Industry and legislative leaders press for improving the quantity and quality of the work force. For example, the need for capable, dedicated, and experienced automation engineers continues to increase. The training involves expensive laboratory equipment, small class size, and motivated faculty, but University budgets are decreasing and the emphasis on research and journal publications for tenure and promotion is increasing. At MSU Mankato state and industry support has come together with faculty interest for the past several years in the areas of automation engineering and manufacturing. Courses in industrial automation involving PLC's, sensors, and actuators have been taught since 2006 using hands-on active learning techniques. An effort is underway to increase the technical depth and broaden the training by exploring deterministic timing and modeling in complex real-time automation systems using traditional PLC and PCbased PLC equipment and future, large multicore computer designs.