Professional figure:
AUTOMATION ENGINEER
Main functions:
The graduate automation engineer has an in-depth interdisciplinary knowledge of the automatic, mechanical, computing, electronics and electrotechnics sectors, and is able to conceive, design, implement and start up automation systems for machines, processes, systems, products and services.
The occupational profiles produced are:
- professional engineers possessing interdisciplinary knowledge in the relevant sectors who are able to conceive, design, implement and start up mechanical systems for machines, processes and systems;
- professional engineers able to design, manage and implement acquisition, processing and real time control systems that are typical of computer-based automation systems;
- professional engineers able to operate in research and development centres and laboratories in the automation sector and are able to design and carry out experiments and coordinate and collaborate in technologically innovative research projects.
Automation engineers therefore have specific skills that allow them to be able to work effectively even in different areas, as systems analyst and/or designer and/or technician in all fields of application in which automation technologies and principles play an important role.
The professional figures produced by the study programme are at partly coherent with the provisions of the ISTAT professional classifications in the category “Intellectual, scientific and highly specialised professions” in points: 2.2.1.3.0 – Electrotechnical and industrial automation engineers; 2.2.1.9.2 – Industrial and Management Engineers; 2.2.1.4 – Electronic and telecommunications Engineers.
Career opportunities:
The main career opportunities lies in the manufacturing, industrial transformation and services industries, both conventional (transport, distribution and territorial management, etc.) and advanced with high added value (management consulting, automatic machines, computing, etc.) and the civil service. In these fields, Automation Engineering graduates are able to contribute with their specific skills to technological innovation and production processes, which also require the integration of information and industrial technologies. More specifically, 2nd cycle graduates will find employment in companies which produce and/or use automation components and systems, engineering firms, public or private bodies which use automatic/mechanical/computing techniques and technologies to optimise production, manage and/or supply services.
The typical professional fields of 2nd cycle Automation Engineering graduates are therefore:
- industries producing and/or using automation components and systems;
- companies working in industrial automation and robotics;
- companies working in the automobile and transport sectors;
- process industries in the mechanical, electrical, electromechanical, energy and chemical sectors;
- industries for the design and production of agricultural machinery, earthmoving machinery, cranes, bridge cranes, etc.;
- industries for the design and production of wood processing machinery, etc.;
- companies and authorities involved in the production, management and conversion of energy;
- industries for the design and development of products with a high technological content;
- industries for the supply and assembly of components (reduction gears, power components, control panels, etc.);
- food processing industries;
- food and pharmaceutical packaging and preservation industries; food processing industries;
- industries for the development of support software for mechanical design, control and simulation, computer-assisted industrial drawing, reverse engineering, virtual simulation generally;
- industries for the production of test machines and measuring instruments destined for research and mass production;
- biomechanical industries;
- industrial laboratories;
- training centres;
- research centres.
In particular, in the Emilia-Romagna region many career opportunities are open the Automation Engineering graduates in the industrial automation field. There are in fact a number of sectors of excellence, for example the automatic packaging machine manufacturers, which are so numerous that the Emilia-Romagna region has earned the international nick-name of "Packaging Valley".
In addition to this specific sector, the Emilia-Romagna region, and in particular the area surrounding Bologna, is renowned for its advanced and highly internationalised industrial system, with a high concentration of small and medium enterprises operating in a number of industrial sectors, from mechanics to electronics, from the car industry to robotics, from the ceramics industry to food processing.
The regional economic system is also characterised by highly developed traditional and advanced services structures, both in the private sector and within the civil service.
The professional profile of the Automation Engineer graduate, by virtue of their versatility and specific skills which integrate technological competences from different, interdisciplinary sectors, responds effectively to the needs of such a diversified economic context.
