Systems and methods for data collection in an industrial environment are disclosed. An expert graphical user interface showing representations of components of an industrial machine to which sensors are attach is disclosed. The user interface may enable a user to select at least one of the components resulting in a search of a database of industrial machine failure modes for modes that correspond to the selected component. The corresponding failure mode may be presented to the user. The selection of the component may cause a controller to reference and implement a data collection template for configuring the system to automatically collect data from sensors associated with the selected component to detect at least one of the corresponding failure modes.