Dominique Mutombo Hoyi is an Engineering Institute of Technology graduate from the Democratic Republic of Congo who is living in South Africa. He was EIT’s Outstanding Student Award Runner-Up for 2017. We caught up with him to find out what he is studying now and to see how his career is maturing with the qualifications he has earned so far.
Dominique studied the Advanced Diploma of Industrial Automation from March 2016 to October 2017. He is currently busy with his Bachelor of Science (Industrial Automation) with us.
He chose to study automation because he wanted to gain the kinds of skills needed for the process control field and instrumentation industry. When he got a job as a process control system engineer, he realized that he was missing the kinds of hands-on training that his job required. So, he began studying with EIT.
He notes that the advanced diploma helped him better his design skills and familiarize himself with control systems.
Dominique is now working as an Automation Technician at Power Plant Electrical Technologies in Nelspruit in South Africa.
“I am currently in the primary industry, which involves getting raw materials for processes such as mining, farming, and fishing,” he said.
“We are installing, testing, commissioning, upgrading, and maintaining industries like power generating plants, refineries, paper industries, water treatment plants, and mines.”
He spends his time working with technologies like programmable logic controllers (PLCs), variable speed drives, protection relays, and instrumentation and control equipment. Every day there is a new problem to solve or a fault to find, and sometimes he even has to oversee small to medium construction projects. He is also expected to complete technical surveys on electrical, control and instrumentation systems.
Dominique says the course content covered in our Bachelor of Science (Industrial Automation Engineering) has helped him a lot within his job.
As Dominique nears the end of his degree, he envisions the continuation of a fruitful career in the automation space.
“My future vision in my current position is to become a great senior process control and automation engineer; then later, I can join the engineering management within a well-known organization. The project engineers I work with are inspiring — they can solve complex problems in networking, control, power circuits.”