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Demand for mechatronics workers surges in Cedar Rapids area.CEDAR RAPIDS — For members of Stephen Doty’s maintenance team at Red Star Yeast in southwest Cedar Rapids, becoming proficient is a process that take years to work up to.The state-of-the-art yeast production plant in southwest Cedar Rapids — the largest such plant in the world — is largely automated and operates continuously.The plant shuts down for one 16-hour maintenance window each year.Members of Doty’s team are responsible for keeping the machines inside the automated plant running.They need to understand the ins and outs of many pieces of equipment.Doty, who has been at the plant for 15 years, considers Kirkwood Community College as a crucial partner in the work.He’s spent more than a decade working with the program, regularly hiring interns for the plant and providing feedback to help the community college fill a critical workforce need in the region.Mechatronics is an interdisciplinary field that combines elements of mechanical, electrical and various forms of computer engineering.Ideal for people who like to work with their hands and understand how things work, mechatronics focuses on designing, building or automating intelligent systems like advanced manufacturing lines.The coursework blends the areas of mechanical engineering, electrical and electronics systems like circuits, with logic controllers (the systems that control machines), and things like sensors, feedback systems and robotic processes.At Red Star Yeast, maintenance staff have to understand all the pieces within the facility and can find themselves jumping between working with calibrating instruments like pH and temperature probes, to maintaining the photo eyes in a packaging department or being able to replace pump seals or work on high-speed separators.Becoming proficient can take a few years of experience and is important because there only two or three technicians on most shifts in the facility.Kirkwood students will spend a year working inside the plant 30 hours a week, while also continuing to take their second-year courses at Kirkwood.Many former interns have joined the ranks at Red Star Yeast or other area companies.“Learning both electrical and mechanical aspects, we know that they’ve been exposed to both ends and a lot of what they’re going to encounter,” Doty said.Given all the manufacturing companies in the Cedar Rapids-Iowa City Corridor, the competition to land mechatronics and industrial tech students has long been very competitive.Now, the construction of data centers and the expansion of power plants is making the competition for students fierce, Doty said.“We find ourselves where we’re not just competing with other companies to hire staff, we’re now competing hard to get interns, too,” Doty said.Kirkwood provides state-of-the art facilities, construction At Kirkwood, mechatronics labs are nestled within the Industrial Technologies Building — which houses large welding, HVAC, electrical and machining labs.Multiple learning lab spaces include controllers and a lab to work with various electrical connections.An automation lab can be configured for a variety of class projects — like operating a conveyor system that delivers various cans of frosting to different stations.The two-year program builds in things like basic circuits, mechanical and fluid powered systems, and workplace safety.The first year largely focuses on basic skills, said David Jennerjohn, an assistant professor of industrial maintenance technologies at Kirkwood who oversees the mechatronics space.The second year of the program dives into greater depth on mechanical and electrical concepts, troubleshooting, and more nuanced experiences.Basic computer networking skills get worked in, since operators may need to log in remotely in order to troubleshoot an issue.“We really try to focus on the types of skills that are expected to be used in our area,” Jennerjohn said.Kirkwood created an open lab, meaning students can sign up for lab time to work at their own pace and demonstrate skill proficiency to advance to the next levels on particular skills or get time with an instructor.The lab — which faculty has custom built to feature side-by-side control boards and other modules for instruction — can be changed to complete a variety of lessons.Various companies also rent the lab as a training space, Jennerjohn said.“There’s a realization that these jobs are good jobs.They’re a little more protected from the ebbs and flows,” said Joe Greathouse, dean of Kirkwood’s Industrial Technologies programs.The demand for people graduating from the program — nearly 100 percent have jobs upon graduation — points to the need within the community, he said.Because of how competitive the space is, students can reach six-figure salaries within a couple of years, data shows.Red Star is just one of the area industrial partners Kirkwood has been working with on its mechatronics program.Others include Ingredion, Treehouse, Whirlpool, Alpla, ESCO Group, Collins Aerospace and Procter & Gamble.Austin Flugum, an instructor in Kirkwood’s industrial maintenance technology program, said Kirkwood’s program has worked to build a culture that also includes some of the soft skills students will need.While the work can be physically demanding, he said a focus on the soft skills, like communication and financial skills, helps students understand the financial aspects earlier on and advance into management roles.“Some of these careers can be hard on the body, so we also want to prepare you to be ready for the next steps so you have options,” Flugum said during a recent campus visit during finals week.Working career skills before college begins Students enrolled in the mechatronics programs at Kirkwood come from differing paths, Jennerjohn said.Roughly one-third are traditional college students, with a significant portion of students coming from English-learning programs as well as those coming from the workforce looking to upskill.“We still see a lot of people coming into the program because they had family or friends who worked in it,” Jennerjohn said.“It’s still a bit of a secret how lucrative and how available jobs are in this field around here.” There’s also increased focus on students long before they may be coming to college, he noted.Kirkwood has built programming in its KICK camps — geared at middle school and early high school students doing career exploration — while also working to build it into regional academy programs that are geared toward high school students.Back at Red Star in southwest Cedar Rapids, Doty is doing everything he can to build more interest in the mechatronics space.He and representatives from many area companies meet quarterly to provide feedback on needs, work with students and keep strong pipelines.“We’re waiting for the kids to graduate and the reality is there aren’t enough kids to go around for the jobs we have here today,” he said.“We’ve got to get more kids in the seats learning and understanding what this is about.” Part of that work entails people understanding that the work isn’t all dirty and dingy, hard physical work, but can entail computer coding and problem solving.He also believes Iowa’s agricultural and rural communities can be sources for more students to enter the workforce.Doty said he appreciates folks like “Dirty Jobs” host Mike Rowe who work to show careers in these fields in ways that help folks understand, and believes that students from rural Iowa communities need to see some of the opportunities that exist here now.“When you see a rural kid who maybe liked to work on a car or equipment on the farm, they come into this with the potential to really have success,” Doty said.“We need to get out there and help them understand what options they have because you can really go a lot of ways with these skills.”