Agreement harmonises fieldbus training

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Apr 10, 2007

Fieldbus training centres establish a licence agreement for sharing fieldbus training resources.

Two Fieldbus Foundation certified fieldbus training centres, the Fieldbus Center at Lee College (Baytown, Texas) and Tri-State University (Angola, Indiana), have established a licence agreement for sharing fieldbus training resources.

The alliance will expand Foundation technology instructional opportunities across the USA.

As part of the licence agreement, Tri-State University (TSU) will gain the right to use Fieldbus Center course materials and other intellectual property in its training curriculum.

The facilities will also collaborate on future educational development work, construction of lab facilities and demonstration equipment, and scheduling of fieldbus training classes.

Fieldbus Foundation President and CEO Rich Timoney welcomed the licence agreement - the first of its kind in the industry.

"This agreement is a 'win-win' situation for both facilities and will benefit automation suppliers and end users nationwide", said Timoney.

"The alliance will result in a wider range of certified Foundation training opportunities, as well as enhanced instructional content and methods of delivery".

According to John Pittman, Chairman of the TSU board of trustees, the licence agreement will enable TSU to provide state-of-the-art fieldbus educational courses serving the Great Lakes region.

The TSU Technology centre (TSU Tech) currently offers certificate, certification and degree programmes in four focus areas: applied plastics, computer technology, entrepreneurship and emerging technologies.

TSU's regional Foundation fieldbus training centre was started in response to rapid adoption of the technology throughout major global industrial markets.

The site joined existing certified fieldbus training centres located in Beijing, China; Tokyo, Japan; Brielle, Netherlands; Baytown, Texas, USA; Calgary, Alberta, Canada; and Singapore.

"TSU will benefit from its alliance with the Fieldbus Center at Lee College, which is recognised for high-quality training solutions focused on Foundation technology", said Pittman.

"In addition to a million dollar pilot plant, the Fieldbus Center at Lee College has developed a portable MicroPlant design allowing instructional courses to be conducted at remote sites using actual fieldbus instruments, and employing smaller-scale process operations".

"No other educational organisation offers a comparable remote fieldbus training capability".

Pittman added: "Under our licence agreement, TSU will employ the same MicroPlant equipment in its remote fieldbus training classes".

Fieldbus Center Director Chuck Carter also praised the licence agreement, terming it "another step forward in meeting the growing market demand for fieldbus education".

Carter said: "We look forward to working with a respected institution like TSU to advance our certified fieldbus training programmes".

"Our philosophy is based on the tenet that people learn best by seeing and doing".

"To achieve this end, our curriculum is weighted heavily in hands-on training and set in a realistic industrial environment".

"We are also a unique source of fieldbus training which allows end users to learn about the full capabilities the technology in a nonvendor-specific setting".

For educational institutions, achieving Fieldbus Foundation certification is a multistage process involving rigorous procedures for gaining certified training site status, and for certifying course instructors and curriculum.

Certified training centres are required to maintain multiple hosts and devices onsite in order to demonstrate competence with Foundation technology.

They are also audited to ensure their course material adheres to set instructional standards.

In addition, certified instructors are audited to ensure they have achieved specified Fieldbus Foundation training goals.

Instructors must demonstrate expertise in areas such as human-machine interface (HMI) tools, fieldbus troubleshooting, simple device configuration, and device deployment and functionality across a fieldbus network.