“Fast and furious” doesn’t just describe a vehicle’s speed anymore … it is now just as easily the catch-phrase of the non-stop rush of automotive technology changes.
The work of the vehicle technician today means mastering technology that might have seemed only a fantasy just a few short years ago. Training tomorrow’s technicians is also now more of a challenge than ever, but it‘s one the automotive instructors at Morrisville State College are meeting at full speed.
“It’s no longer just a matter of popping the hood -- the technicians now have to be more like electronics programmers than mechanics,” assistant professor Ron Alexander, a 1989 MSC graduate, explained.
“We say the days when we used to fix carburetors under warranty are long gone now,” agreed Dan Akers, who graduated from Morrisville in 1990 and is now assistant professor and director of the Ford Asset Program.
Educating the fledgling technicians means the instructors need to stay up to speed on all of the changes that come non-stop. Alexander said his own classroom curriculum will change by vehicle model year. Akers says he spends his summers taking online training alongside technicians and is constantly updating his lab books to reflect the new technology.
In their partnerships with Ford, Fiat-Chrysler, Subaru, Mopar, Snap-On Tools, Hartford Insurance, and NAPA, the automotive department at MSC offers hands-on, real-world educational experience. Delivering that training is something the faculty and staff take very seriously, said associate professor Ray Grabowski, the automotive department chair and a graduate of the MSC class of 1989.
“Our instructors are very enthusiastic and very much involved in everything we do here … they are pretty passionate about keeping up with the latest technology,” he said.
It’s evident in nearly every aspect of the program.
All students in the Ford Asset Program are required to work at a Ford dealership during longer school breaks. Likewise, all automotive students find summer work experience between their first and second year, not only for training but also to make sure the field is really one they want to pursue. And the automotive programs at MSC don’t just prepare them for work in a shop, as students learn math, people skills, management, measuring and problem-solving skills that can be assets in any field.
Jon Musgrove owns the Oneida Service Center in Oneida, NY, and is a 1997 grad. He said his 17 years in the business have provided him a long-range perspective of the changes in automotive technology.
“The biggest thing I’ve noticed is that cars don’t break like they used to … the industry now focuses more on preventative maintenance and technology, and that has really changed the way we do things,” Musgrove said. To keep up, he spends a lot of time reading about the latest automotive improvements. Cutting-edge instruments are also a must in his shop, including a pair of scanners that cost $18,000 a piece. His shop computers also keep invaluable running records of repairs done to vehicles there.
Auto body repair is also in a state of technological change. Associate professor Gil Wistrup, a 1980 graduate, explained, with all of the computer-driven equipment on board today’s vehicles, the old days of banging something back into place and painting it up to look good are also gone.
“You can’t just take a bent piece and straighten it out anymore,” Wistrup said. “It is now significantly more technical to make a repair.”
He equated the modern auto body repair to dropping a laptop on the floor. That laptop would have to be checked for damage from the jarring impact, and the multiple computer devices throughout the vehicle likewise have to be examined and possibly recalibrated after a crash.
And the field of auto body collision repair is not likely to go out of fashion anytime soon, even with the future indicating the wide range of self-driving cars coming onboard.
“Those cars will still hit deer and still slide into ditches on icy roads,” Wistrup said.
Automotive technological advances may someday make drivers obsolete, but the need for qualified, well-educated repair technicians will never go away. That’s where the faculty and staff of the MSC automotive department shifts into high gear -- educating the technicians of the future to be able to meet all the challenges of the constantly-evolving shop workplace.
