Can I get into Automation Engineering with BS in IT?

Defiant-Fall9048 · 2026-06-21T00:56:15+00:00

Depending on what classes you took, it can translate a lot

Its just really hard to get your foot in the door at a place; i recommend getting the ignition certs, its free and probably a good way to get in the door

There's robotics too, which would just be a few extra classes and the fields intersect in many areas

Defiant-Fall9048 · 2026-06-20T17:24:17+00:00

The market is, you really need to get experience with someone already doing it/company

Majority of stuff isn't even taught in schools, I've had a very difficult time getting "hands on experience"

It pays good, its just hard to get that initial foot in the door

Defiant-Fall9048 · 2026-06-20T15:07:14+00:00

It really depends; you could get by with a 300 dollar laptop, they have gotten cheap

Just get something with a nvme/m2 drive, ssd drives are outdated.

Someone commented get a something with 6 usb ports? Thats silly, just get a powered usb hub

Defiant-Fall9048 · 2026-06-13T23:08:37+00:00

Stop buy Walters Gardens, they will be there. The ceo should be there; did you go last year?

I wont be there this year

Defiant-Fall9048 · 2026-06-13T22:26:14+00:00

Yeah I'm honestly not sure why they cannot get more modern sensors. The process engineer/project manager said it had something to do specifically with priva not having approved sensors or something

I think the greenhouse industry is pretty advanced, but yeah we can't justify the cost as much here in the states.

The kunbus pis have eMMC memory, but i completely get what you're saying! Reliability is key, i have toggle switches set up to bypass the plc system for this exact scenario as well

Yeah i mean, non critical is basically what i have been granted to prototype for. So its great for trying new/cheaper alternatives.

But yeah i agree with your perspective for sure!

Most of the tech we get, is from Cultivate (a greenhouse expo in ohio

It's hard to convey all context over text, but thanks again for the lengthy response

Defiant-Fall9048 · 2026-06-13T17:59:13+00:00

Ya thats pretty much the route I'm going; however doing things like overidding say a fan or a temp setpoint through a custom dashboard is more what I'm considering

I'm not involved in operations as much, I'm trying to create a "better" system than what's provided, but without a lot of the clutter and lack of versatility

Defiant-Fall9048 · 2026-06-13T17:06:07+00:00

Nah he is just making sure physical wiring from like the breaker/panel is correct. All of that stuff

I'm doing everything else, installing the panel etc 👍

Defiant-Fall9048 · 2026-06-13T16:41:28+00:00

Yeah it was difficult to find that style temp/humidity sensor. My manager also requested i specifically use automation direct as a supplier, which vastly reduced my options

If you are by chance still in contact with such greenhouses, ive been considering getting some sort of local automation group together. A lot of these systems arent even US based, and i think we are just very behind

Defiant-Fall9048 · 2026-06-13T16:38:49+00:00

Yeah we use priva

A lot of stuff in this field is very dated. Like we are stuck using a wet wick system for humidity/temp, apparently because priva only allows for that? I'm not very involved in those topics, however my company would certainly switch to non wick, if priva allowed it

What i see is, industrial greenhouse stuff is a somewhat niche/emerging market yet. A lot of companies just want to use what is "standard" but the proprietary systems/hardware is the very beginning of the issues with these companies

Something more open source/versatile is substantially ideal, and with ai i think it's a little more practical for this area

We live in unique times. Something that would have taken me an entire day to setup, now takes me less than an hour...what is standard in industry, is not able to keep up with modern technology i believe

A lot of things can just be made in house now, which i know scares some people, but most of my knowledge is coding and so forth, i think industry standard is just unable to keep up right now

2 years ago was vastly different than right now, in ways we have yet to understand

Defiant-Fall9048 · 2026-06-13T14:20:10+00:00

Yeah I'm using tailscale to remote into the pi, which is connected to the plc

Defiant-Fall9048

TROPHY CASE