LCCC keeps on shining with its innovation

Lorain County Community College will offer a second applied bachelor’s degree in smart industrial automated systems engineering technology and that is great news for Northeast Ohio.

LCCC President Marcia J. Ballinger announced Oct. 7 during the kickoff for Manufacturing Month at Skylift Inc. in Lorain that the college would offer the first degree program of its kind in Ohio, building on its commitment to create and train the workforce needed for the 21st century economy.

LCCC has a very good track record of being first.

After all, as an institution chartered in 1963 after an initiative led by the League of Women Voters, LCCC became the first community college in Ohio to establish a permanent campus.

U.S. Ninth District Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur spoke at the event saying LCCC is an asset to Northeast Ohio.

Kaptur, a Toledo Democrat, praised the college for its innovation in supporting manufacturing and other sectors.

She even mentioned that she wished her home town had institutions that offered courses like LCCC.

The new degree program received the green light from Ohio Department of Higher Education Chancellor Randy Gardner to move forward with development, which focuses on integrating, operating, modifying and troubleshooting smart manufacturing systems based on “off the shelf” industrial equipment directly related to smart manufacturing.

The next step in the approval process is to gain final endorsement from the Ohio Department of Higher Education and the Higher Learning Commission, following the steps taken when LCCC launched its bachelor’s program in microelectronic manufacturing in 2018.

But like the MEMS program, the curriculum for the degree in smart industrial automated systems engineering technology was developed in consultation with local employers with the learn and earn model.

This method enables students to work and take classes, completing their training with hands-on experience in the industry.

What’s noteworthy is that Northeast Ohio employers and manufacturers were at the table and co-designed the curriculum.

And Ballinger thanked the Lorain County Chamber of Commerce, Lorain County Manufacturing Sector Partnership and Team NEO for their collaboration and partnership in making the degree possible.

Smart industrial automated systems engineering technology represents a multidisciplinary engineering field concerned with the design, modeling, analysis and control of predominantly computerbased automated systems or processes, often referred to as smart manufacturing.

Automated systems typically contain a mixture of sensors, equipment, devices, software, hardware and humans, and require knowledge of elements of electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, software programming, networking, security and human factors engineering.

The program will be designed to meet the Accreditation Board for Engineering & Technology requirements and train students for job roles such as automation engineer, controls engineer, systems engineer and others.

And, those positions, which cut across multiple industry sectors, are in high demand now with anticipated growth.

According to LCCC, in 2020, over 21,000 individuals were employed in Northeast Ohio in similar positions and 72 percent of occupations related to smart manufacturing and automation require a bachelor’s degree as typical entry level education.

That’s pretty remarkable. Labor market data company Emsi forecasts 8,750 regional openings in these occupations in the next five years.

So, it makes sense that this curriculum will become available to start training people for these jobs.

Sarah Park, a student at LCCC, certainly knows how valuable early exposure to the industry is.

Park is one of three LCCC students working at AgriNomix, an Oberlin company that supplies to the North American horticulture industry, as a part-time electrical technician.

Park realized that starting a job with a local company while working on a degree, helps students smoothly transfer into the workforce after graduation.

And like the ultimate objectives for institutions of higher learning, LCCC’s goal is to pave a road to success for every student — a path that leads to a high-paying job in a sustainable career with flexible options to earn additional, higher-level degrees when the time is right for them.

We commend LCCC’s new program as yet another viable educational and innovation tool for students to pursue and succeed.