans-saints-and-chevron-host-stem-fest-2023.
ISA New Orleans Section 