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Tuesday, December, 2025

Each year, the Industrial Automation Department at Bakersfield College hosts their
Senior Projects Open House which allows students in the program to present the innovative
projects they have been working on throughout the year. The event is open to the public,
and attendees have the opportunity to preview the students’ automation creations and
interact with the people who developed them. This year’s open house took place during
the first week of December and was hosted in the Robotics Lab of the Science & Engineering
Building.

There were a variety of projects that covered multiple industrial practices including
agriculture, human-machine interface, industrial processes, and more. One of the participating
projects was titled ‘Aerophonics with Weather Machine’ and was conceived and created
by a student team. RJames Viloria, Juan Manriquez, and Amy Huerta have been working
together on the agriculture-based project for nearly two semesters. The ambitious
endeavor focuses on optimizing a controlled environmental system for more efficient
farming.

“We came up with the idea because most of the solutions in the market are timer-based,”
says RJames Viloria, “the purpose of our project is to implement precision by measuring
nutrients, PH levels, and temperature in order to increase yields.” They built the
entire project from scratch, and their display included a kale crop they had cultivated.
“We grew kale, but we also tested lettuces and specifically, Romaine lettuce,” says
Viloria, “and we were able to increase the growth rate and yield of the crops.”

When asked if they felt their project was successful, Juan Manriquez was quick to
reply, “As a group and team, we feel like we nailed it,” he says, “all of our hard
work has paid off.” The team gets graded throughout the entire process, but the open
house serves as the last step to receiving their grade. “We do get reviewed and graded
during both semesters, and towards the end, the overall project would be the presentation,”
says Manriquez, “So, based on how that goes today – it’s like the final of our course.”

The Industrial Automation open house served a perfect environment to showcase the
talent, creativity and technical skill developed within the department. The dedication
demonstrated by students like Viloria, Manriquez, and Huerta reflects their commitment
to hands-on learning and modern problem solving. Congratulations to all participating
seniors for their impressive work and successful presentations and best wishes as
they take the next steps in their academic and professional careers.