March 26, 2019

At the International Conference "Industrial Engineering and Operations Management (IEOM 2019)" in Bangkok, a research project of the "Smart Mini Factory" and a researcher of the Faculty of Science and Technology received an award. Researcher Patrick Dallasega received the IEOM Young Researcher Award recognizing his active participation in the last IEOM conferences. In addition, the work "Suitability of Industry 4.0 Concepts for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises: Comparison between an Expert Survey and a User Survey" received the "Best Track Paper Award" for the Track on Industry 4.0 research. The research work was carried out as part of the "SME4.0 - Industry 4.0 for SMEs" project and in the "Smart Mini Factory".

March 26, 2019

During his secondment at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in the months of February and March, visiting researcher Prof. Helmut Zsifkovits (Montanuniversitaet Leoben, Austria) was invited to give a presentation at the APICS Professional Development Meeting on 28 February 2019. APICS is a nationwide professional supply chain organization and WPI Chapter is the one on WPI Campus to help students to develop professional skills in supply chain discipline.

In this meeting, it was discussed how developments in supply chains in different industries. Speakers included Ms. Kali Kouri, Director Clinical and Commercial Supply Chain at TESARO (a GlaxoSmithKline pharmaceutical company), and Mr. Paul Arthur Delvy, Adjunct Instructor from Foisie Business School.

After an introduction by Walter "Wally" T. Towner, Associate Teaching Professor from Foisie Business School, Helmut Zsifkovits talked about the promise of Industry 4.0 for smart supply chains and the state of implementation, and presented the goals and outcomes of the SME 4.0 project.

March 12, 2019

During the 9th Annual International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management Prof. Apichat Sopadang moderated a panel session to discuss the impact of Industry 4.0 to economy, society and education. Prof. Athakorn Kengpol from the King Mongkut’s University of Technology North Bangkok, Professor Kanchana Sethanan from the Khon Kaen University in Thailand, Dr. Warisa Wisittipanich from the Chiang Mai University and Dr. Patrick Dallasega from the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano participated in the discussion. During the panel session the project “SME 4.0 – Industry 4.0 for SMEs” was presented as an important reference project between the research collaboration between European and Asian universities.