Robotics always interested Lauren Yamamoto. A technical administrator, she works with automatic train systems and supervisory control and data acquisition at Hitachi in Pearl City. But it wasn't always a job she thought she'd have.
"When I thought trains, I just thought, 'Oh, yeah, you got the train driver and then you got the system,'" she said Monday morning.
But the more she learned about the technical side of her now job, she took a chance.
Yamamoto graduated from Leeward Community College's Integrated Industrial Technology (IIT) program last year. It's a two-year associate's program, which oftentimes acts as a pathway for graduates to head into Hitachi and rail jobs.
LCC is situated right next to Hitachi's Pearl City operations center, sharing a Skyline stop between the entrance to either location.
Yamamoto estimates more than half of her department went through IIT.
"(We have) that similar experience, but also different because we were all there at different times of the program as it was evolving," she said.
The LCC program was established back in 2017, but it took a few years to develop and get off the ground. It was a collaboration with LCC IIT Program Coordinator Bill Labby and Hitachi’s engineering and asset manager, Rod Baybayan.
"I would invite Bill on-site to kind of take a look at the machines, take a look at the equipment that we have," Baybayan said.
Labby still heads up the program today. Students face four semesters of training and hands-on module simulations. During the course, students start out with basic safety training and math, but they’re also learning electro-hydraulics, which could be used in a wastewater system. They learn software development, like the programmable logic controllers that Yamamoto works with in her job.
The program is just as dependent on technical learning as it is on collaboration skills. Students range from those fresh out of high school, to veterans, to those seeking a second — or third — career.
"Everybody brings something to the table, even if they don't know anything about the actual subject," Labby said. "Their life experience, short or long, is going to add to the collective knowledge of the group."
Michael Wiedecker, Hitachi’s training and competency manager, said the IIT program, coupled with different backgrounds, provides a solid foundation prior to their own training.
"There's no college you can go to learn exactly how a rail transit system works, especially an automated rail transit system (the first one in the United States)," Wiedecker said. "There's no college curriculum that will teach you exactly how it works because each transit property's a little different in how they do things."
Training at Hitachi is typically three months, with more depending on specific jobs. Training ranges from safety to administrative and environmental.
"Some of the trainings online, some of its instructor-led and some of its on-the-job training that has to be documented," Wiedecker said.
Since the program started, 13 IIT graduates have joined the staff and they’re all still there, Baybayan said. When job vacancies open, there's an open line of communication between the two.
"He hires my people faster than I can graduate them sometimes, which is good, right?" Labby said. "The degree never would have existed if it hadn't been for the rail system."
