SMEs are taking a step towards digital transformation It is anything but easy for SMEs to invest in digital innovation, while it is crucial for their future. Flanders Make research center helps them to make the transition to Industry 4.0, including through various European projects. For example, Flanders Make is part of a prestigious network that gathers…
The University of Lincoln
Tel.: +44 1406 49 3097
I am a Senior Lecturer in Food Manufacturing and Supply Chain. My industry experience spans over 27 years working across a number of different roles from Factory Manager to Head of Operations and in manufacturing sectors that include produce, salads, dips and dressings, ready meals, soups, sauces and dairy. As a member of a busy manufacturing team I have led and delivered many projects from new machines to new packaging and even new factories. I have extensive supply chain experience including planning, procurement , forecasting, supply chain management, warehousing and distribution and have worked as a business implant to develop supermarket and category performance. My experience helps me to ensure that my academic teachings reflect the reality of life in industry and ensures that students are ready for the challenges they may face.
Flanders Make
ger.vandenkerkhof@flandersmake.be
Tel.: +32 11 790 545
For 22 years I worked for Philips Electronics in various senior management positions within the manufacturing division; from Group Leader to Unit Manager to General Manager and then Industrial Director.
After this I joined Flanders Make in 2008, leading the Account Management Group and later as Sales and Business Development Manager.
I am currently responsible for the expansion of Flanders Make within Europe. I have a degree in Business Economics and Supply Chain Management from INSEAD and am also an ISO 9001 Lead Auditor.
UCB
m.vette-steinkamp@umwelt-campus.de
Tel. +49 6782 / 17 – 1881
BEST SAARLAND
Oliver.Mueller@best-saarland.de
Tel.: + 49 (0) 681/ 40 05 255
Since October 2019, I work as a technology consultant at BEST e.V., which is a subsidiary of the local Chamber of Labour (Arbeitskammer des Saarlandes). I advise, qualify and inform works councils, staff councils and employee representatives with regard to their right of co-determination. Here I concentrate on the IT area. For example, the aim of our seminars is to provide the participants with the right tools which enable them to design the implementation of new digital technology in their company/department in the sense of decent work.
As I accompany the process of digitalisation/transformation, my main focus is on artificial intelligence (AI), deep learning algorithms and robotic tools. Hereby, the areas of data protection and data privacy also play an important role. In addition to holding seminars, my tasks include writing expert opinions and drafting company agreements based on current legislation.
ZeMA
Tel.: +49 (0) 681 – 85787 – 535
Since 2012 I have been working as a researcher at ZeMA. I have actively worked on several research projects in the area of Industry 4.0 for production. Today, I’m leading and managing different research and transfer projects and am head of the ZeMA group for robotic and human-machine-interaction.
ZeMA
Tel.: +49 (0) 6 81 – 85 787 – 522
I graduated in 2018 with a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering with a specialisation in Mechatronics at the Technical University Carolo-Wilhelmina zu Brunswick. Since 2019, I have been working as a research assistant at ZeMA – Center for Mechatronics and Automation Technology in the Assembly Technology and Automation group. My research and doctoral studies are in the field of industrial robotics and human-technology interaction. In addition, I consult companies in the Interreg VB-NWE project Cotemaco in the introduction of human-robot collaboration.
High Tech NL
Tel.: +31 88 555 43 33
Food Tech Brainport
Tel.: +31 6 5358 5395
Flanders Make
philip.eyckens@flandersmake.be
Tel.: +32 485 62 98 28
Philip Eyckens obtained a PhD at the Materials Engineering Department of KU Leuven (2010) on the topic of metal formability and Incremental Sheet Forming. He continued as Post-Doc developing simulation solutions in the fields of multi-scale material design and metal forming processes for automotive body lightweighting within the EU context. In 2019, he joined Flanders Make as a Project Leader, with COTEMACO currently in his project portfolio among other projects dealing with design methodology and automotive lightweighting.
Voka Limburg
Tel.: +32 477 49 87 07
Greater Lincolnshire Local Enterprise Partnership
Simon.murphy@lincolnshire.gov.uk
+44 1522 550 603
Research Engineer in Flexible Assembly and Operator Support Systems Flanders Make – Corelab ProductionS
Subject Specialisms: Digital Work Instructions; Collaborative Robots, Lean Manufacturing
I am working as a research engineer at Flanders Make since July 2016. Through the years I gathered a broad technical background from my involvement in projects concerning product design and analysis, prototype development and industrial validation.
My research interests focus on the application of digital work instruction systems and collaborative robots to support the operator in industry 4.0. I contribute to innovation projects related to designing collaborative assembly stations, implementing multiple operator support systems or using the support to accelerate the learning process of an operator. Apart from this, I am also active in research projects on the digitization of production in general.
As a side track, I have been following a set of lean manufacturing trainings, to be able to advice companies on the general scope of their production, rather than only look into the operator support systems.
Senior Application Engineer Production corelab – Flanders Make
Associate Research Engineer in Robotics and Mechatronics ProductionS – Flanders Make
Subject Specialisms: Robotics and Manufacturing system
I am currently working on several robotics projects which are using collaborative robots. My main topics of research is Industry 4.0 and focus on easy-reconfigurable work–cell as well as intuitive robot programming using skill-based programming. I am developing a new framework able to connect physical devices together and interact those with a Human-Machine Interface using innovative new technologies.
In addition, I am involved in the European project ‘Trinity’ that belongs to the Horizon 2020 innovation program and which aims to assist SME’s in their digital transformation to have a more agile manufacturing solutions.
Extra projects/connections
In a previous experience I worked on improving operator ergonomics using task allocation with cobots and also the use of virtual reality to immerse the operator in the virtual work-cell.
Research engineer at Flanders Make
Subject Specialisms: Robotics and automation, Control Engineering, Modelling and Simulaiton of Dymacimal Systems, Mechanism Design Analysis and Sumulaiton, MAVs, Vehicle Dynacmis and Control.
I have years of experience in academia with a demonstrated history of working in industry. Through my work and education, I have gained strong skills and practical experience in advanced concepts of Mechanical Engineering mainly focusing on Robotics, Vehicle Dynamics, and Control Applications.
Currently, I am a resarch engineer at Flanders Make where I am mostly involved in the robotic reaserch on the industrial robots as well as designing and performing fesibility studies of various robotic workcells.
From 2015 to 2019 I was a Ph.D researcher at the Department of Control Engineering and System Analysis at Universite Libre de Bruxelles (ULB). My specialization there was Robotics, Automation and Control and my research was mainly focused on modeling, stability analysis, and development of a FWMAV. The results of the project have been the subject of publications in the best journals in the field, and the robot has appeared in various national and international events. The robot is currently exhibited at the museum of Ingenuity J. Armand Bombardier of Québec. For the complete resume and backgournd please refer to my linkedin page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ali-roshanbin/.
Associate Professor in Food Robotics and Process AutomationNational Centre for Food Manufacturing – College of Science
Subject Specialisms: Robotics and Automation; Agr-Food Technology
I lead robotics and automation research at the National Centre for Food Manufacturing, University of Lincoln. From September 2014 to September 2018, I was Senior Lecturer in Automation and Robotics at the University of Lincoln School of Engineering where I was Programme Leader for the BEng (Hons) Automation Engineering programme and lead instructor for a number of automation, robotics and agri-food technology modules.
My research interests focus on the application of robotics and automation to Food Manufacturing. In this framework, I manage and contribute to a broad portfolio of innovation and technology transfer projects aimed at introducing robotics technologies into the agri-food sector following the Industry 4.0 paradigm.
On an industrial level, I am a member of the Technical and Scientific Committee of LIAM Lab – the Italian industrial consortium for research on packaging machineries – and founding partner of Engynya Srl, a research and development start-up company focused on Industry 4.0 ready automation products. On an international level, I am Senior Member of IEEE (the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers), member of the Organizing Committee of the UK Robotics and Automation Society and member of the technical committee on industrial process safety within IFAC (International Federation of Automatic Control). Since 2005, he has undertaken manifold industrial collaborations by consulting several companies on control system design and reliability/safety analysis projects. His most recent achievements, in this respect, have included a permanent advisory role in the activities of LIAM (the Industrial Laboratory for Automatic Machineries, Bologna) and a co-founding and advisory role at Engynya Ltd. Within Engynya, he has a role as R&D adviser for predictive diagnostics and maintenance of automated industrial systems.
Bioinformatician and Technology Consultant Advisory office for socially acceptable technology design (BEST e.V.)
Subject Specialisms: Co-determination in the operational use of information technology (IT) and the digitalisation of the working world, data protection and data privacy
Since October 2019, I work as a technology consultant at BEST e.V., which is a subsidiary of the local Chamber of Labour (Arbeitskammer des Saarlandes). I advise, qualify and inform works councils, staff councils and employee representatives with regard to their right of co-determination. Here I concentrate on the IT area. For example, the aim of our seminars is to provide the participants with the right tools which enable them to design the implementation of new digital technology in their company / department in the sense of decent work.
As I accompany the process of digitalisation / transformation, my main focus is on artificial intelligence (AI), deep learning algorithms and robotic tools. Hereby, the areas of data protection and data privacy also play an important role. In addition to holding seminars, my tasks include writing expert opinions and drafting company agreements based on current legislation.
As part of my work, I will be undertaking additional training as a certified data protection officer by the end of 2020.
Thanks to my past, I still have a strong connection to the university environment, such as the University of Saarland or the University of Applied Sciences in Saarbrücken. Since AI is on the advance in the working world and thus more and more challenges arise, I will devote more time to this topic in the future. In order to reach prospective engineers, I plan to also provide my knowledge in this field as a lecturer at a university, beyond our BEST seminars.
Associate Professor for Robotics and Human-Technology Interaction University of Applied Sciences Trier, Environmental Campus Birkenfeld
Subject Specialisms: Robotics for manufacturing, assembly and disassembly automation
I am currently setting up a working group for disassembly system technologies at Trier University of Applied Sciences. From March 2012 to February 2020, I was department head at ZeMA – Center for Mechatronics and Automation Technology in Saarbrücken. At the same time, I am a lecturer for industrial robotics and human-technology interaction and head of the international Robotix Academy. My research focuses on the automotive and aerospace industry as well as agile production. My research interests focus on the application of robotics and automation in industrial production. In this context, I lead and contribute to a broad portfolio of innovation and technology transfer projects aiming at the introduction of robotics technologies in the production sector according to Industry 4.0.
Robotix Academy
The aim of this project is to create synergies in teaching and research on robotics through cross-border cooperation, thus establishing a permanent research cluster for industrial robotics. The research cluster will help to exploit the potential of the Greater Region in the fields of research, development and innovation, and to increase the attractiveness and competitiveness of the Greater Region. A further aim is also to increase the innovative strength of the companies.
The concept of joint lectures and technology transfer largely adopts the priorities and objectives of the Greater Region: strengthening industry, counteracting the lack of skilled workers and maintaining and expanding modern jobs. This cross-border research initiative makes it possible to jointly work on more complex tasks from industrial practice that could not be solved by each project partner alone.