Where are the automation professionals of tomorrow?  Today, many of them are in Atlanta competing in the FIRST Robotics Competition.  I know because my oldest grandson is there competing.  They just finished a match.  The first 15 seconds is all automated.  His team scored 4 points in that part, which is good because he did all the programming… in C.  And he’s still a freshman in high school.  Cool thing number one: I can IM with his father in MA from here in AZ as we (cool thing number two) watch the web video feed live.  (A high school freshman is not too young to learn about PROFIBUS and PROFINET, right?)

UPDATE: My grandson's team finished second!  The team's story was in their local paper.