The University of Sheffield, Liverpool John Moores, Middlesex University, Newcastle University and Manchester Metropolitan University have all already signed-up to the initiative. As a result, each institution will work closely with Siemens to bring advanced industrial tools, data and approaches into their respective apprenticeship, undergraduate and masters courses.
Festo, a global supplier of automation technology and provider of industrial training, is a key delivery partner for the new curriculum.
At the heart of the Connected Curriculum is Siemens Digital Industries industrial software portfolio and cloud-based IoT platform MindSphere. MindSphere is an operating system that connects industrial machines and devices via IoT protocols. It allows data from multiple sources to be captured and analysed simultaneously, creating a real-time picture of the whole production process via a single, powerful and intuitive interface.
The Connected Curriculum announcement was made by Brian Holliday, MD of Siemens Digital Industries (pictured), at the 2019 MINe Symposium last week. Hosted at the University of Sheffield, the two-day event saw 15 academic institutions explore the potential for collaborating with Siemens, each other, and other companies, across Industry 4.0 projects and technologies, including Industrial IoT.
Since launching in 2017, MINe has engaged with over 50 businesses on more than 20 projects. Holliday said: “Collaboration is central to delivering successful, robust and secure industrial IoT projects. Universities can be key partners in this process, often having expertise industry doesn’t such as data science, visualisation and insights into human behaviour including how people engage with technology.
“This is why Siemens developed the MindSphere Innovation Network in partnership with several universities two years ago, which in turn has informed the Connected Curriculum we have announced this week. I am now looking forward to working with Sheffield, John Moores, Middlesex and Manchester Metropolitan universities to help explore the full potential of Industrial IoT with our MindSphere platform at the heart of the process.”
Babak Jahanbani from Didactic Services at Festo added: “Festo is firmly committed to inspiring and developing young engineers for the future which encompasses support for schools, colleges and universities through a variety of events. We have a track record helping institutions bring industry grade learning in to their programmes. By combining our innovative hardware packages with Siemens expertise through Connected Curriculum we have created a unique off-the-shelf package for Industry 4.0.”