Emerson brews up innovative partnership with Colorado State University

Engineering giant Emerson has teamed up with Colorado State University (CSU) to brew up vocational training for students interested in the brewery side of the food and beverage industry. The Emerson Brewing Innovation Center exposes CSU undergraduates to the type of cutting edge automation technology that Emerson is famous for. PIF reports on this innovative new partnership.

Emerson Brewing Innovation Center

Funded by a joint investment, the Emerson Brewing Innovation Center will serve as the main educational hub for Colorado State University’s Fermentation Sciences and Technology programme. Their joint vision is to reinforce advanced competencies for digital transformation, as the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) era continues to evolve the industry.

With the number of U.S. breweries increasing at a rate of 321 percent from 2007 to 2017, there is growing demand for highly skilled workers with expertise in fermentation sciences and proficiency in automation technologies. The CSU Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition attracts diverse, top-notch students to address the industry’s growing technology demand.

“Partnerships like these enable us to give our students experience with industry standards and help them prepare for the job market,” said Jeff Callaway, associate director of Fermentation Science and Technology at CSU. “The new Center will enhance our fermentation science academic programme, while strengthening ties to the industry.”

Center integrates brewing automation from Emerson

The Emerson Brewing Innovation Center was scheduled to open in time for the new academic year last autumn. It will be based in the Gifford Building on CSU’s main Fort Collins campus. The Center will feature two brewing systems that will allow students to gain experience using the latest real-world technologies that are driving innovation in the industry.

Emerson Impact Partner Lakeside were tasked with building the systems that feature elements of Emerson’s Plantweb portfolio of IIoT technologies used in brewing automation. These include a DeltaV distributed control system, Micro Motion flowmeters, Rosemount measurement technology, and ASCO and Baumann valves.

Addressing the ‘skills gap’ in digital automation technologies

Emerson’s collaboration with CSU is one of more than 350 secondary education partnerships worldwide that support finding solutions to address the skills gap in digital automation technologies. In addition to the Center, Emerson is donating $10,000 toward a CSU diversity fellowship to help set up the Brewing Innovation Center and a scholarship for the fermentation programme.

“We are focused on helping train the digital workforce of the future while advancing education, innovation and diversity in the industry,” said Lal Karsanbhai, executive president of Emerson’s Automation Solutions business. “The Emerson Brewing Innovation Center will mark the beginning of a strong and continued partnership with CSU.”

Emerson’s advanced automation solutions enable brewing companies to optimise operations, detect and address quality issues in real time, reduce downtime and shorten changeovers that occur when one beverage is changed out for another in production.

For more information, please visit www.emerson.com/brewing.