Lorain County Community College has earned Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing Institute endorsements for two of its automation programs — the bachelor of applied science in Smart Industrial Automated Systems Engineering Technology and the Industry 4.0 Teacher Training Program.
ARM endorsement recognizes education and training programs that prepare students for manufacturing careers working with robotics, according to a news release.
LCCC’s bachelor degree, which launched in fall 2022, was designed in direct response to the rapid development of technologies shaping advanced manufacturing in Northeast Ohio. The program’s core competencies were driven by the ARM Institute’s Robotics Competency Framework and in spring 2025, the college graduated the first class of the program.
Ben Burgette, a senior controls engineer for Northern Stamping in Valley View, was among the graduates. Burgette said his company does a lot of robotic welding, and he’s been tasked with building up the company’s automation team, in part, because of the added experience he’s gained in the LCCC program.
“Our capstone project challenged us to take a system that was already here, and make it smarter and more automated,” Burgette stated in the release. “It wasn’t intuitive or user friendly, and that’s what we had to do.”
LCCC’s teacher training program was designed to help fill the talent pipeline employers need by empowering educators with the essential skills and knowledge required to teach automation and robotics.
Participants benefit from cutting-edge experiences and K-12 specific curriculum that not only enhance their teaching methodologies, but also play a pivotal role in inspiring and engaging the next generation of technicians and engineers, according to the release.
For John Agostinelli, robotics and automation instructor at Marion L. Steele High School in Amherst, the program equipped him with the knowledge and skills needed to launch and then grow the school’s advanced manufacturing education program.
“The Industry 4.0 Teacher Training program through LCCC allowed me to get trained on lots of industry equipment besides the typical robot and PLC training equipment found at most colleges,” Agostinelli stated in the release. “Full-sized industry robots on a scaled model spanning multiple classrooms, along with the capstone course, gave me an enormous amount of confidence that I have built every year since I have had the training.
“If I have questions, LCCC has been a resource I have continually turned to years after my training, which has given me an in-depth lens for my teaching so that I can go beyond just fundamentals with my students, but create deep, long-lasting skills.”
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