Taking ECP2-certified courses on the path to a senior architect role

The ECP2-certified courses he has taken thus far, provided him with the fundamentals required to work in one of the world’s leading high-tech regions specialising in mechatronics, the Netherlands. Combined with the courses he is now planning to take, they help him to grow towards a senior architect role.

Euspen’s ECP2 programme grew out of DSPE’s Certified Precision Engineer programme, which was developed in the Netherlands in 2008 as a commercially available series of training courses. In 2015, euspen, DSPE’s European counterpart, decided to take certification to the European level. The resulting ECP2 programme reflects industry demand for multidisciplinary system thinking and in-depth knowledge of the relevant disciplines. A certificate scheme was instigated to promote participation. The Bronze certificate requires 25 points (one point equals roughly one course day), Silver requires 35 points and Gold 45 points, which qualifies a participant for the title ‘Certified Precision Engineer’.

Moiz Hyderabadwala (centre) receiving the ECP2 Bronze certificate, flanked by DSPE board member Bart Dirkx (COO of Fastmicro) on the left and High Tech Institute teacher Hans Vermeulen (architect at ASML and TU/e professor).

Mechatronics region

Moiz Hyderabadwala did his bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering at the Visvesvaraya National Technological University, India, and obtained his master’s degree in Mechatronics and Controls at the Georgia Institute of Technology, USA. After a brief stint as a system engineer in Bangalore, India, he decided to head for the Netherlands. “I wanted to work as an engineer in the multidisciplinary field of mechatronics and in my opinion the high-tech region of the Netherlands is one of the few locations in the world that specialises in mechatronics.” He was hired by ASML and worked as a mechatronics integration engineer for five years. He then switched to finite-element analysis (FEA) and is currently a senior mechanical (FEA) engineer.

His managers at ASML stimulated him to take courses to broaden his scope. “For example, my managers in the Mechanical Analysis department, Fred Huizinga and Paul Verhoeven, encourage engineers to not just think as an FEA engineer, but to try to understand their customer and his problem at a higher level, taking into account the complete mechatronics architecture of the (sub) module involved. With the mechatronics knowledge I have gained, I can collaborate more closely with the customer, thinking along with the architect and proposing simulations that can really help him.”

High-tech foundation

Hyderabadwala took the courses of Mechatronic System Design, Parts 1 and 2, Dynamics and Modelling, and Motion Control Tuning. He describes them as the fundamentals required to work in the high-tech region of the Netherlands. “For example, we had a three-day troubleshooting session with one of ASML’s suppliers. The knowledge from these courses really helped us to solve the problem. Any mechatronic architect should have this foundational knowledge.”

He now plans to take courses such as Advanced Motion Control, “which fits the multi-axis, multi-variable problems we are dealing with”, and Experimental Techniques in Mechatronics. “In the System Dynamics department, a lot testing is done, as it goes hand in hand with the modelling. In this course, I can learn how to use our models to predict and validate test outcomes, and to understand how to process large amounts of data.”

Ultimately, Hyderabadwala’s ambition is to move towards a senior architect role. “Using my experience as a mechatronics integration engineer and an FEA engineer, I want to understand the complete system control, give advice on the simulation strategy, and identify the risks in a design.” The ECP2-certified course System Architecting may be the next stop on the path to that goal.

www.ecp2.eu