Chariho Electrical Students Get a Glimpse of Industrial Automation Careers at ProSystems Integration
Last Updated: 2026-05-28T10:53:36.685-04:00
Chariho Career and Technical Center's Electrical Technology class visited ProSystems Integration, an automation company in Westerly, to give students a look at career opportunities in the industrial side of the field. The students stepped onto the production floor, which housed multiple pieces of equipment and machines, both large and small. A former student of the class, Chariho alumnus and engineer at ProSystems Jesse Brunelle, alongside his father, John, president and owner of ProSystems Integration, gave the students safety glasses and walked them through the Tom Harvey Road facility, explaining what multiple machines do and their purposes. They explained that the industry is heavily driven by customer demand, with a wide variety of systems designed for different applications. These projects range from equipment used to make medical tubing for hospitals, to automated systems for companies such as Hershey Chocolate and Krispy Kreme. For a more local example, Brunelle said the company has also developed control systems for the Mystic River Bascule Bridge in the past. Students also got the opportunity to speak to other engineers working on the floor, who explained to them how they design systems, machines, and talked generally about the day-to-day work that is done at the company. One such machine demonstrated an extrusion line being run, specifically for medical tubing. Jesse Brunelle invited the students down to the facility to have a comprehensive tour of the equipment they manufacture and the role the company plays in the industry. He said that when he was a student in the class, a lot of focus was centered around residential and commercial aspects of engineering and electrical work and he wanted to show students the careers that can be found in the automation field. "I graduated two years ago, and in that program we spent a lot of time on the residential side of things. We went to residential sites and worked with a lot of residential wiring, however we spent almost no time at all in the industrial side of things," Jesse Brunelle said. "What I'm trying to do is expose this whole world of the electrical industry to students who don't get to see this side of things. There's plenty of career opportunities in this industry as well that aren't seen too often." "We want to show them that the technology is continuously changing, back from the introduction to computers in the '90s, the internet, tablets and phones: the technology is changing rapidly but the machinery itself really hasn't changed, it's the controls that change every three to five years," John Brunelle said. "Technology-wise, the opportunities in the industry are huge. Everybody wants to hire young talent because they know how to use computers and tablets." Jesse said he wanted to get the students out of the mindset of thinking they can only do 'electrical work' if they want to be electricians - it's a much more varied career than students may initially believe. He said if he didn't have prior knowledge of the industrial side of the industry from his father, that he probably wouldn't have known about it based on what is shown to students in the class. Brunelle also frequently goes to Chariho to hold a seminar where he talks about the kind of work that he and his dad do at the company to spread the message further. He said that he can hopefully continue to bring students onto the production floor at the company to expand their knowledge of career opportunities in the industry. Chariho Career and Technical Center's Electrical Technology class instructor Ryan Northup, who has more than 20 years of experience in the electrical industry, explained why it is important for students to gain real-world experience in events like this. "It gives them some foreground of what we're doing in class and a perfect real-world application: we do have a module about industrial motor controls, and now they can actually envision some of what they were working on," Northup said. "The other aspect is the inspiration, because something like this may inspire a particular student that will say, 'Hey, that was really cool, I want to start getting into that.'"
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