Global digital manufacturing – industry4.0 joint curriculum and research

About the project

The manufacturing sector is increasingly becoming global, with companies that design and manufacture components, parts and finished products for other companies, exploiting expertise, raw materials, manufacturing capabilities, cost, and an efficient supply chain that spans across the globe. It is hence not a coincidence that industry is undergoing the 4th industrial revolution (IND4.0). Computers, automation systems, robotics and other technologies are being connected together through the internet-of-things (IOT) to setup what are known as Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), aimed at enhancing operations, flexibility and a number of other key business performance metrics. This IND4.0 coupled with a shift towards global manufacturing (GM) or global digital manufacturing (GDM) is increasingly changing the way companies do business. It is consequently also influencing the ‘skills set’ they expect from their workforce to cope with this new challenge. The EC report 'A New Skills Agenda for Europe' states that 39% of companies currently have difficulties finding suitably skilled ICT professionals. At the same time, EC reports clearly reveal that SMEs accounting to about 70-85% of the workforce in different European Economic Area (EEA) countries. Thus, current and future workers employed across EEA countries, in either large countries or small island states such as IS and MT, or by micro-SMEs, SMEs and/or multinationals, need to have a set of skills and competences allowing them to adapt to working methods and opportunities arising from IND4.0 and GDM. In order to proactively take action towards reduce this skills mismatch, there is a need to urgently prepare employees to be ready for IND4.0 jobs and GDM working environments.

Thus, the main aim of the MAGIC project is to develop a novel joint curriculum and course by which HEI trainers can attract and help first cycle students (BSc) to learn in an integrated way about IND4.0, entrepreneurship and GDM.

More information at the Magic homepage.

Members

Auðbjörg Björnsdóttir, director of the Centre of Teaching and Learning 
Arnheiður Eyþórsdóttir, adjunct at the faculty of business and science

Collaborators

Professor Catalin G. Amza, University Politehnica of Bucharest 
Professor Jonathan C. Borg, University of Malta and director of MECB Ltd