July 17, 2008 - Ken Ryan has joined the PLCopen Board of Management. Dr. Kenneth J. Ryan is the director of the Center for Applied Mechatronics at Alexandria Technical College in Alexandria, Minnesota, USA. He also directs the 3S CoDeSys Competency Center at the Center for Applied Mechatronics and has developed IEC 61131-3 curriculum for Bosch Rexroth, Danaher, Eaton Corporation, Parker Hannifin, Turck, Hyundai and Liebherr.
He conducts IEC 61131-3 trainings throughout the U.S. and Canada as well as online and directs the only college or university-based IEC 61131-3 training program in North America to be certified by PLCopen. This open standards curriculum has been delivered online to 4 countries through the Remote Applied Mechatronics Project (RAMP). Ken Ryan has served as chair of the Open Modular Architecture Control - Packaging Workgroup (education subcommittee) and acts as a consultant to the Society of Manufacturing Engineers/Education Foundation on matters impacting mechatronics education at the 2-year technician level.
As a leader in technician/technologist education for a broad spectrum of industry from packaging to building automation, the Center for Applied Mechatronics has long championed the use of open standards architecture and has been a member of PLCopen since 2000. Ken will act as normal member in the board, and we all are confident that he will increase the success of PLCopen specifically in the North American market.
About PLCopen
PLCopen was founded in 1992 as an independent worldwide association for industrial suppliers and users. It is the leading association resolving topics related to industrial control programming. PLCopen creates concepts to reduce the costs of industrial automation. These cost savings are realized in areas such as engineering, training, operation and maintenance. Together with its members, PLC open creates specifications to materialize these concepts.