Automation Is Being Recognized as a Profession, but the Bad News Is that You Need to Know More and More

The Automation Federation was set up by ISA to, among other things, be a cheerleader for the automation profession, and in lobbying the U.S. government on behalf of automation professionals, it's having some significant successes.

Recently, the federation produced a detailed description of what an automation professional's skill set needs to be for the U.S. Dept. of Labor, and on July 14, Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) wrote, "The topic of automation cuts across all levels of industry, rather than serving as a stand-alone technology, and particularly affects the fields of control systems' cybersecurity, industrial wireless sensors, systems interoperability and other basic automation technologies necessary for the success of industrial enterprises."