The Big Tent of Automation

During my term as ISA President, I would like to get ISA to a point where we don’t argue over semantics of automation, instrumentation, control systems, and process control. It’s all one big happy family and should be. One example is the name change that didn’t happen. You’ve got control system engineers and instrument technicians who don’t think they’re part of automation. Automation should be the one big embracing term, but unfortunately we have a lot of people who just don’t think that. ISA needs to look forward and define our profession; it’s what our members have been wanting for many years. ISA and members of the Automation Federation are trying to say we’re all about automation at the end of the day. We’re trying to make sure plants can run without 10 million people standing there to manually do things. And our goal is to communicate that and define that profession, raising the awareness of who we are, not just the Society but the people who are part of it. As automation professionals, we all feel under-appreciated in the companies we work for in that we don’t get enough recognition in what we do and the important role we play. ISA needs to change that.
Kim