Using AI for Plant Performance
AI as a troubleshooting partner: gather the data, prompt well, verify against procedures, lab and instruments, decide and document.
Who it is for
Plant operators, supervisors, lab and controls staff who want to use AI assistants safely. No programming experience needed.
Format
Online, self-paced: 10 timed modules with the manual reading, worked examples and a short check after each module, plus the student manual to download.
Length and price
4 hours, $120.
What you will learn
Taught by Brad Musick. 10 modules. Examples come from the White River Resource Recovery Facility (WRRRF), a fictional training plant.
- AI as a troubleshooting partner (35 min)What an AI assistant is, the five-step workflow, writing a troubleshooting prompt and judging an AI answer.
- Settling, ammonia and blower cases: gather the data and prompt (30 min)Gathering the right data, prompting, and checking the AI's claims.
- Checking the AI with process math (30 min)SVI, SOR and SLR, SRT, WAS rate, F/M and pounds loadings.
- Keeping the solids inventory on target, then deciding and documenting (20 min)Deciding, acting and documenting, and the blower and DO check before blaming the biology.
- Digester VA/ALK rise (25 min)A digester upset worked through the five steps, with VA/ALK, VSR, HRT and VS loading math.
- Centrifuge wet cake (20 min)A dewatering problem worked through the five steps, with centrifuge loading math.
- The failing analyzer (20 min)Screening data for flatlines, spikes and drift, and verifying analyzers against lab results.
- Guardrails and data security (15 min)AI advises and operators decide: read-only data, no AI write path to control systems, approved tools and documented decisions.
- Building a troubleshooting knowledge base (15 min)How a plant document library helps AI give cited answers, document control, metadata, chunking, and testing before you trust it.
- The troubleshooting prompt library (15 min)The Role, Context, Task, Format and Constraints pattern, with practice exercises.
See how it works
What operators take away
- A five-step workflow for using AI on real process problems.
- Prompts you can reuse, and the habit of checking every AI answer with process math.
- Data guardrails: AI advises, operators decide.
- An outline of how to build a plant document library for troubleshooting.
- Timed online modules with a short check after each one, a final quiz that opens when every check is passed and the study time is logged, and a certificate of completion from Wastewater Academy™ when you pass it.
- A student manual to download (comes with the class).
Look inside
A few sample pages from the student manual. Tap a page to open it full size.
These are sample pages only. The full student manual comes with the class.
Register
4 hours, $120.
CEU approval for this class is pending with Indiana IDEM, and CEUs are not approved yet. If you need CEU credit, please wait to buy until we announce approval here.
Registration is open. Register online and start right away.
After you pay, you are taken to a page where you start the online course and download the student manual. Work through the 10 modules in order; each ends with a 4-question check, and you need 3 of 4 to open the next module. The study timer counts time only while a module page is open and in front, and you have been active in the last 5 minutes. The final quiz opens after every check is passed and 3 hours 45 minutes of study are logged. It has 20 questions; you need 80 percent, with up to 3 attempts. After you pass and fill in a short course evaluation, you get a certificate of completion from Wastewater Academy™ in the name you enroll with. Online access, including the course, manual, quiz, and certificate, lasts 90 days from purchase. To see the style of questions first, try a free practice quiz.
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