Featuring keynote presentations, this monthly forum will provide a platform to explore research capabilities and opportunities for collaboration in Manufacturing. Areas of research focus include, novel materials, innovative structure, digital design, resilient supply chain, re-manufacturing, robotics, digital manufacturing, green manufacturing and medical manufacturing. This forum would suit managers and technical leaders of manufacturing, automation, logistics, IT businesses; academic researchers; government agencies; industrial associations.
 

Future digital manufacturing

The Swinburne Factory of the Future (FoF) and Digital Innovation Lab (DIL) deliver and supports digital transformation and Manufacturing SME engagement through the research, technology development, consulting, training and demonstration of Industry 4.0 technologies and solutions. In this Manufacturing Futures forum, A/Prof. Prem Prakash Jayaraman will introduce the FOF  and DIL, their capabilities, and present with use cases, an overview of the spectrum of industry sectors serviced by FoF and DIL.

Mr. Vikram Sachdeva and Dr. Sharad Menon will introduce the FOF SME engagement program which includes the Industry 4.0 Hub and its Industry 4.0 business readiness programs and advisory capabilities for manufacturing SMEs.

Dr. Abhik Banerjee and Dr. Abdur Forkan will talk about the opportunities and challenges in Digital Manufacturing specifically around AI and will share AI-driven Digital Manufacturing use cases.

Dr. Shanti Krishnan will present a showcase of industry-funded Industry 4.0 projects which  have been designed and developed at FOF  in the past year.

The presentations will follow with an opportunity to ask questions.

Convenor

Prof XiaoQi Chen
Deputy Director
Manufacturing Futures Research Institute
Swinburne University of Technology

XiaoQi has over 30 years industrial and academic research experience in robotics, smart manufacturing, advanced materials processing, and autonomous systems. He has held leadership roles in several strategic research programs in manufacturing and automation, including translation of research results into commercial adoption.

Speakers

A/Prof Prem Prakash Jayaraman
Director
Factory of Future and Digital Innovation Lab
Swinburne University of Technology

Prem is broadly interested in emerging areas of Internet of Things (IoT), Mobile and Cloud Computing. He has (co) authored 100+ journal, conference and book chapter in highly ranked venues in the above research areas (google scholar citations > 5300, h-index – 34)
 

Dr Sharad Menon
Industry 4.0 Hub Engagement Manager
Swinburne University of Technology

Sharad brings over 15 years of experience in technology transfer, industry development and in building collaborations & partnerships between industry, research and government. He has led and delivered major strategic initiatives and transformation projects in commercialisation, digitalisation and capital raising via multiple leadership roles in industrial R&D, education and venture capital settings. With a strong background in engineering and entrepreneurship, Sharad has helped a wide range of SMEs and large commercial entities in energy, healthcare, agri-food and manufacturing to implement innovation and growth strategy. 
 

Mr Vikram Sachdeva
Manager, Advanced Manufacturing Industry 4.0 Hub
Swinburne University of Technology

With 25 years of experience in the manufacturing space spanning operations, industrial engineering, continuous improvement and digital transformation, Vikram defines and executes strategies that equip businesses for the future. A trained engineer and a natural problem solver, he uses Lean Six Sigma and Industry 4.0 to create process, people and technology solutions that address both ingrained and evolving manufacturing challenges. In his current role at Advanced Manufacturing Industry 4.0 Hub, Swinburne University, he takes businesses on a digital innovation journey by surfacing opportunities for digitalisation, delivering Industry 4.0 projects and helping them innovate on their business model.
 

Dr. Abhik Banerjee
Associate Director, Digital Innovation Lab/Senior Research Fellow
Swinburne University of Technology

Dr. Abhik Banerjee has research, innovation, and product development expertise in the Internet of Things.His work has focused on practical industry problems that require research-based IoT solutions encompassing sensing, networking, analytics and machine learning. He obtained his Phd from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore in 2012. He is currently a Senior Research Fellow and Associate Director at Digital Innovation Lab, Swinburne University of Technology, where his work involves the development of Industry 4.0 solutions for the Australian manufacturing sector.
 

Dr Abdur Forkan
Senior Research Fellow, AI and Machine Learning
Swinburne University of Technology

Dr Forkan has expert knowledge on Machine Learning and Deep Learning with significant experience developing Artificial Intelligence-based solutions in Digital Health, FinTech, Education and Industry 4.0 application areas. His research excellence in machine learning is demonstrated by publications in Pattern recognition, Expert System with Applications, IEEE Transactions on cloud computing, IEEE Transactions on Services computing, Future Generation Computer Systems, WIREs data mining and knowledge discovery and some top ranked conference papers (e.g. PerCom, ISWC, ICDCS, HICSS, CCGrid).
 

Dr Shanti Krishnan
Deputy Director, Factory of the Future
Swinburne University of Technology

Shanti leads emerging technologies projects. She specialises in electronics engineering, with expertise in FPGA, microcontrollers, and nuclear instrumentation. Shanti has an extensive background in nuclear engineering, having worked in a senior scientific role in an atomic research centre in India. She has extensive experience in managing projects related to the nuclear instrumentation field and Industry 4.0. Her research interests include dark-matter and astrophysics. She is also a Co-Founder of mDetect, a technology company specialising in muon technology platform.