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About the job

You love programming and working in the industrial automation? You are looking for a challenging position

where you can show and improve your skills daily? Join a growing company in Chattanooga, show your best in-class programming capabilities and support us as Controls Engineer!

Responsibilities (Including but not limited to the following)

• Responsible for PLC programming, debugging, and troubleshooting of new automation systems
• Set up programs from scratch; Implementation of process charts
• Assist in the development of electrical and controls system design
• Communicate and collaborate with team members, leadership and costumers
• Present information in one-on-one and small group situations to customers, clients, and other employees of the organization

• Certain shift work and standby after customer take over
• Documentation and building of control program manuals
• Training of regular customer staff and maintenance crews at the customer facility Education/Training/Experience

• Degree in software or engineering (Bachelor/Technical College) or equivalent professional experience
• Preferred 2-5 years’ experience in the automotive line building industry and background with custom assembly equipment manufacturer

• Min. of 2 years of recent experience with Siemens PLCs, HMIs, and software in both Step7 classic/legacy, and TIA Portal

• Min. of 2 years’ experience with A-B Rockwell PLCs, HMIs, and software
• Experience in interfacing with robotics; i.e. Fanuc, Kuka, ABB
• Experience with data tracking and handling in PLC, interfacing with other controllers
• Must pass a pre-employment drug screening and background check
• Out-of-area and overnight travel may be expected (approx. 30-40%). The ability to travel internationally is required (passport). Must have valid driver’s license.

Physical Demands

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to talk and hear. This position is very active and requires standing, walking, bending, kneeling, stooping, crouching, crawling, and climbing all day. The employee must frequently lift and/or move items over 50 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and ability to adjust focus.

if interested and qualified, please email resume to lulucopeland@gmail.com

Rhett Bentley, Director of Communications with Thrive Regional Partnership, provided this guest post after a very informative presentation.

Many thanks to the Chattanooga Engineers Club for inviting us to speak earlier this week! We really appreciated the opportunity to share our work with you and hope that you found it informative and meaningful.

Cradle of Southern Appalachia

Our presentation centered around the Cradle of Southern Appalachia initiative, a conservation blueprint for regional livability. This initiative identifies high-value conservation corridors in our region because they contain the ecosystems that sustain our human and natural communities.

To learn more about this initiative, check out this report

View the award-winning Cradle of Southern Appalachia map

Measure what you treasure using the Cradle of Southern Appalachia progress dashboard

About Thrive Regional Partnership

Thrive Regional Partnership is a nonprofit organization with a mission to inspire responsible growth through conversation, connection, and collaboration across the 16-county tri-state greater Chattanooga region. 

We convene stakeholders across the region to ensure that as we grow in industry, prosperity, and population, we also preserve community and natural character for generations to come. Curious about our process? Check out the How We Thrive video.

Like many organizations, 2020 looked a bit different for us. See how we advanced our mission last year in this Year in Review video.

Regarding emissions

A CEC member asked an excellent question about lowering the dependency on trucks and single driver vehicles. The conversation turned to the reduction of emissions since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. These two satellite images from NASA illustrate NO2 averages in the Southeast. .The first is from March 15-April 15, 2015-2019, the second is from the same timeframe in 2020. What a difference!

Steve Poteet has been elected at 2021 President. Steve is a Senior Project Manager at HDR where he has worked for over 11 years. Previously he has 30 years of hydro and fossil power experience with TVA. Steve graduated from UTC with a BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering, is a PE in multiple states, and has been a past chairman of ASME Chattanooga.

Gabe Kurtz has been elected 2021 Vice President.  Gabe is a Senior Program Manager of NERC Compliance with TVA where he has worked for over 17 years. He graduated from UTC with a BS in Electrical Engineering, earned an MBA from Tennessee Tech, and is a PE in Tennessee. Gabe serves as an EPRI Advisor and a member of Southeast American Power Dispatchers Association and is a member of IEEE. 

Dr. Richard Manning continues to serve as Treasurer.

Current officers and past presidents compose our leadership council.  (see Officers)

Nomination committee consisting of three past presidents, Al Curtis, Harry Hawkins, and Lulu Copeland announced the following:

Nomination for President – Steve Poteet

Steve Poteet is a mechanical engineer, a Senior Project Manager at HDR.  HDR is an employee-owned design firm specializing in architecture, engineering, environmental and construction services. Steve has worked for HDR for over 11 years.  He also has 30 years of experience in hydro and fossil power with TVA.  Steve graduated from UTC with both BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering. Steve was also chair of ASME Chattanooga.

Nomination for Vice President – Gabe Kurtz

Gabe Kurtz, PE, licensed in Tennessee.  Gabe graduated with BS in Electrical Engineering from UTC and MBA from Tennessee Tech.  He is a Senior Program Manager of NERC Compliance with TVA.  He has been with TVA for over 17 years.  Gage is an EPRI Advisor and a member of Southeast American Power Dispatchers Association.  Gabe is a NERC Certified System Operator in Reliability.  Gabe is a member of IEEE.

The nomination committee will accept additional nominations before December.

Election will be at the first meeting in December

We mourn the loss of Terry Reynolds (died Sat. Sep 26)-- a member since 1985, the 1996 CEC President and 1997 recipient of the People-to-People award.  Terry was a faithful supporter of the Engineers Club and passionate about remembering the people and events upon which it was built.  He was a great encourager and many of us are stronger in our jobs and our roles in the club because of Terry.  He will be frequently remembered and missed.

As stipulated in the By-Laws of the Club, the President shall appoint Nominating Committee, consisting of three Past Presidents of the Club, which shall present the report (nominations) in October.

This week, Grady Stout,  Club's 2020 presidents, appointed Lulu Copeland (2001), Harry Hawkins (2015) and Al Curtis (2019) as members of this year's nominating committee.

Nominations of the nominating committee shall be made known at the third regular Club meeting prior to the date of election. Additional nominations from the floor shall be called for at this same meeting and at the next regular Club meeting. - Any nominations from the floor must have had the consent of the person nominated that the person will serve if elected. - A floor nomination must be seconded in order to be considered for election.

Please contact any of the nominating committee members if you are interested in serving the Club.

Memorial Day commemorates the men and women who died while in the military service of their country, particularly those who died in battle or as a result of wounds sustained in battle. In other words, the purpose of Memorial Day is to memorialize the veterans who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. We will spend time remembering those who lost their lives and could not come home, reflecting on their service and why we have the luxury and freedom that we enjoy today.

Job Description:

Requirements/Responsibilities

Responsibilities include control system design, control panel engineering, PLC, HMI, and onsite start-up support of  equipment for the manufacturing industry. 

Requires excellent analytical and problem-solving skills to be applied in design, programming, and troubleshooting of  manufacturing equipment, and as well as preferred experience with Allen-Bradley (ControlLogix, CompactLogix, PLC5, SLC500), GE (Machine Edition), PanelView Plus HMI’s, Industrial Communication Networks (EthernetIP, profibus, profinet), VFD drives (powerflex 525, powerflex 755) and control panel design is preferred, but not required.  Experience with AutoCAD LT is required.

This position requires the ability to simultaneously organize and successfully execute multiple project responsibilities. Candidates need to possess good communication and interpersonal skills with the ability to interact with all levels of management, clients, and vendors.

Travel can be up to 50% of work schedule.

Education

BS in Electrical Engineering, Electrical Engineer Technology or equivalent technical degree.

Interested applicant should submit resume and cover letter to electrical@worldwidefinishing.com

A new format for an old organization! Due to restriction on public meetings, the Club had its first online program on April 13.  We will host programs online until restrictions are lifted for Chattanooga region.  We may consider hybrid programming for those not able to travel to meetings in the future.  We will need your feedbacks and interest level to invest time and energy.

Following the City of Chattanooga and CDC guidelines, and out of an abundance of caution and concern for our members and visitors health, CEC will not hold meetings and tours until further notice. However, we are attempting to arrange some online sessions and will email and post in the usual way as those plans develop. We welcome your suggestions!