Carlos Reyes opens an empty electrical box in one of the labs of the mechatronics technology program at Texas State Technical College.

The box represents something of a starting point for students in the program. As the program progresses, students will be tasked with filling those empty boxes with the circuits, sensors and other components to make it a fully functional electrical unit. 

“We build them up from scratch,” said Reyes, the program team lead of TSTC’s mechatronics and cybersecurity technology program in Harlingen. 

A Booming Industry

Mechatronics is an engineering field that combines mechanics, electronics and computing to create intelligent systems. Technicians trained in mechatronics are essential workers in several industries, including manufacturing, transportation and healthcare. Mechatronics systems are part of smartphones, 3D printers and anti-lock braking systems in automobiles.

Reyes, who has decades of experience in the field, says the time is now to get into mechatronics. The demand for technicians has never been higher, he said.

“The main reason is due to COVID and how it impacted our economy,” Reyes said. “The U.S. realized we made a mistake sending work overseas. We’re bringing back industrial jobs. The field of mechatronics is booming.”

Range of Opportunities

“Get jobs that pay $35 an hour,” a bright red poster with white lettering says in a TSTC lab. “Plus sign-on/relocation bonus of up to $15,000, with an associate’s degree in mechatronics technology.

There is no lack of major companies that visit TSTC’s mechatronics building to recruit students. Toyota and Samsung are among the many, with others including Texas Instruments, Coca-Cola, SpaceX and Chevron. The range of companies from different industries points to the fact that “everyone needs to have a qualified technician on their floors or teams,” as Reyes puts it.

One example is Dora Vasquez, who works for Oncor Electric Delivery. The TSTC alumnus’s duties include maintenance and electrical work in substations in north Dallas and adjacent areas. She described her work as “maintenance on transformers, breakers, insulators and several other components.” Vasquez provides those details in a marketing piece posted in the mechatronics building hallways. Those success stories are inspiring students currently enrolled in the program. 

Step By Step 

Eduardo Garcia of Brownsville is among the 130 mechatronics students at the school. Garcia attempted to complete a standard undergraduate degree at then-University of Texas-Brownsville years ago before “life happened,” as he put it. He delayed his post-secondary education plans for years before a Texas Workforce Commission counselor made him aware of the mechatronics program at TSTC.

“I’ve always been interested in science and electronics,” Garcia said. “I got to see technicians working on the line and at factories, troubleshooting, pressing buttons and fixing machines. I realized this program could open up a whole lot of doors to enter the field.”

Looking at the list of classes and topics covered by the program – not to mention the semesters-long task of filling up an empty electrical box – Garcia says “it did look a little bit daunting.” There are fundamentals of electricity, robotics communication and industrial control devices among the mix of classes covered by the mechatronics technology program. The program is linear in nature, taking students through an orderly sequence of knowledge acquisition.

“This program takes you step by step so when you get to step 10 it looks easy because all of the steps that you have already gone through,” Garcia said. “You don’t feel inadequate in applying for a job like you did before because of everything that you’ve learned.”

Growing Enrollment

The jobs will be there.

Toyota has a truck manufacturing plant in San Antonio and has been a consistent recruiter of TSTC mechatronics students. A Toyota skilled groups leader, Harold Archer, called TSTC a “premium school” that helps his company to “ensure we are hiring world-class employees.” Samsung is among the major high-tech manufacturers that have established operations in Austin and the Central Texas area. Samsung, Reyes said, is aiming to hire 2,000 technicians by the end of 2024.

Sign-on bonus and offers to pay for further post-secondary education are among the packages major manufacturers are offering graduating mechatronics students, Reyes said. Garcia knows that as a student if he does well and completes program requirements that employment could be imminent.

“You think coming in that you will have to go across the state and country to find a job, and then you see Toyota and Samsung and Tesla here recruiting, and it was like, wow, that’s amazing,” Garcia said.

High school students are noticing. The Los Fresnos, Harlingen and Rio Hondo school districts have dual enrollment agreements with the mechatronics technology program at TSTC. Reyes expects program enrollment of about 300 students for the 2025-26 school year as more high schools are expected to sign dual enrollment agreements with TSTC.

“I like to dream big,” Reyes said. “There’s so much opportunity here.”