Virtual Conference: Smart Connected Manufacturing

#TFNetworkSummer21

 Another great virtual conference delivered to industry and academia!

Industries operating today may all be different but they face a common challenge as we head towards the 4th industrial evolution. 

In partnership with the newly launched nexGworx, we explored the challenges and technologies driving Industry 4.0, including Cyber Security, 5G, Internet of Things and AI that play their part in this amazing transformation.

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Teaser

Over 3 days we had great quick fire presentations from Universities; Catapults; Composite Centres; County Councils and BT. The panel sessions created some very interesting discussions and we’re excited about future collaboration and engagement.

Discussions included the role of the Catapults; the role of Research & Development; training and connecting to employees; core features and attributes of 5G; the context of 5G and open network standards; where does culture come into Industry 4.0; the role of Government and involving supply chain partners; the benefits of Digital Twins; helping smaller companies scale up and adopt new technologies; communication & trust and Security….

Our thanks to Ste Ashton, Managing Director at nexGworx for sponsoring the event; Sam Turner, CTO HVMC; Paul Coles, Advalus and the Quatreus event production team.

Day 1 - Challenges and Opportunities

We'll explore both the opportunities and challenges. Will it lead to an increase in productivity driven by new capital investments and data driven insights? How do we make sure that with “connectivity” we don't encounter issues over security and cyber threats? What role does big data have to play to benefit the industry as a whole?

Please click on the speaker name for bio and presentation

Prof Tim Whitley, MD Applied Research and MD Adastral Park

Setting the scene for Smart Connected Manufacturing!

Katherine Bennett CBE, FRAeS, CEO HVMC

HVM Catapult: Their role and the importance of Smart Connected Manufacturing

Mark Stansfeld, Chair WM5G Board

5G the Driver for UK Productivity

Juergen Maier CBE, Chair of the Digital Catapult 

Made Smarter in support of Smart Connected Manufacturing

Jon France, Head of Industry Security, GSMA 

GSMA: The technology road map – from 4G to 5G and onto 6

Paul Ceely, Director of Technology Strategy at Digital Catapult

5G and OpenRan

Panel Discussion

Smart Connected Manufacturing – Q&A to the big questions

    ⇨ Smart Connected Manufacturing and the UK Productivity

    ⇨ Education and Skills 

    ⇨ Big Data – to share or not to share?

Panel chair

• Rab Scott, Professor of Industrial Digitalisation. Head of Digital at the AMRC

Panellists

• Sarah Walker, Director of BT’s Enterprise business in the Midlands and North of England
• Oliver Swift, Manufacturing Engineering Team Leader at BAE Systems 
• Steven Carter, Digital Manufacturing Integration Lead, Rolls-Royce

Day 2 - Real World Activities

Hear about real world activities in Smart Connected Manufacturing from the likes of the High Value Manufacturing clusters and its partners.

We'll debate questions such as how do we accelerate innovation out of the clusters and into the rest of UK manufacturing? What support do we need from government to make this acceleration of manufacturing innovation happen? What do we need manufacturing supply chain partners to be focussed on?

Please click on the speaker name for bio and presentation

Ste Ashton, Managing Director at nexGworx and Digital Infrastructure and Connectivity Manager at Worcestershire County Council

5G – So What? A Testbed's view on Industry 4.0 and the future with nexGworx

Prof Sam Turner, CTO HVMC

The HVMC and opportunities for UK Smart Connected Factories

Marc Funnell, Director of Digital Engineering at the National Composites Centre (NCC)

NCC - Transforming to a digital exemplar

Stephen Phipson CBE, CEO at MakeUK

How UK manufacturing can build a digital, global and green future

Rab Scott, Professor of Industrial Digitalisation. Head of Digital at the AMRC 

The 5G Factory of the Future

Dani Anderson, 5G Engineer, University of Strathclyde (recording TBC)

Software Defined Radio and Shared Spectrum for Industry 4.0

Panel Discussion

How can we accelerate innovation?

    ⇨ Accelerating innovation out of the clusters and into the rest of UK manufacturing

    ⇨ Government Support needed to make this acceleration of manufacturing innovation happen

    ⇨ Manufacturing supply chain partners – Where does the focus need to be?

Panel chair

• Katherine Bennett CBE FRAeS, CEO HVM Catapult

Panellists

• Marc Funnell, Director of Digital Engineering at the National Composites Centre (NCC)
• Ste Ashton, Managing Director at nexGworx and Digital Infrastructure and Connectivity Manager at Worcestershire County Council
• Sam Turner, CTO of the HVMC
• Stephen Phipson CBE, CEO at MakeUK
• Dani Anderson, 5G Engineer, University of Strathclyde 

Day 3 - Down to the heart of Smart Connected Manufacturing

We'll take a more in-depth look at some of the research and challenges relating to Smart Connected Manufacturing; explore issues around security and trust and also look at example business cases for Smart Connected Manufacturing with a view on SMEs.

John Davies, Chief Researcher at BT; Visiting Professor at The Open University
Data: The oil for smart manufacturing

Steven Carter, Digital Manufacturing Integration Lead, Rolls-Royce

Smart Factories: Taking advantage of telecommunication infrastructure advancements

Simon Pearson, Founding Director of LIAT at The University of Lincoln

Robot Highways

Duncan McFarlane, Professor of Industrial Information Engineering at the University of Cambridge
Low Cost Digital Solutions for SMEs - Digital Manufacturing on a Shoestring

Andy Corston-Petrie, Core Networks & Systems Research at BT

5G Futures

Carsten Maple, Professor of Cyber Systems Engineering in WMG
The Role of Trust in Unlocking the Potential of Industry 4.0

Dan Brooks, Strategy Lead for Digital Manufacturing at NPL
Confidence in data to support the adoption of Industrial Digital Technologies

Ian Bouquet-Taylor, Operations Director of AE Aerospace
Digitising the SME - A private 5G network to drive quality and efficiency

Stephen Douglas, Head of 5G Strategy, Spirent Communications
Accelerating 5G With the Network Digital Twin

Mehdi Daoudi, CRO at VRtuoso
Up-skill & Re-skill workforce with Virtual Reality

Mohammad Zoualfaghari, IoT Architect & Technical Lead at BT
Value-Added Services for Industry 4.0 (VASI4)

Gary Bruce, Research Manager and Ecosystems Architect, BT Applied Research
Digital Business Marketplace - Partner Ecosystems for the Industry 4.0 age!

Panel Discussion

"Testbed as a Service" and building a business case

    ⇨ Where do you start in order to build a case?
    ⇨ What is the role of Testbed As a Service capability? 

    ⇨ What are the key elements of a strong business case?

Panel chair

• Sam Turner, CTO HVMC

Panellists

• Ste Ashton, Managing Director at nexGworx and Digital Infrastructure and Connectivity Manager at Worcestershire County Council
• Ian Bouquet-Taylor, Operations Director of AE Aerospace
• Stephen Douglas, Head of 5G Strategy, Spirent Communications
• Duncan McFarlane, Professor of Industrial Information Engineering at the University of Cambridge
• Geraldina Iraheta, Chief Commercial Officer at Digital Catapult

Meet our conference sponsor

5G and beyond!
Our journey started in 2016 when Worcestershire Local Enterprise Partnership along with Worcestershire County Council started to explore the potential benefits that 5G could bring to Worcestershire.

Since then we secured substancial funding, built important connections leading to world leading trials, won innovation awards and most importantly, alongside our technology partner BT, established an ongoing ‘Testbed as a Service’ with our new trading entity ‘nexGworx’ to be launched prior to this conference.

Expanding on our success stories we are proud to sponsor this conference on "Smart Connected Manufacturing", bringing together the world leaders in the field and discussing an exciting future.

Dr Jon Chamberlain, University of Essex

Conference Talk!
At our TFNetworkSpring21 conference on "Creating Value for Economies: Collaborate - Innovate - Educate". 

Dr Jon Chamberlain is a senior lecturer and applied research scientist in the School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering at the University of Essex. His primary research interest is in the design of human-machine interaction and how groups of users work together to solve problems and display collective intelligence. 

He works across a number of disciplines, including information retrieval in healthcare, community resilience in social networks, citizen science for biomonitoring, games to collect human language information and using 3D technology to preserve coral reefs.

Synopsis
The rugged and complex structures of the chalk bed in Norfolk’s Cromer Shoal Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ) provide habitat for a wide range of marine species. The edible crab Cancer pagurus (also known as Cromer crab) and lobster Homarus gammarus are common in this area and are target species for fisheries that are embedded in the history and culture of North Norfolk coastal towns.

In 2019, an investigation was undertaken by Natural England with the assistance of Essex researchers to categorise and quantify any impacts from human activity such as pot fishing, recreational angling and boat anchoring. Using a hand-held multicamera rig, Dr Jon Chamberlain led the dive team to rapidly survey the underwater areas and, back in the lab, reconstructed the environment using 3D models. This enabled very precise measurements of reef complexity to be correlated to biological measures taken in situ.

A co-authored report on the findings was released at the end of 2020. In response, several projects are underway for 2021 to adapt fishing practice and policy, to increase our knowledge of the area and to involve citizen scientists for large-scale data collection.

LinkedIn
Homepage

Peter Brady, Orbital Global

Conference Talk!
At our TFNetworkSpring21 conference on "Creating Value for Economies: Collaborate - Innovate - Educate". 

Peter Brady is the CEO of Orbital Global and VirtTuri. Co-founder AI Festival.

Peter talked about MYSPIRA 

A collaboration between Orbital, the NHS and the University of Suffolk via its first ever Knowledge Transfer Partnership, to develop an augmented reality / gamification tool called MySpira, that improves understanding of asthma and asthma self treatment in children. 

This was born out of the identified issue that 93% of asthma patients misuse their inhalers and there is a direct correlation between this and deteriorating healthcare outcomes, rising mortality and rising admittances to a & e units. 

This technology has underpinning research that won an award at the international COPD and asthma conference in Dubai last year. The app has featured on BBC Click and is on the verge of roll out to CCG partners. More info here: https://www.myspira.com and I also spoke about this for the Norfolk and Suffolk Grant Mentoring scheme on this page: https://www.norfolk.gov.uk/business/grants-and-funding/innovation-grant-mentoring - my interview video is in the bottom right.

LinkedIn

Postgraduate Researcher Profile, Dr Kyle Martin, Robert Gordon University

Dr Kyle Martin, Lecturer at Robert Gordon University

Kyle is an early career academic with a keen interest in both research and teaching. His research interest is primarily machine learning; specifically case-based reasoning, deep metric learning and explanation.

With a strong belief in the importance of bridging the gap between theoretical research and real-world application, Kyle has been fortunate to work alongside several company partners since the beginning of his research career. This includes his PhD, where we worked with BT to develop machine learning systems capable of providing dynamic support for telecommunications engineers in the field. A key outcome of this work identified the importance of having an explanation strategy capable of explaining the outcomes of intelligent systems to their multiple intended user groups. The research would motivate further collaboration between BT and Robert Gordon University, resulting in formation of a consortium with partners from Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain) and University College Cork (Ireland). The consortium successfully applied for European funding of ~1M Euro through the CHIST-ERA programme, with Kyle as a co-investigator in RGU. 

Kyle has strived to become an active member of the research community within both CBR and explanation, presenting his research at conferences including IJCNN and the SGAI AI Conference, and publishing a journal paper on his work completed in partnership with BT, towards explanation for multiple stakeholder groups (KUIN). He has also organised and chaired both local and international workshops on both deep metric learning and explanation.

Fun Fact:
When I was younger, I partnered with some friends to produce a documentary that was aired on live TV and accessible through Sky.

TFNetwork engagement
TFNetworkSpring21: "Maximising the Value of Research" panel

How2..Join - TFNetworkSpring21: Creating Value for Economies

Tommy Flowers, our Innovation Champion who built and designed Colossus the first programmable electronic computer. Not many now remember the time when ticker tape was the means for deploying the code and when computers sounded like mechanical engines.

His engineering knowledge added the magic to the mix that shortened WWII by two years and saved millions of lives. 

Collaboration - Innovation - Skill make incredible things happen, and during this conference we look at what worked, and we explore what this ever changing world will demand of us in the future. 

TFNetworkSpring21 - Creating Value for Economies

23rd - 25th March

for a 10:15 start on Tuesday, 23rd.

One link for all 3 days!

Read more and agenda

Postgraduate Researcher Profile Abdirazak Rage University, University of Surrey

Abdirazak Rage University, University of Surrey

Abdirazak received his M. Eng degree in Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor, Malaysia in 2014, and his B.Sc (Hons) degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Omdurman Islamic University, Omdurman, Sudan in 2012. He is currently pursuing the PhD degree with the Institute for Communication Systems (ICS), University of Surrey, UK.

His current research interests include network slicing, software-defined networking (SDN), network function virtualisation (NFV), game theoretic and deep reinforcement learning based resource allocation, Quality of Service, and management and orchestration of 5G network slices.

LinkedIn 

TFNetwork engagement
TFNetworkSpring21: "Next Generation Converged Digital Infrastructure: NG-CDI" panel

Postgraduate Researcher Profile: Pradeep Debata, Cambridge Judge Business School

Pradeep Debata is a senior researcher at the Cambridge Judge Business School and is pursuing his part-time PhD at the Institute for Manufacturing at the University of Cambridge. His research interest revolves around Artificial Intelligence Model Governance and Innovation Management.

Pradeep previously read for an MPhil in Real Estate Finance and an MBA from the University of Cambridge. He spent most of his professional career in financial services at organisations such as Reserve Bank of India at New Delhi followed by Nomura and JPMorgan at London, contributing in the development of global valuation benchmarks in the industry with significant experience in conceptualising and management of autonomous processes.

Most recently he has worked as a management consultant in the tech innovation space focusing on business initiatives in the UK with clients such as Satellite Application Catapult, Transport Systems Catapult, IBI Consulting, Transport for West Midlands and Cantab Risk.

Pradeep recently co-authored a global survey report on Artificial Intelligence (AI) adoption within Financial Services in collaboration with the World Economic Forum and the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance

LinkedIn 

TFNetwork engagement
TFNetworkSpring21: "Next Generation Converged Digital Infrastructure: NG-CDI" panel