BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — A four-legged robotic dog and a new humanoid model are the latest additions to Bakersfield College's industrial automation lab, but the program's roots go back a decade, to a time when local employers couldn't find the workers they needed.
Ten years ago, BC launched its Industrial Automation bachelor's program as one of 15 California community colleges selected for the state's original bachelor's degree pilot. The goal was straightforward: train local workers with the technical skills Kern County employers were struggling to find.
Roy Allard, a professor in the electronics and industrial automation programs, said those employers had been going out of state, and sometimes out of the country, just to fill automation roles.
"It was very small when we began, but we got a group of industry partners who needed people to work in Kern County, and they didn't have that pool of applicants."
Now, he said, those same employers come directly to BC.
The program's first graduating class had seven students. This year's record class had 34, including the program's largest group of women yet. BC reports a 98% job-placement rate among graduates seeking work, and many students begin working before graduation.
Each spring, a career fair draws employers from across the country, from Los Angeles to Washington state, to recruit prospective graduates. Allard said the connections don't end at graduation.
"We stay in touch because we all communicate on LinkedIn. Sometimes there's questions that need to be answered and so we help our students, and sometimes they come in and help us."
He said one student received a job offer from a national laboratory before she even finished her final semester. Allard's own son graduated from the program in 2022, worked in oil and gas automation, and has since taken a position at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
For current senior Aydin Garcia, the program started even before college. Garcia enrolled through an early college pathway while attending Liberty High School and has since become a leader in BC's Robotics Union, recently landing an internship with Amazon.
"What I can do now that I wasn't able to do when I first started is build and program robots," Garcia said.
Alumnus Francisco Hernandez found his way into the field through a high school electronics elective he took on a whim. He said once he started working with the assignments and projects, something clicked.
He continued through BC's program, eventually working part-time as a lab assistant in the robotics lab while completing his upper-division coursework — which covered not just advanced automation concepts, but also the management side of the field.
Hernandez now works as an automation technician for a farming company south of Bakersfield, where he operates technology that detects and sorts products on a production line.
"My job over there is mostly operating a computer vision system that helps detect defects on the products," Hernandez said.
He said the troubleshooting skills he built at BC — tracing wiring, diagnosing controllers, working through software problems — apply directly to his day-to-day work. Before graduating, he completed three internships, including one at a national laboratory where he worked with robotics and design systems similar to equipment used in BC's own lab.
Hernandez said when he started the program in 2021, the lab was housed in a different, more cramped building. Watching it grow, more students, more space, more funding, has stayed with him.
"I'm impressed by everybody coming in and working with all this wonderful technology," Hernandez said.
As the program grows, Allard said the biggest challenges are practical ones: more students means a need for more professors and more lab space. He called it a good problem to have.
He said automation is no longer confined to factories. Traffic signals, agricultural equipment, and distribution centers all rely on the same technology his students learn to build and maintain. And he pushed back on the idea that robots displace workers.
"A robot replaces the 3Ds — a dull, dangerous, or dirty job," Allard said. "It moves them to better positions."
BC plans to begin incorporating both its humanoid and four-legged robots into student training. Faculty members are also considering an alumni reunion next spring to mark the program's 10-year milestone.
As for what the next decade holds, Allard said the industry is only accelerating.
"We think we've seen the end of the robot age, but it's really just beginning."
