Top five Control Engineering 2025 webcasts eligible for one RCEP PDH credit for those listening live on the broadcast date
Control Engineering webcasts in 2025 drew strong interest from engineers looking for practical guidance on automation modernization, energy management, controller selection and digital transformation. Ranked by total registrations, the following five webcasts emerged as the most popular of the year, highlighting the subjects control and automation professionals prioritized—from variable speed drives and SCADA/HMI upgrades to programming best practices and integrating AI and analytics.
Webcasts are posted for one year, so to view or review any of the following, do so before the listed dates in 2026.
1. Motors, Drives: How to Better Manage Energy with Variable Speed Drives – Dec. 11, 2025
Variable speed drives (VSDs) [also called variable frequency drives (VFDs), inverters, or just “drives”] control and optimize motor starting, acceleration, deceleration, and stopping to provide energy efficiency and sustainability benefits across myriad facilities and industrial applications. When should VFDs be applied to motor applications for better energy management, and why? What VFD capabilities and functions are available, used, and needed to optimize energy management? How can VFDs optimize an energy management plan for the combined motor, drive, and motion control systems and process applications?
2. SCADA, HMI: How to Modernize, Upgrade for Application Benefits – May 22, 2025
Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) software and human-machine interface (HMI) software have advanced significantly in designs and functions providing many application benefits. What SCADA and HMI benefits for facilities and industrial operations are you missing because you’re behind? Instructors will explain how SCADA and HMI benefits can be assessed and applied with SCADA and HMI software upgrades and modernization. If you’re considering a small upgrade or major modernization, this webcast is for you.
3. Practical Advice for Automation Programmers – March 26, 2025
Tips, tricks and best practices to hone your control system programming skills make this one hour of instruction a must-see spring event. Programmable logic controllers (PLCs), programmable automation controllers (PACs), industrial PCs, embedded controllers and edge devices used for control engineering and automation applications require programming. IEC 61131-3 programming languages will be discussed, along with practical advice for making you and your teams more useful in your next controls and automation programming project. Control system programming experts aim to improve effectiveness of control system programming and automation programming projects.
4. How to Select the Right Controller Type for the Automation Application – Sept. 25, 2025
Automation and controls applications are growing in numbers and breadth across industries, and it’s critical to ensure the selected and applied automation controllers are fit for purpose. For most applications, more than one controller type may be suitable. How should you choose from among programmable logic controllers (PLCs), programmable automation controllers (PACs), industrial PCs, embedded controllers, edge devices, human-machine interfaces (HMIs) and hybrid controllers that may be integrated with or combined in computers, drives, robotics, vision and input/output (I/O) devices and systems? Should you mix and match vendors or stay with one ecosystem? Way beyond initial cost, criteria may include environment speed, operating system, cybersecurity, standards, interoperability, lifecycle, communications, training and more.
5. How to Integrate Automation, AI and Analytics for Smarter Digital Transformation – Nov. 12, 2025
Advanced automation, controls and instrumentation have been at the forefront of industrial digital transformation, enabling organizations to achieve greater efficiency, scalability and resilience. For device and system designers, integrators and end users, digitalization efforts not only address internal challenges but also provide valuable insights that can guide their customers and supply chains through their own transformations.
Top five 2025 webcasts created by suppliers of industrial automation and controls
Supplier-led webcasts continued to attract strong engagement in 2025, offering deep technical insight into emerging technologies and best practices in industrial automation and controls. Ranked by total registrations, the following five supplier-created webcasts stood out for their focus on real-world application challenges, including advanced drive communications, servo tuning, functional safety, component design and condition-based monitoring. Together, these sessions highlight how suppliers are helping engineers navigate evolving technologies to improve system performance and reliability.
1. The Evolution of VFD Communication: Driving Efficiency and Connectivity – Nov. 6, 2025
Variable frequency drives have evolved from simple motor controllers to connected devices that play a key role in modern manufacturing. This webinar explores how communication methods have advanced from hard-wired signals to fieldbus and Ethernet, and what that means for today’s industrial networks. Learn how to choose the right communication approach and prepare for what’s next.
2. Advanced Servo Tuning for Single and Multi-Axis Systems – Feb. 4, 2025
Servo tuning has a crucial impact on the performance, throughput, and overall quality of an automated machine’s operation. Tuning is no longer a dark art that requires days or weeks during the machine commissioning process. Advanced servo systems available today radically simplify the machine commissioning process while optimizing machine output. In this webcast participants will learn about the most advanced servo system tuning algorithms available today and how this functionality can be harnessed to optimize machine operation.
3. How to Integrate Functional Safety in a Machine Control System – Sept. 17, 2025
State of the art control systems available today integrate machine control and safety PLC capabilities, enabling a highly responsive safety control system and easing development tasks for the user. In this webcast the participant will learn fundamental machine and functional safety concepts and learn how a safety control demo works and how it was programmed with an integrated development environment.
4. How to Design Solenoid Valves for Optimal Performance – Sept. 18, 2025
Balancing forces in solenoid valve design is key to achieving reliable, efficient fluid control systems. This webinar explores how solenoid technology works, the physics behind force balancing and how design choices impact performance across different applications. We’ll walk through key principles, common challenges and real-world examples to help you optimize solenoid selection and system integration. Whether you’re selecting valves for food processing, metal forming or crop spraying, this session offers practical insights to help improve system outcomes through better solenoid technology.
5. How to Reduce Equipment Downtime with Multi-Sensor Condition-Based Monitoring – Feb. 25, 2025
Join industrial automation expert Marouane Lahmidi, founder of IndustrAI and former Amazon Predictive Maintenance lead, for an in-depth exploration of multi-sensor condition-based monitoring (CBM). Discover how integrating vibration analysis, thermal imaging, and ultrasound can revolutionize your maintenance strategy by detecting failures earlier and more accurately than traditional single-sensor methods.
Webcasts also are available here using the pulldown menu for webcasts, near the top of the page. Registration numbers and compilation were provided by Jill Lowe, webinar manager with WTWH Media.
CONSIDER THIS
Bookmark this Control Engineering article so you can refer to and catch up on the hot topic webcasts you might have missed.
ONLINE
See what was on the 2024 Control Engineering hot topics list.
See what was on the 2025 Control Engineering article hot topics list.
