Instrumentation technology programs prepare people to help engineers design measuring tools and instruments. Students learn how instruments are used to complete specific tasks. They also learn to build, calibrate, and maintain tools.
The next time you drive a car, think about how many instruments are on the dashboard. They tell you how fast you're going, how far you've gone, and at what speed the engine is revving. They tell you how much gas is in the tank. If something goes wrong with the oil pressure, the flow of electricity, or the exhaust system, they light up to tell you so. This is not to mention the other diagnostic instruments that automotive technicians can use to assess your car's health.
Yet a car is a fairly simple machine compared to a large industrial process. A factory assembly line that turns out CD players, refrigerators, or vacuum cleaners may have several hundred instruments at work. The more the production process is automated, the more instruments there are. Remember that you use your eyes and ears to guide you when you drive your car. But on an automated assembly line, the eyes and ears are electronic instruments.
Controls are the companions of instruments. On a car, you operate most of the controls in response to what the instruments (and your eyes and ears) tell you. For example, when the speedometer says you're going too fast, you ease up on the gas pedal. But some systems in your car take over the job of monitoring the instruments and operating the controls. The automatic shift decides when to go to a higher gear. The ABS controls the braking to prevent your crude response from throwing your car into a skid. The airbag decides when to deploy with a reaction time you could never match. Similar automated control systems are used on assembly lines. High-tech instruments and controls also may be used on an aircraft, an electric power plant, a subway system, or an irrigation grid.
As an instrumentation technician, you install, calibrate, and repair these instruments and controls. Or you may be part of an engineering team that designs a new instrument or control. You prepare for a job like this by studying instrumentation full-time for two years beyond high school. This earns you an associate's degree. About 50 colleges offer a program of this sort. The program is a combination of scientific theory and hands-on work with instrumentation and controls. You study the principles of electrical circuits. And since so many controls use electronic logic, you also study how computer chips work.