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The objective of this paper is to outline the details of a recently-funded National Science Foundation (NSF) Advanced Technological Education (ATE) project that aims to educate and enable the current and future manufacturing workforce to operate in an Industry 4.0 environment. Additionally, the startup procedures involved, the major ongoing activities during year-one, and preliminary impressions and lessons learned will be elaborated as well. Industry 4.0 refers to the ongoing reformation of advanced manufacturing (Operation Technologies - OT) enabled by advances in automation/data (Information Technologies - IT). Cyber-enabled smart manufacturing is a multidisciplinary approach that integrates the manufacturing process, its monitoring/control, data science, cyber-physical systems, and cloud computing to drive manufacturing operations. This is further propelled by the dissolution of boundaries separating IT and OT, presenting optimization opportunities not just at a machine-level, but at the plant/enterprise-levels. This so-called fourth industrial revolution is rapidly percolating the discrete and continuous manufacturing industry. It is therefore critical for the current and future US workforce to be cognizant and capable of such interdisciplinary domain knowledge and skills. To meet this workforce need, this project will develop curricula, personnel and communities in cyber-enabled smart manufacturing. The key project components will include: (i) Curriculum Road-Mapping and Implementation – one that integrates IT and OT to broaden the educational experience and employability via road-mapping workshops, and then to develop/implement curricula, (ii) Interdisciplinary Learning Experiences – through collaborative special-projects courses, industry internships and research experiences, (iii) Pathways to Industry 4.0 Careers – to streamline career pathways to enter Industry 4.0 careers, and to pursue further education, and (iv) Faculty Development – continuous improvement via professional development workshops and faculty development leaves. It is expected that this project will help define and chart-out the capabilities demanded from the next-generation workforce to fulfill the call of Industry 4.0, and the curricular ingredients necessary to train and empower them. This will help create an empowered workforce well-suited for Industry 4.0 careers in cyber-enabled smart manufacturing. The collaborative research team’s experience so far in starting up and establishing the project has further shed light on some of the essentials and practicalities needed for achieving the grand vision of enabling the manufacturing workforce for the future. Altogether, the experience and lessons learned during the year-one implementation has provided a better perception of what is needed for imparting a broader impact through this project.
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NSF: Integrative Manufacturing and Production Engineering Education Leveraging Data Science Program (IMPEL)
IMPEL is a transformative workforce education and training program that addresses the current and projected skills gaps and requirements in data science in the US manufacturing sector. The mission of IMPEL is to facilitate lifelong learning for the production engineering STEM workforce through designing sustainable, pedagogically proven data science curricula via modular courses with interactive online learning labs and experiential project-based learning. The planned tasks for IMPEL include an online curriculum design and development targeting professionals, undergraduates and community college students interested in advancing their skills in data science in the context of Industry 4.0 and intelligent manufacturing. The project team has accomplished several main tasks towards the goals of the project in Year 1, to be detailed in this paper.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1935646
- PAR ID:
- 10299103
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access,
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- https://peer.asee.org/37530
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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The objective of this paper is to outline the details of a recently-funded National Science Foundation (NSF) Advanced Technological Education (ATE) project that aims to educate and enable the current and future manufacturing workforce to operate in an Industry 4.0 environment. Additionally, the startup procedures involved, the major ongoing activities during year-one, and preliminary impressions and lessons learned will be elaborated as well. Industry 4.0 refers to the ongoing reformation of advanced manufacturing (Operation Technologies - OT) enabled by advances in automation/data (Information Technologies - IT). Cyber-enabled smart manufacturing is a multidisciplinary approach that integrates the manufacturing process, its monitoring/control, data science, cyber-physical systems, and cloud computing to drive manufacturing operations. This is further propelled by the dissolution of boundaries separating IT and OT, presenting optimization opportunities not just at a machine-level, but at the plant/enterprise-levels. This so-called fourth industrial revolution is rapidly percolating the discrete and continuous manufacturing industry. It is therefore critical for the current and future US workforce to be cognizant and capable of such interdisciplinary domain knowledge and skills. To meet this workforce need, this project will develop curricula, personnel and communities in cyber-enabled smart manufacturing. The key project components will include: (i) Curriculum Road-Mapping and Implementation – one that integrates IT and OT to broaden the educational experience and employability via road-mapping workshops, and then to develop/implement curricula, (ii) Interdisciplinary Learning Experiences – through collaborative special-projects courses, industry internships and research experiences, (iii) Pathways to Industry 4.0 Careers – to streamline career pathways to enter Industry 4.0 careers, and to pursue further education, and (iv) Faculty Development – continuous improvement via professional development workshops and faculty development leaves. It is expected that this project will help define and chart-out the capabilities demanded from the next-generation workforce to fulfill the call of Industry 4.0, and the curricular ingredients necessary to train and empower them. This will help create an empowered workforce well-suited for Industry 4.0 careers in cyber-enabled smart manufacturing. The collaborative research team’s experience so far in starting up and establishing the project has further shed light on some of the essentials and practicalities needed for achieving the grand vision of enabling the manufacturing workforce for the future. Altogether, the experience and lessons learned during the year-one implementation has provided a better perception of what is needed for imparting a broader impact through this project.more » « less
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