ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Automation engineering

Automation engineering is a fancy word that means making things work automatically without needing a human to do it.

Imagine you have a play set that has a seesaw, a slide, and a swing. Normally, you would need a friend to operate the swing by pushing you, and to climb up to the top of the slide every time you want to slide down. But in automation engineering, you can make a machine that will move the swing back and forth without anyone pushing it. You can also add a motor and a switch to the slide so you can control when it goes up and down.

This is what engineers do when they automate things. They use machines, like computers and robots, to do jobs that would normally need a person to do them. They use sensors to detect different things like temperature or vibration, and then they program the machines to respond to those sensors by performing actions.

For example, you can program a machine to detect when a package is placed on a conveyor belt, and then move the package from one end of the belt to the other automatically. This makes work easier and faster, and it saves people a lot of time and effort.

Overall, automation engineering is about creating machines that can do things for us without needing our help. It's like having a super-powered friend who can make our lives easier and more efficient.