By R. Ling
July 9, 2018
A group of top-performing students from Tatung University (TTU) in Taiwan has completed the Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) training course offered by the SDJU School of Mechanical Engineering’s Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering (MAME) Laboratory.
PLC is extensively used at the heart of many industrial automation and process-control systems, to monitor and control the states of connecting devices, and to measure analogue process variables. ‘In the future wireless PLC can greatly facilitate remote communication, which will make up a crucial part of intelligent machinery,’ observes Long-Jyi Yeh, the group delegate, and TTU professor of mechanical engineering.
The PLC training course consists of 10 sessions, with each session lasting 2 hours. The purpose of the course is to provide students with hands-on experiences with visualized PLC programming and its application in control systems like stepper motor, AC servomotor, and some data acquisition systems. Bing Feng Qian, one of the course’s instructors, won in December 2017 second prize in the 3rd National College and University Engineering Application Technology Contest for Teachers.
Seven in ten of the Taiwanese group are students in their first year of graduate study in the field of mechanical engineering. Before coming to SDJU, they have obtained excellent grades in ‘Introductory PLC Programming’, which course is taught in TTU by Yeh.
The SDJU PLC training course curriculum was particularly designed by the MAME Laboratory for this student group from Taiwan. ‘The course taken here completed our students’ study on PLC,’ Yeh says. ‘Students have been learning in an environment similar in style,’ Yeh adds,’ this makes it easier for them to grasp the ability to manipulate the apparatus here.’
Specializing in automation mechanism design, Yeh cannot help praising, ‘The linear motors, the servomotors, the pressure control systems, and all the pieces of apparatus in the Laboratory are really superb.’
‘The learning objectives have been achieved in satisfaction,’ says Yeh, who has just finished the first TTU student group visit to SDJU. Now, both parties are looking forward to exploring faculty and student exchange in diverse areas in the near future.
