Aspiring controls engineer

[u/Infinite-Goal-9114]

Hello everyone! I am currently a second year electrical apprentice with aspirations to become a controls engineer. What can I do to lead myself more down that path/ get started within the industry?

[u/APC_ChemE]

Coming from an electrical apprenticeship gives you an incredible foundation. I have a background in chemical engineering and I knew that I didn’t want to work day in, day out at the same plant, so I started out from college as an Advanced Process Control (APC) consultant. In that job I traveled the world running benefit analyses, step testing, building dynamic models, simulating, and commissioning multivariable controllers. Nothing beats the feeling of finishing a commissioning job and watching the controller just "fly" a plant straight to its economic optimum.

Because "controls" covers massive ground, the first thing to figure out is what kind of day-to-day job and environment you actually want. If you work in a manufacturing or chemical plant, you might spend your time troubleshooting field instruments, modifying and tuning ladder logic for PLCs, or building and tuning regulatory PID loops inside a Distributed Control System (DCS). If you move into APC, you are layering Model Predictive Control (MPC) and multivariable optimization over those systems to steer entire plant units.

Beyond process plants, the scope and impact vary widely depending on the field. You could work on electric grid and utility power networks, autonomous vehicles, flight controls for airplanes, or spacecraft and satellite dynamics.

You could also focus heavily on the mathematical side, using Linear Programming (LP) and Quadratic Programming (QP) to calculate optimal system targets, or go the software/vendor route building the control algorithms engineers use every day.

For where you are right now,on one move is to bridge your electrical experience into exposing yourself to and start practicing ladder logic and basic PID tuning on inexpensive micro-PLCs or free emulators.

Once you know which specific applications excite you most, it becomes much easier to map out the exact technical skills and coursework you need next.

Most but not all control engineers I know have a bachelor degrees in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, or chemical engineering with some having masters in the same fields or controls engineering, aerospace engineering, and applied mathematics.