
The Automation Podcast
277 episodes — Page 1 of 6
Tampa Bay, Florida Automation Expo Pre-Show Interview (P271)
What’s New and Next for Robotics with Christine Bush (P270)
Modular PLCs from Horner Automation (P269)
Automation At Reframe Systems (P268)
A.I. for PLC Code Generation (P267)
S2026 Ep 266Operational Technology System Risk Management (P266)
This week Shawn Tierney meets up with Steven Mustard to talk about his new book on Operational Technology (OT) System Risk Management in this episode of #TheAutomationPodcast. To learn more about becoming a member, visit https://TheAutomationBlog.com/join or https://youtube.com/@InsightsIA/join. For any links related to this episode, check out the “Show Notes” located below the video. Watch The Automation Podcast: Note: To support our work and keep new episodes coming, consider becoming a member here. Listen to The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog: Links to Steven’s Book: Amazon Link Publisher Link Until next time, Peace ✌️ If you enjoyed this content, please give it a Like, and consider Sharing a link to it as that is the best way for us to grow our audience, which in turn allows us to produce more content 🙂 Shawn M Tierney Technology Enthusiast & Content Creator Support our work and gain access to hundreds members only articles and videos by becoming a member at The Automation Blog or on YouTube. You’ll also find all of my affordable PLC, HMI, and SCADA courses at TheAutomationSchool.com. (1 view)
S2026 Ep 265What’s New In FactoryTalk View 15 & 16 (P265)
This week Shawn Tierney meets up with Johann Kotze of Rockwell Automation to learn what’s new in FactoryTalk View 15 & 16 in this episode of #TheAutomationPodcast. Unlock access to the ad free EXTENDED EDITION by joining our channel at https://TheAutomationBlog.com/join or https://youtube.com/@InsightsIA join. For any links related to this episode, check out the “Show Notes” located below the video. Watch The Automation Podcast, Free Edition: Note: Below member’s will also find an ad-free and extended edition of this episode. To unlock the ad free extended episode, you can become a member here. Listen to The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog: Until next time, Peace ✌️ If you enjoyed this content, please give it a Like, and consider Sharing a link to it as that is the best way for us to grow our audience, which in turn allows us to produce more content 🙂 Shawn M Tierney Technology Enthusiast & Content Creator Support our work and gain access to hundreds members only articles and videos by becoming a member at The Automation Blog or on YouTube. You’ll also find all of my affordable PLC, HMI, and SCADA courses at TheAutomationSchool.com. (95 views)
S2026 Ep 264What’s Driving Open Automation with Hany Fouda (P264)
This week Shawn Tierney meets up with Hany Fouda of Schneider Electric to discuss What’s Driving Open Automation initiatives in this episode of #TheAutomationPodcast. For any links related to this episode, check out the “Show Notes” located below the video. Watch The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog: Listen to The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog: The Automation Podcast, Episode 264 Show Notes: Special thanks goes out to Hany Fouda of Schneider Electric for coming on the show, and to Schneider Electric for sponsoring this episode. Until next time, Peace ✌️ If you enjoyed this content, please give it a Like, and consider Sharing a link to it as that is the best way for us to grow our audience, which in turn allows us to produce more content 🙂 Shawn M Tierney Technology Enthusiast & Content Creator Support our work and gain access to hundreds members only articles and videos by becoming a member at The Automation Blog or on YouTube. You’ll also find all of my affordable PLC, HMI, and SCADA courses at TheAutomationSchool.com.
S2026 Ep 263Migrating S7 PLC Applications to TIA Portal v21 (P263)
This week Shawn Tierney meets up with John DeTellem of Siemens to walk through the steps of migrating an existing S7 PLC and its Program to TIA Portal v21 in this episode of #TheAutomationPodcast. For any links related to this episode, check out the “Show Notes” located below the video. Watch The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog: Listen to The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog: The Automation Podcast, Episode 263 Show Notes: Special thanks to John DeTellem of Siemens for coming on the show, and to Siemens for sponsoring this episode. For more information please see the below links: TIA Portal V21 Sales & Delivery Release TIA Portal V21 Technical Slides TIA Portal V21 Trial Download TIA Portal in the Cloud TIA Portal Documentations Until next time, Peace ✌️ If you enjoyed this content, please give it a Like, and consider Sharing a link to it as that is the best way for us to grow our audience, which in turn allows us to produce more content 🙂 Shawn M Tierney Technology Enthusiast & Content Creator Support our work and gain access to hundreds members only articles and videos by becoming a member at The Automation Blog or on YouTube. You’ll also find all of my affordable PLC, HMI, and SCADA courses at TheAutomationSchool.com.
S2026 Ep 262AI-Powered Autonomous Welding Robotics (P262)
This week Shawn Tierney meets up with Soroush Karimzadeh of Novarc to discuss their AI-Powered Autonomous Welding Robotics in this episode of #TheAutomationPodcast. For any links related to this episode, check out the “Show Notes” located below the video. Watch The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog: Listen to The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog: The Automation Podcast, Episode 262 Show Notes: Special thanks goes out to Soroush Karimzadeh for coming on the show, and to Novarc for sponsoring this episode. To learn more about their AI-Powered Autonomous Robotic Welding solution, see the below links: Soroush Karimzadeh, LinkedIn, CEO & CoFounder, Novarc Technologies Inc.: https://www.linkedin.com/in/soroushkarimzadeh Novarc Technologies, LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/novarc-technologies-inc- Novarc Technologies Website: https://www.novarctech.com/ NovAI™ – Adaptive Welding: The full power of AI and machine vision in welding automation: https://www.novarctech.com/products/novai/ Spool Welding Robot (SWR™): https://www.novarctech.com/products/spool-welding-robot/ Until next time, Peace ✌️ If you enjoyed this content, please give it a Like, and consider Sharing a link to it as that is the best way for us to grow our audience, which in turn allows us to produce more content 🙂 Shawn M Tierney Technology Enthusiast & Content Creator Support our work and gain access to hundreds members only articles and videos by becoming a member at The Automation Blog or on YouTube. You’ll also find all of my affordable PLC, HMI, and SCADA courses at TheAutomationSchool.com.
S2026 Ep 261What’s Next for Industrial Automation with Karim Kozman (P261)
This week Shawn Tierney meets up with Karim Kozman of Schneider Electric to discuss What’s Next for Industrial Automation in this episode of #TheAutomationPodcast. For any links related to this episode, check out the “Show Notes” located below the video. Watch The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog: Listen to The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog: The Automation Podcast, Episode 261 Show Notes: Special thanks goes out to Karim Kozman of Schneider Electric for coming on the show, and to Schneider Electric for sponsoring this episode. Until next time, Peace ✌️ If you enjoyed this content, please give it a Like, and consider Sharing a link to it as that is the best way for us to grow our audience, which in turn allows us to produce more content 🙂 Shawn M Tierney Technology Enthusiast & Content Creator Support our work and gain access to hundreds members only articles and videos by becoming a member at The Automation Blog or on YouTube. You’ll also find all of my affordable PLC, HMI, and SCADA courses at TheAutomationSchool.com.
S2026 Ep 260Next Gen IPCs from Emerson (TAP260)
This week Shawn Tierney meets up with Manish Sharma of Emerson to learn about the Next Generation of PACSystems Industrial PCs in this episode of #TheAutomationPodcast. Unlock access to the ad free EXTENDED EDITION by joining our channel at https://youtube.com/@InsightsIA/join or https://TheAutomationBlog.com/join For any links related to this episode, check out the “Show Notes” located below the video. Watch The Automation Podcast: Note: Below member’s will also find an ad-free and extended edition of this episode. To unlock the ad free extended episode, you can become a member here. Listen to The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog: Until next time, Peace ✌️ If you enjoyed this content, please give it a Like, and consider Sharing a link to it as that is the best way for us to grow our audience, which in turn allows us to produce more content 🙂 Shawn M Tierney Technology Enthusiast & Content Creator Support our work and gain access to hundreds members only articles and videos by becoming a member at The Automation Blog or on YouTube. You’ll also find all of my affordable PLC, HMI, and SCADA courses at TheAutomationSchool.com. (62 views)
S2026 Ep 259What New in TIA Portal v21 (P259)
This week Shawn Tierney meets up with John DeTellem of Siemens to learn what’s new in TIA Portal v21 in this episode of #TheAutomationPodcast. For any links related to this episode, check out the “Show Notes” located below the video. Watch The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog: Listen to The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog: The Automation Podcast, Episode 259 Show Notes: Special thanks to John DeTellem of Siemens for coming on the show, and to Siemens for sponsoring this episode. For more information please see the below links: TIA Portal V21 Sales & Delivery Release TIA Portal V21 Technical Slides TIA Portal V21 Trial Download TIA Portal in the Cloud TIA Portal Documentations Until next time, Peace ✌️ If you enjoyed this content, please give it a Like, and consider Sharing a link to it as that is the best way for us to grow our audience, which in turn allows us to produce more content 🙂 Shawn M Tierney Technology Enthusiast & Content Creator Support our work and gain access to hundreds members only articles and videos by becoming a member at The Automation Blog or on YouTube. You’ll also find all of my affordable PLC, HMI, and SCADA courses at TheAutomationSchool.com.
S2026 Ep 258Digital Transformations & Industrial Automation Trends with Dante Vaccaro (P258)
This week Shawn Tierney meets up with Dante Vaccaro of Schneider Electric to discuss Digital Transformations and Trends in Industrial Automation in this episode of #TheAutomationPodcast. For any links related to this episode, check out the “Show Notes” located below the video. Watch The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog: Listen to The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog: The Automation Podcast, Episode 258 Show Notes: Special thanks goes out to Dante Vaccaro of Schneider Electric for coming on the show, and to Schneider Electric for sponsoring this episode. Until next time, Peace ✌️ If you enjoyed this content, please give it a Like, and consider Sharing a link to it as that is the best way for us to grow our audience, which in turn allows us to produce more content 🙂 Shawn M Tierney Technology Enthusiast & Content Creator Support our work and gain access to hundreds members only articles and videos by becoming a member at The Automation Blog or on YouTube. You’ll also find all of my affordable PLC, HMI, and SCADA courses at TheAutomationSchool.com. 2026 Sponsorship Notice: When a company offers to underwrite some of our production costs (aka sponsors an episode) it has no effect on our opinions, and all guests (sponsored and unsponsored) are invited to freely share information about their products, services, and companies. Sponsorships do grant the sponsor (1) to have ads disabled on the episode for the first 12 months, (2) to have the episode published on platforms that don’t support ads, (3) we offer to include some of their links in the show description, and (4) it may grant the sponsor a license to re-publish the episode after 30 days. It should also be noted that all opinions expressed in any of our episodes are those of the respected hosts and guests, and not those of Insights In Automation.
S2026 Ep 257PRONETIQS: Measure, Monitor, and Maintain (P257)
This week Shawn Tierney meets up with Matthew Dulcey of PRONETIQS, and Stefan Hild of Spur Insights, to learn how PRONETIQS helps Measure, Monitor, and Maintain Control Systems in this episode of #TheAutomationPodcast. For any links related to this episode, check out the “Show Notes” located below the video. Watch The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog: Listen to The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog: The Automation Podcast, Episode 257 Show Notes: Special thanks goes out to Matthew Dulcey of PRONETIQS, and Stefan Hild of Spur Insights, for coming on the show, and to PRONETIQS for sponsoring this episode. If you’d like to learn more, please visit the below links: Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/pronetiqs SID 5: https://pronetiqs.com/sid5 IntraVUE: https://pronetiqs.com/intravue Service & Support: https://pronetiqs.com/service-and-support Trainings: https://pronetiqs.com/trainings Until next time, Peace ✌️ If you enjoyed this content, please give it a Like, and consider Sharing a link to it as that is the best way for us to grow our audience, which in turn allows us to produce more content 🙂 Shawn M Tierney Technology Enthusiast & Content Creator Support our work and gain access to hundreds members only articles and videos by becoming a member at The Automation Blog or on YouTube. You’ll also find all of my affordable PLC, HMI, and SCADA courses at TheAutomationSchool.com. 2026 Sponsorship Notice: When a company offers to underwrite some of our production costs (aka sponsors an episode) it has no effect on the content of our interviews, as all guests are invited to share information about their products freely. What a sponsorship does grant the sponsor is (1) to have ads disabled on the episode for the first 12 months, (2) to have the episode published on platforms that don’t support ads, (3) we offer to include some of their company links in the show description, and (4) it may grant the sponsor a license to use the episode for their own use. It should also be noted that all opinions expressed in any of our episodes are those of the respected hosts and guests, and not those of Insights In Automation.
S2025 Ep 256Drew Allen of Grace Technologies on Automation, Safety, and More (P256)
Shawn Tierney meets up with Drew Allen of Grace Technologies to discuss Automation, Safety, the history of Grace, and more in this episode of The Automation Podcast. For any links related to this episode, check out the “Show Notes” located below the video. Watch The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog: Listen to The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog: The Automation Podcast, Episode 256 Show Notes: To learn about becoming a member and unlocking hundreds of our “member’s only” videos, click here. Until next time, Peace ✌️ If you enjoyed this content, please give it a Like, and consider Sharing a link to it as that is the best way for us to grow our audience, which in turn allows us to produce more content 🙂 Shawn M Tierney Technology Enthusiast & Content Creator Support our work and gain access to hundreds members only articles and videos by becoming a member at The Automation Blog or on YouTube. You’ll also find all of my affordable PLC, HMI, and SCADA courses at TheAutomationSchool.com.
S2025 Ep 255Robotics in Warehouse Automation with Erik Nieves of Plus One Robotics (P255)
Shawn Tierney meets up with Erik Nieves of Plus One Robotics to discuss Robotics in Warehouse Automation in this episode of The Automation Podcast. For any links related to this episode, check out the “Show Notes” located below the video. Watch The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog: Listen to The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog: The Automation Podcast, Episode 255 Show Notes: To learn about becoming a member and unlocking hundreds of our “member’s only” videos, click here. Until next time, Peace ✌️ If you enjoyed this content, please give it a Like, and consider Sharing a link to it as that is the best way for us to grow our audience, which in turn allows us to produce more content 🙂 Shawn M Tierney Technology Enthusiast & Content Creator Support our work and gain access to hundreds members only articles and videos by becoming a member at The Automation Blog or on YouTube. You’ll also find all of my affordable PLC, HMI, and SCADA courses at TheAutomationSchool.com.
S2025 Ep 254Innovation Summit Las Vegas 2025 Recap (P254)
Shawn Tierney recaps his trip to Schneider Electric’s Innovation Summit Las Vegas in this episode of The Automation Podcast. For any links related to this episode, check out the “Show Notes” located below the video. Watch The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog: Listen to The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog: The Automation Podcast, Episode 254 Show Notes: Special thanks to Schneider Electric and their Marketing Partners for sponsoring my trip to this year’s Innovation Summit! Below are all the links I mentioned in this episode: Innovation Summit 2025 – All Videos and Images Modicon Edge I/O NTS: Unbox, Setup & Use with Logix First Time Programming a Modicon M262 PLC Schneider’s Altivar Solar ATV320 VSD (P218) Pro-face HMIs & IPCs by Schneider Electric (P195) Schneider Altivar Machine Drives (P187) Harmony HMIs and iPCs from Schneider Electric (P176) TeSys Island: Smart Motor Starters from Schneider Electric (P170) Modicon Machine Level PLC Product Line Update (P161) Next Generation Automation with Schneider Electric (P96) Read the transcript on The Automation Blog: (automatically generated) Shawn Tierney (Host): coming Until next time, Peace ✌️ If you enjoyed this content, please give it a Like, and consider Sharing a link to it as that is the best way for us to grow our audience, which in turn allows us to produce more content 🙂 Shawn M Tierney Technology Enthusiast & Content Creator Support our work and gain access to hundreds members only articles and videos by becoming a member at The Automation Blog or on YouTube. You’ll also find all of my affordable PLC, HMI, and SCADA courses at TheAutomationSchool.com. (109 views)
S2025 Ep 237New Features of Ignition 8.3 with Travis Cox (S2E37)
Shawn meets up with Travis Cox of Inductive Automation to learn about the new features found in Ignition 8.3 in this episode of The Automation Show. For any links related to this episode, check out the “Show Notes” located below the video. Watch The Automation Show from The Automation Blog: Listen to The Automation Show on The Automation Blog: The Automation Show, Season 2 Episode 37 Show Notes: Special thanks to Travis for coming on the show, and to Inductive Automation for sponsoring this episode so we could release it ad free! To learn more about Ignition, please see the below links: What’s New in Ignition 8.3 Download Ignition 8.3 Ignition User Manual 8.3 Documentation Learn Ignition and earn a free credential Schedule an Ignition demo Travis’ first appearance back in episode TAP 124 Read the transcript on The Automation Blog: (automatically generated) Shawn Tierney (Host): coming later Vendors: Would you like your product featured on the Podcast, Show or Blog? If you would, please contact me at: https://theautomationblog.com/contact Until next time, Peace ✌️ If you enjoyed this content, please give it a Like, and consider Sharing a link to it as that is the best way for us to grow our audience, which in turn allows us to produce more content 🙂 Shawn M Tierney Technology Enthusiast & Content Creator Support our work and gain access to hundreds members only articles and videos by becoming a member at The Automation Blog or on YouTube. You’ll also find all of my affordable PLC, HMI, and SCADA courses at TheAutomationSchool.com. (116 views)
S2025 Ep 253Siemens Sirius Act with Profinet (P253)
Shawn Tierney meets up with Mark Berger of Siemens to learn how Siemens integrates SIRIUS ACT devices (push buttons, selector switches, pilot lights) with PROFINET in this episode of The Automation Podcast. For any links related to this episode, check out the “Show Notes” located below the video. Watch The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog: Listen to The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog: The Automation Podcast, Episode 253 Show Notes: Special thanks to Mark Berger of Siemens for coming on the show and sending us a sample! Read the transcript on The Automation Blog: (automatically generated) Shawn Tierney (Host): Thank you for tuning back in to the automation podcast. My name is Shawn Tierney from Insights. And today on the show, we have a special treat. We have Mark Berger back on from Siemens to bring us up to speed on serious act. He’s gonna tell us all about the product, and then we’re even gonna do a small demo and take a look at it working live. So with that said, let’s go ahead and jump into this episode with Mark Burger from Siemens and learn all about their push buttons on PROFINET. Mark, it’s been a while since you’ve been on the show. Thank you for coming back on and agreeing to talk about this. Mark Berger (Siemens): Oh, thank you so much. I truly appreciate you letting me be on. I appreciate your channel, and I enjoy watching it. And I’m excited to show you some of this great technology. So I’ve got, the PowerPoint up here. We’ll just do a simple PowerPoint to kinda give you an overview, and then we’ll dive into the hardware. Shawn Tierney (Host): Appreciate it. Thank you. Mark Berger (Siemens): No problem. So as we stated, the Sirius X over PROFINET, let me emphasize that, the, actuators, the push buttons, the estops, the selector switches, they are all standard, when you use these. So if you have those on the shelf, the only thing that PROFINET does is that it adds, removes the normal contact blocks and adds the PROFINET, terminal blocks on the back. So every all the actuators that we’re showing are just standard actuators for the 22 millimeter push button line. So easy to use, modern design, performance and action, and extremely rugged and flexible. The, 22 millimeter is out of the box IP 69 k, which for those who are maybe in the food and beverage, verticals would understand what that is. And that’s for direct hose down, wash down, able to handle a high pressure washing and not able to leak past the actuator into the panel. So IP 69 k is a a great place for dust and wash down and hosing and where you’re having rain and so forth, to be able to protect for a keep of any, water passing into the panel. So introduction wise, it’s, the PROFINET push buttons for us. It it is, again, the same actuators, the same, connections, and so forth, but what we’re going to exchange is the terminal blocks, for it. So on there, I stated it’s, IP 69 k is standard. You don’t need any, extra covers forward or anything to fulfill that requirement, But it’s, it’s insensitive to dust and oil and caustic solutions, you know, like citric acid where you’re hosing down some stainless steel parts and so forth. Now what we have here is, changing out the terminal blocks that have wiring. So usually on a push button, you have two wires coming in, and then you have, for illuminated, you have two wires coming in and so forth and going out. And after you have 20 or 30 push buttons or 10 or 15 push buttons, you’ve got a substantial little bit of wiring or cabling that will be passing from the door over into the main cabinet of your control cabinet. What we’re going to do with PROFINET push buttons is we’re going to eliminate all that wiring. And then in addition, eliminate the input and output cards that you will need for your PLC and take it down to a pro, Ethernet cable, an r j r j 45 cable, and then down to a 24 volts. And that’s all that will pass from the cabinet onto the door where you’re mounting your push buttons. So, huge, safe and cost of wires. We’re reducing all the wire outlay. And, you know, back in the day when I build panels, it was an art how you got all the wires all nice and pretty and got them laid out and wire tied them down and so forth and just made the a piece of art on the backside. And then, it it was all done. You got it all wired. And then, of course, there was somebody that said, hey. We forgot to add another selector switch. So you had to go back and cut all that stuff and redo the whole layout and so forth. So with PROFINET, it’s extremely flexible and easily, to adapt to if you need something, more because you’re not taking all that wiring back to the panel, passing it across the hinge of the door and so forth. It is also with a safety PLC. You do have PROFIsafe, so we can do estops on the door as you can
S2025 Ep 252OTee Virtual PLCs (P252)
Shawn Tierney meets up with Henrik Pedersen and Jacob Abel to learn about OTee Virtual PLCs in this episode of The Automation Podcast. For any links related to this episode, check out the “Show Notes” located below the video. Watch The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog: Listen to The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog: The Automation Podcast, Episode 252 Show Notes: Special thanks to Henrik Pedersen and Jacob Abel for coming on the show, and to OTee for sponsoring this episode so we could release it “ad free!” To learn about the topics discussed in this episode, checkout the below links: OTee Virtual PLCs website Schedule an OTee demo Connect with Henrik Pedersen Connect with Jacob Abel Read the transcript on The Automation Blog: (automatically generated) Shawn Tierney (Host): Thank you for tuning back into the automation podcast. Shawn Tierney here from Insights. And this week on the show, I meet up with Henrik Pedersen and Jacob Abel to learn all about virtual PLCs from OTee. That’s o t e e. And, I just thought it was very interesting. So if you guys have ever thought about maybe running virtual PLCs to test some processes out, I think you’ll really enjoy this. With that said, I wanna welcome to the show for the very first time, Hendrik and Jacob. Guys, before we jump into your presentation and learn more about what you do, could you first introduce yourself to our audience? Henrik Pedersen (OTee): Yeah. Sweetly. So my name is Hendrik. I am the cofounder, COO, OT, a new industrial automation company, that, we’re really glad to present here today. I have a background from ABB. I worked eleven years at ABB. In terms of education, I have an engineering degree and a master degree in industrial economics. And, yeah, I’m I’m excited to be here. Thanks, Rom. And I’ll pass it over to Jake. Jacob Abel (Edgenaut): I’m, Jacob Abel. I’m the principal automation engineer at Edgnot. EdgeNaught is a systems integrator focusing on edge computing and virtual PLCs. My background is in mechanical engineering, and I’m a professional control systems engineer, and I have thirteen years experience in the machine building side of industrial automation, specifically in oil and gas making flow separators. And I’ll hand it back to Henrik here. Henrik Pedersen (OTee): K. Great. So OT, we are a a new industrial automation company, the new kid on the block, if you will. We’re a start up. So, we only started, about three years ago now. And, we focus solely on virtual PLCs and and the data architectures allow you to integrate virtual PLCs in in operations. And, you know, some of the listeners will be very familiar with this first, thing I’m gonna say, but I think it’s valuable to just take a take a little bit step back and and remember what has happened in in history when when it comes to to IT and OT and, and and what really what really happened with that split. Right? So it was probably around the ‘9 you know, around nineteen nineties where the the the domain computer science were really split into these two domains here, the IT and OT. And, and that, that was, that was kind of natural that that happened because we got on the, on the IT side of things, we got Internet, we got open protocols and, you know, we had the personal computers and innovation could truly flourish on the IT side. But whereas on the OT side, we were we were kind of stuck still in the proprietary, hardware software lock in situation. And and that has that has really not been solved. Right? That that that is still kind of the the situation today. And it this is what this is obviously what also, brought me personally to to really got really super motivated to solve this problem and and really dive deep into it. And I experienced this firsthand with with my role in NAD and, how how extremely locked we are at creating new solutions and new innovation on the OT side. So so we’re basically a company that wants to to truly open up the the the innovation in this space and and make it possible to adopt anything new and new solutions, that that sits above the PLC and and, you know, that integrate effectively to to the controller. So I I have this this, you know, this slide that kind of illustrates this point with with some some, you know, historical events or or at least some some some big shifts that has happened. And, Aurene mentioned a shift in nineteen nineties. And it wasn’t actually until ’20, 2006 that Gartner coined this term OT, to explain the difference really what what has happened. And and, you know, as we know, IT has just boomed with innovation since since the nineties and OT is, is, is slowly, slowly incrementally getting better, but it’s still, it’s still the innovation pace is really not, not fast. So, this is also, of course, illustrated with all the new developments in in GenAI and AgenTic AI, MCP, an
S2025 Ep 251Siemens SINAMICS G220 Clean Power Drive (P251)
Shawn Tierney meets up with Ivan Spronk of Siemens to learn about the SINAMICS G220 Clean Power Drive in this episode of The Automation Podcast. For any links related to this episode, check out the “Show Notes” located below the video. Watch The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog: Listen to The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog: The Automation Podcast, Episode 251 Show Notes: Special thanks to Ivan Spronk of Siemens for coming on the show, and to Siemens for sponsoring this episode so we could release it “ad free!” To learn about the topics discussed in this episode, checkout the below links: White Paper – Drives Harmonics – Siemens US SINAMICS G220 Website SINAMICS G220 Catalog Siemens Product Configurator (SPC) for quick part number selection and access to data sheets and CAD files Siemens energy savings calculator, SinaSave Read the transcript on The Automation Blog: (automatically generated) Shawn Tierney (Host): Thank you for tuning back into the automation podcast. My name is Shawn Tierney from Insights and Automation. And this week, I meet up with Iren Sprock from Siemens to learn all about their g two twenty clean power drive. I also wanna thank Siemens for sponsoring this episode so I can bring it to you completely ad free. So with that said, I wanna welcome back to the show Ivan from Siemens to talk about VFDs. And, this is something we’ve been wanting to talk about for a while. But before you jump into your presentation, Ivan, could you introduce yourself to our audience for those who maybe didn’t catch your last appearance? Ivan Spronk (Siemens): Thanks a lot for just having me, back to the show here. I got a slide up here that introduces myself. I’m the product manager for the Synamix variable frequency drives for Siemens here in The US. So, yeah, happy to be back on your show. And what I would, like to talk to you about and discuss with you is our latest variable frequency drive. It’s the g two twenty and specifically the clean power drive. This is a best in class solution for a grid friendly power quality when using variable frequency drives. So Shawn, you audience may be wondering why we should discuss power grids and variable frequency drives, but I’ll just say if you’ve been around variable frequency drives or VFDs as I’ll refer to them, you’ve likely had conversations or heard something about VFDs creating or generating harmonics on the power grid. Shawn Tierney (Host): Oh, yeah. Yeah. Ivan Spronk (Siemens): Yeah. Or maybe you’ve, you know, someone in the audience has been involved in a situation where harmonic current and associated voltage distortion on your plants electrical grid were causing overheating on transformers and cabling or potentially causing circuit breakers to trip their fuses to open. Or maybe you’re just an engineer looking to select and specify a variable frequency drive and you may need to answer some questions about harmonics that typical VFDs generate. You can relate to any of those or if you’re just interested to know more about this topic, we’ll invite you to stay tuned here for the next thirty five to forty minutes for discussion on power quality and VFDs. So, Shawn, I’d like to just ask you, have you heard anything about the power grid lately? Shawn Tierney (Host): Well, yes. I’ve heard lots about the power grid. I know that this is more and more becoming a big issue because when you have a lot of VFDs producing all kinds of harmonics, that can cause lots of problems like the ones you just mentioned. But, also, the utilities are starting to to see this and saying, why are we putting up with this? So aside from the power grid needing to be hardened against all kinds of things, everything from EMTs to, you know, just, you know, Yahoo’s shooting transformers in the middle of nowhere. This has been a, I think, a big and growing issue. That’s why I’m glad that you’re on the talk about this because in the preshow, we just really I really got a sense of how important this was, you know, in 2025 and going into 2026. Ivan Spronk (Siemens): Lots of conversations about the grid and really how the grid electrical grid is being stretched. And with all of the, you know, data centers being built, you know, lots of conversations about how power is gonna be supplied with those. In other words, I think for maybe the first time in twenty five to thirty years, they’re anticipating our usage and power requirements going up. So that’s why I think all these utilities and plant operators are interested in the grid. So some reasons to discuss then the power grid and variable frequency drives is variable frequency drives very useful for motor control, but left unchecked, they can introduce several power quality issues. Harmonics, as you can see on the screen here, typical VFDs use rectifiers that generate nonlinear
S2025 Ep 250Samos PRO MOTION Safety Controller from Wieland Electric (P250)
Shawn Tierney meets up with Michael Warren of Wieland Electric to learn about the Samos PRO MOTION Safety Controller in this episode of The Automation Podcast. For any links related to this episode, check out the “Show Notes” located below the video. Watch The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog: Listen to The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog: The Automation Podcast, Episode 249 Show Notes: Special thanks to Michael Warren for coming on the show, and to Wieland Electric for sponsoring this episode so we could release it “ad free!” To learn about the topics discussed in this episode, checkout the below links: SAMOS® PRO Safety Motion Controller Safety Products Free Download of Samos Plan6 Programming Software Safety Training – Become a Safety Expert! Read the transcript on The Automation Blog: (automatically generated) Shawn Tierney (Host): coming soon Until next time, Peace ✌️ If you enjoyed this content, please give it a Like, and consider Sharing a link to it as that is the best way for us to grow our audience, which in turn allows us to produce more content 🙂 Shawn M TierneyTechnology Enthusiast & Content Creator Support our work and gain access to hundreds members only articles and videos by becoming a member at The Automation Blog or on YouTube. You’ll also find all of my affordable PLC, HMI, and SCADA courses at TheAutomationSchool.com. (63 views)
S2025 Ep 249Copia Automation on AI and Industrial DevOps (P249)
Shawn Tierney meets up with Gerry Abbey, Gavin Schalliol, and Kaitlin Lockridge of Copia Automation to learn about the new AI features added to DeviceLink, as well as review the new 2025 Industrial DevOps survey results and report in this episode of The Automation Podcast. For any links related to this episode, check out the “Show Notes” located below the video. Watch The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog: Listen to The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog: The Automation Podcast, Episode 249 Show Notes: Special thanks Gerry, Gavin, and Kaitlin for coming on the show, and to Copia for sponsoring this episode so we could release it “ad free!” To learn about the topics discussed in this episode, checkout the below links: Second Annual State of Industrial DevOps Report Download Copia Demo Request Streamlining Cyber Insurance and Recovery with Industrial DevOps Ransomware Ready Playbook for OT Amazon Uses Copia to Connect 1000+ PLCs across 35+ Sites Read the transcript on The Automation Blog: (automatically generated) Shawn Tierney (Host): coming soon Until next time, Peace ✌️ If you enjoyed this content, please give it a Like, and consider Sharing a link to it as that is the best way for us to grow our audience, which in turn allows us to produce more content 🙂 Shawn M TierneyTechnology Enthusiast & Content Creator Support our work and gain access to hundreds members only articles and videos by becoming a member at The Automation Blog or on YouTube. You’ll also find all of my affordable PLC, HMI, and SCADA courses at TheAutomationSchool.com. (63 views)
S2025 Ep 248Software Toolbox: OPC Server, Router, DataHub and more (P248)
Shawn Tierney meets up with Connor Mason of Software Toolbox to learn their company, products, as well as see a demo of their products in action in this episode of The Automation Podcast. For any links related to this episode, check out the “Show Notes” located below the video. Watch The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog: Listen to The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog: The Automation Podcast, Episode 248 Show Notes: Special thanks to Software Toolbox for sponsoring this episode so we could release it “ad free!” To learn about Software Toolbox please checkout the below links: TOP Server Cogent DataHub Industries Case studies Technical blogs Read the transcript on The Automation Blog: (automatically generated) Shawn Tierney (Host): Welcome back to the automation podcast. My name is Shawn Tierney with Insights and Automation, and I wanna thank you for tuning back in this week. Now this week on the show, I meet up with Connor Mason from Software Toolbox, who gives us an overview of their product suite, and then he gives us a demo at the end. And even if you’re listening, I think you’re gonna find the demo interesting because Connor does a great job of talking through what he’s doing on the screen. With that said, let’s go ahead and jump into this week’s episode with Connor Mason from Software Toolbox. I wanna welcome Connor from Software Toolbox to the show. Connor, it’s really exciting to have you. It’s just a lot of fun talking to your team as we prepared for this, and, I’m really looking forward to because I just know in your company over the years, you guys have so many great solutions that I really just wanna thank you for coming on the show. And before you jump into talking about products and technologies Yeah. Could you first tell us just a little bit about yourself? Connor Mason (Guest): Absolutely. Thanks, Shawn, for having us on. Definitely a pleasure to be a part of this environment. So my name is Connor Mason. Again, I’m with Software Toolbox. We’ve been around for quite a while. So we’ll get into some of that history as well before we get into all the the fun technical things. But, you know, I’ve worked a lot with the variety of OT and IT projects that are ongoing at this point. I’ve come up through our support side. It’s definitely where we grow a lot of our technical skills. It’s a big portion of our company. We’ll get that into that a little more. Currently a technical application consultant lead. So like I said, I I help run our support team, help with these large solutions based projects and consultations, to find what’s what’s best for you guys out there. There’s a lot of different things that in our in our industry is new, exciting. It’s fast paced. Definitely keeps me busy. My background was actually in data analytics. I did not come through engineering, did not come through the automation, trainings at all. So this is a whole new world for me about five years ago, and I’ve learned a lot, and I really enjoyed it. So, I really appreciate your time having us on here, Shawn Tierney (Host): Shawn. Well, I appreciate you coming on. I’m looking forward to what you’re gonna show us today. I had a the audience should know I had a little preview of what they were gonna show, so I’m looking forward to it. Connor Mason (Guest): Awesome. Well, let’s jump right into it then. So like I said, we’re here at Software Toolbox, kinda have this ongoing logo and and just word map of connect everything, and that’s really where we lie. Some people have called us data plumbers in the past. It’s all these different connections where you have something, maybe legacy or something new, you need to get into another system. Well, how do you connect all those different points to it? And, you know, throughout all these projects we worked on, there’s always something unique in those different projects. And we try to work in between those unique areas and in between all these different integrations and be something that people can come to as an expert, have those high level discussions, find something that works for them at a cost effective solution. So outside of just, you know, products that we offer, we also have a lot of just knowledge in the industry, and we wanna share that. You’ll kinda see along here, there are some product names as well that you might recognize. Our top server and OmniServer, we’ll be talking about LOPA as well. It’s been around in the industry for, you know, decades at this point. And also our symbol factory might be something you you may have heard in other products, that they actually utilize themselves for HMI and and SCADA graphics. That is that is our product. So you may have interacted it with us without even knowing it, and I hope we get to kind of talk more
S2025 Ep 247Innovations in Coriolis Flowmeter Technology (P247)
Shawn Tierney meets up with Lauton Rushford of Endress+Hauser to learn about new innovations in Coriolis Flowmeter Technology in this episode of The Automation Podcast. For any links related to this episode, check out the “Show Notes” located below the video. Watch The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog: Listen to The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog: The Automation Podcast, Episode 247 Show Notes: Special thanks to Endress+Hauser for sponsoring this episode so we could release it “ad free!” To learn about Endress+Hauser, and Coriolis Flowmeters, checkout the below links: Learn more about Endress+Hauser Learn more about flowmeter products Read the transcript on The Automation Blog: (automatically generated) Shawn Tierney (Host): Welcome back to the automation podcast. Shawn Tierney here from Insights and Automation, and I wanna thank you for tuning back in. This week on the show, I meet up with Lawton Rushford from Endress and Hauser to learn all about the latest innovations in Coriolis flow meters. And I also wanna thank Endress and Hauser for sponsoring this episode so I could bring it to you completely ad free. With that said, if you’re interested in learning about what’s the latest in technology used in Coriolis flow meters, I think you’ll enjoy this episode. I know I did. And with that, let’s go ahead and jump right into this week’s show. I wanna welcome to the show, Lawton from Endress and Hauser. Lawton, it’s great to have you on. This is the first time you’re on the show. We plus, we’ve had your company on before. But, Lawton, if you don’t mind, could you, before we jump into Coriolis flow meters, which is an extremely important technology in our industry, could you first introduce yourself to our audience? Lauton Rushford (E+H): Yeah. Absolutely. Thank you. My name is Lawton Rushford. I am the flow product marketing manager here at Anderson Hauser, based in Greenwood, Indiana, which is about twenty minutes south of Indianapolis, Indiana at our, national headquarters, for Anderson Hauser. I’ve been with Anderson Hauser for seven years now, a whole bunch of different roles, but, for the last three years, I’ve been in this role, a flow marketing manager. Today, I I really wanted to highlight a couple of awesome innovations that we’ve had in Coriolis flow technology, over the last, we’ll see, about year or so, because I think there’s a lot of, use cases and a lot of awesome, insights we can get from from our Coriolis flow meters. And, yeah. So I guess we can we can kick it off. I did wanna highlight Anderson Hauser as the the manufacturer that I work for, and we have a history, a long history of, of innovation. And so I’m gonna kinda highlight that, initially, talk about what sort of portfolio we have currently with our Coriolis flow meters, and then talk about a couple of new cool things that that we have released over the last couple of couple of months. And then finish off with, what we call heartbeat technology. It’s our advanced diagnostic system in all of our flow meters and all of our products across the board. It started with flow. So I think there’s a lot of you cool use cases, and I’ll I’ll highlight a couple of those as well. And then, of course, Shawn is the the audience here. Anytime there’s questions or anything, please feel free to to let me know, and I can I can try and address them as they come up? Shawn Tierney (Host): Sounds good. Yeah. Lauton Rushford (E+H): Awesome. Great. So I guess our first Coriolis meter that we introduced into the market was back in, 1986. So it’s been some time. As you can tell by the the slide here, there’s a lot of different designs of Coriolis flowmeters. There isn’t one right way to do it, but I think that the way that Anderson Houser has approached innovation is is pretty pretty awesome and pretty impressive. Everything from a single tube, design to a dual tube design, dual straight tube design versus a dual bent tube design. There are a lot of different types of Coriolis meters out on the market, and we’ll talk about a couple of, differentiators that we that, Anderson Hauser has on, on some products that we’ve recently released. Shawn Tierney (Host): You know, just by looking at the, the slide here, the one that, like, really attracts my eye is the ProMASS. That’s the one that I I think I’ve seen the most in the field. Lauton Rushford (E+H): Yep. Yep. Shawn Tierney (Host): You know, walking around the different plants, and, that was launched in 1998. So that’s been out for quite some time. So just wanted to throw that out there for those listening. That may be the one you’ve seen the most of as in your in your travels. Lauton Rushford (E+H): Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. There’s a lot of a lot of ProMasses out there. Our endpoint was the f
S2025 Ep 219ET 200SP Distributed IO First Look (S2E19)
Shawn takes a look at the ET 200SP line of Distributed I/O from Siemens in Episode 19 of The Automation Show, Season 2. For any links related to this episode, check out the “Show Notes” located below the video. Watch The Automation Show from The Automation Blog: Listen to The Automation Show on The Automation Blog: The Automation Show, Season 2 Episode 19 Show Notes: The links mentioned in the video are listed below: ET 200SP Website ET 200SP Manual Collection Shawn’s Siemens S7 Course Programming Note: Due to scheduling conflicts, episodes 17 & 18 and releasing after episodes 19-2x :-O Read the transcript on The Automation Blog: (automatically generated) Shawn Tierney (Host): Hey everybody. Welcome back to the show. My name is Shawn Tierney from Insights and Automation. And today, we’re talking e t 200 s p distributed IO from Siemens. Before we go any farther, I do wanna thank Siemens for sending in the samples and for sponsoring this episode so it will be ad free, and that’s as far as it goes. Everything else is my own opinion and thoughts. And, although I do appreciate them making this ad free and sending in the samples because I wanna be able to show them to you if I didn’t have them. And, this is one of the reasons I’m doing this is I just put these hands on demos together for my students who come out to the automation school for hands on training. So I wanted to have something they could bring to their station and program with an s seven twelve hundred or 1,500. And, so I’m creating a bunch of these, and you’ll see more and more of these as the weeks go on. But in any case, I we previously covered a couple on IFM, but now I’m doing the e t 200 s p. So we’ll take a closer look at the hardware in a little bit. But But before we get into the hardware, I did wanna run through some slides that do a great job of explaining what e t 200 s p I o is. And, again, I call it distributed IO, not remote IO because here in America, most of us know there is a remote IO product from Rockwell Automation that is trademarked, Rockwell. So we don’t wanna confuse people by using the term remote IO when possible. So let’s go ahead and go to the slide deck now. And, the first slide is and, again, these this is a slightly of a couple three year old slide deck from Siemens that we’re gonna be going through. And, you know, the first thing is, hey. E t 200 s p and e t 200 m p I o or I p 20 in cabinet I o. They’re not on machine or machine mount IO. And, of course, the e t 200 MP is the full size IO that’s about the same size as the 1,500, whereas the SP is the smaller. They’re like the slice IO you see from all the different vendors. A matter of fact, a couple of big vendors are coming out with new IO this fall or have already come out with it, and we’ll be covering those as well in the coming weeks. But today, we’re focusing on e t 200 s p. And so I wanted to, talk about, you know, this is a marketing slide that Siemens puts in their presentations, and it makes sense. All the vendors wanna have IO for all the different applications, and Siemens is no different. And, actually, they got some stuff that other vendors don’t have. But I’m gonna go right beyond this one and jump right into, you know, the main selling points of this product line where it’s compact, it’s fast, it’s any of NG efficient, it’s easy to wire, and I can attest to that having done three, four hundred wires here. It was very easy to wire. I really liked it. They say it has a great environmental coverage. There actually is, some extreme modules. We’ll talk about that towards the end. And then built in diagnostics. Again, depending if you buy the high function and standard or basic modules, right, will depend on what kinda diagnostics you get. In any case, here is what it looks like now. The coloring of this slide, I think that the pictures colors the gray is a little lighter, almost it’s almost like a light green. It’s darker in person as we saw. Let me switch over here. As you can see here. So, I don’t know what’s going on with that, but one of the things you do see on this slide is, one of the first things you’ll notice is a fail safe module, so safety modules. So, yes, you can mix standard and fail safe modules in the same rack or same lineup. The other thing you’ll notice is it’s compact like most of the Slice I o that’s out there. Energy efficient ruggedness, there is an extreme version of this available. Intelligent, you can get high functionality modules. Right? Push in terminals, which I really liked, very easy to use, tool free connections. Of course, if you’d put a wire in the wrong place, which happened to me once or twice out of 400 wires, you can use a screwdriver and get it out really quick, and then, reduced parts of variance. So that&#
S2025 Ep 246IO-Link: What Is It, When To Use It, and How It Works (P246)
Shawn Tierney meets up with Michael Bowne of PI to learn what IO-Link is, how it works, and when to use it in this episode of The Automation Podcast. For any links related to this episode, check out the “Show Notes” located below the video. Watch The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog: Listen to The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog: The Automation Podcast, Episode 246 Show Notes: To learn about our online and in-person training courses please visit TheAutomationSchool.com. Read the transcript on The Automation Blog: (automatically generated) Shawn Tierney (Host): Thank you for tuning back in to the automation podcast. My name is Shawn Tierney from Insights in Automation. And this week on the show, we have a special guest, somebody who hasn’t been on in four years. We have Michael Bone from PI. They’re the folks who manage technologies like PROFINET and IO Link. And Michael’s come on this week to talk specifically about IO Link. We’re gonna talk about what it is. We’re gonna talk about when you should use it, and we’re gonna talk about the technical details of IO Link, like, all the things, like, engineering minds like to know about. So I think you guys are gonna enjoy this. It took about two to three hours to edit this one, and I really enjoyed going back through it. You know, we recorded it, I think, four weeks ago. So I hadn’t seen it in four weeks, but I really did enjoy it. I really think you guys will enjoy it too. And that brings up another point. Organizations like PI and ISA and other organizations, they’re not vendors. They don’t sell stuff. Right? And so this episode is not sponsored by a vendor. And, you know, as I was going through it yesterday, I was like, you know, there’s a lot of great slides in here. I wanna share it with the public. So I’ve decided to sponsor this episode myself, and I’ll use this as an opportunity to tell you a little bit about my company and the automation blog, the automation school, and the content I have planned to release this fall, including content on these products right here, all focused on IO Link. And I just actually did a live stream with these, products in front of me. I’ll be doing more tomorrow, and I’ll be adding lessons to my, courses as well on these products. So in any case, but before we get to that, let’s go ahead and jump right into the show and hear from Michael and learn all about IO Link. I wanna welcome back Michael to the show. It has been four years. He was last on in podcast 76, back in September 2021. So just going on four years. Michael, thank you for coming back on the show. If you could, a lot of people may not remember four years ago. Mhmm. So before we jump into your presentation, which which I am so excited about talking about IO Link again. But before we jump into that, could you please tell me a little bit about yourself and a little Michael Bowne (PI): bit about PI? Yeah. Sure. First of all, my pleasure, to be back on on the podcast. It was a lot, a lot of fun. I remember that back in in 2021, and, I’m glad to be be back doing it again. I started with PI North America in 2011 as the technical marketing director. And since 2016, I’ve been the executive director running the show and chairman of the board since last year. I, have the, let’s say, pleasure to serve as the deputy chairman of PI on a global scale since 2015, and I come from a prior to working for PI, I worked for a sensor manufacturer who had some interfaces on there that that brought me an introduct to to Profibus and Profinet. And before that, I studied, physics and and math at at Penn State University. Just, really quick for those. I’m I’m sure many of you are familiar with with PI, but, it was started in the late eighties. Half a dozen companies and universities got together, and they wrote the PROFIBUS spec, and that evolved into the into into PROFIBUS DP and PROFIBUS PA for process automation in the early two thousands. PROFINET came under the umbrella. And the reason I bring all this up is because there are some newer technologies under our umbrella that I I think the audience might wanna know about. Of course, EyeLink is is the one that we’ll talk about today, and that was in 02/2009. But there are some others like Umlocks, which is a location tracking standard. There’s one called MTP, module type package, NOAA, NAMR open architecture, also under our umbrella. And, basically, what we do is promote, maintain, write the specs, turn them into standards, and the work on those specs is done in working groups, which are staffed by volunteers, engineers from member companies. They donate their time to to develop the specs, for these technologies we have under our umbrella. And we’re a little bit unique in that we’re decentralized. So we have competence centers and test labs and training centers locat
S2025 Ep 245ISA OT Cybersecurity Summit (P245)
Shawn Tierney meets up with Ashley Weckwerth of ISA to learn all about the OT Cybersecurity Summit in this episode of The Automation Podcast. For any links related to this episode, check out the “Show Notes” located below the video. Watch The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog: Note: This episode was not sponsored so the video edition is a “member only” perk. The below audio edition (also available on major podcasting platforms) is available to the public and supported by ads. To learn more about our membership/supporter options and benefits, click here. Listen to The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog: The Automation Podcast, Episode 245 Show Notes: To learn about our online and in-person training courses please visit TheAutomationSchool.com. Read the transcript on The Automation Blog: (automatically generated) Shawn Tierney (Host): Welcome back. My name is Shawn Tierney from Insights and Automation, and I wanna thank you for tuning back in to this episode of the automation podcast. This week on the show, I have Ashley Weckworth from ISA to talk about the OT cybersecurity summit they just held over in Europe in Brussels, and, very interesting conversation about OT cybersecurity. In addition to that, I had a couple announcements. First off, I wanted to let you know that I have rebooted the automation news podcast, and I renamed it Automation Tech Talk. And I’m trying to do a show at least three or four times a week at lunchtime. So if you’re not already subscribed to the old automation news podcast, you should be able to find it now as Automation Tech Talk. And, I’m just trying to spend ten to twenty minutes every lunch trying to share some knowledge that I have with the community. I also wanna mention that if you are a listener, I’m running a special 20% off, sale on my courses over at the automationschool.com. You will not see that there. It’s only for those listening. And I know most of you are already automation experts, so you don’t need to take these courses. So, really, this would be something you would pass on to the people who work for you or people you know who need to get up to speed on whether they need an introductory PLC course, so they need to get up to speed on ControlLogix, CompactLogix, s seven twelve hundred and fifteen hundred, PanelView plus, USC, and so on. So in any case, to get that discount, that 20% off any course or bundle of courses at $99 or more, All you have to do is send me the email address of the person who wants the discount. And, of course, we do do, group enrollment with, we’ve done it with a lot of Fortune 500 companies. Actually, I got a new order that just came in I gotta process. But, when we do a group enrollment, you you enroll, like, several people at your shop, and then I enroll them all at once, and you get a discount a quantity discount and all that. So in any case, if you have any questions about that, just go to the automationschool.com. All my contact info is at the very top, my voice mail, my email. You can even fill in a form there or book a meeting with me. But, please let me know if you know anybody who needs training. Even if you just want me to reach out to them to see if I can help them with their training needs, please let me know over there. And with that, let’s go ahead and jump into this week’s episode of the automation podcast. And, Ashley, I know this is your first time on the show. So before we jump into the summary of what what what this OT cybersecurity summit is and what it was all about and the highlights and all that good stuff, before we even get into that, could you tell the audience a little bit about yourself? Ashley Weckwerth (ISA): Yeah. Thank you, Shawn. I appreciate being here. My name is Ashley Weckworth. I am located in Orlando, Florida. I’ve been a volunteer for ISA for twelve years now. I actually have a day job, though. I’m a volunteer with ISA, which is the International Society of Automation. But in my day job, I’m actually a project manager for automation projects, so specifically SCADA systems projects for the electric grid right now. But our company also supports many other industries, so I actually started my career out. I was a chemical engineer. So I like to tell people, you never know how you’re gonna find your way to automation professions. There’s so many different varying degrees and everything that kinda lead us to this place. But I graduated in chemical engineering, went into instrumentation and controls, for the oil and gas industry. So doing a lot of, you know, it was PLCs or DCS systems that we used. But essentially, as I actually got my pro professional engineer license in control systems. So as a chemical engineer, you don’t know a lot about instrumentation controls and automation, at least I didn’t. And so I was actually recommended to join ISA right out of school. So I j