Susamay Samanta, Author at Adamas University

Industry 4.0: The Global Impact on Engineering Skill Development & Employment after 2020

Industry 4.0 or the ‘fourth industrial revolution’ is going to bring everyone on this earth to a reality where new technologies like IoT, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Cloud Computing, Blockchain, Smart Manufacturing, etc will be introduced on a massive scale and it will directly impact all aspects of the humankind. We’ll need to change the way we learn, the way we work, the way we communicate or even the way we live our daily life. In the normal process of coping up with the rapid technological development linked to the wide gamut of industry, economy, society and health, all employment sectors will look for the workforce having some significant skills precisely aligned to the development of modern technologies. First, the advancement of technologies will replace the low-skilled human workforce with automation and robotic tools. Second, a pool of skilled engineers will be required by the automation & robotic tool manufacturing & allied industries to support the need of different sectors. Consequently, the current engineering graduates will find it challenging to get a job if their present skills are out of sync with the current industry needs.

Engineering Skill Framework Set Globally for Industry 4.0

Combining the outcomes of several recent studies on the engineering skills framework set for Industry 4.0 by eighteen different countries under Washington Accord of International Engineering Alliance (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Australia, United Kingdom, United States, Canada, New Zealand, Russia, South Africa, Turkey and Ireland), ten key skills that will be in high demand after 2020 have been arranged in the order of their priority. Let’s have a look.

Complex Problem Solving

Engineering companies face complex problems every day and after Industry 4.0 takes place it will tend to be more complex day by day. So, future engineers are expected to have expertise in the systematic analysis of complex problems.

Critical Thinking

Industry 4.0 focuses more on the innovative approach to bring the new era of digital transformation. All companies need to update their mission & vision adaptively with the dynamic need of the hour. So, their engineering workforce should have expertise in the interpretation of different data leading to final decision-making.

Creativity

This is one of the top skills that are driving Industry 4.0. The companies want their engineering workforce to always think out of the box and uniquely create new products to maximize the customized market reach.

People Management

Industry 4.0 leaders need to disperse leadership and managerial responsibilities throughout the organizational network to sustain the rapid characteristic transformation of the companies. So, all budding engineers need to build their mindset to act as decision-makers irrespective of the hierarchy.

Coordinating with Others

Not only management, but it is also required by the engineers to have good coordination skills as well to achieve common goals of different teams together to save time and resource of the companies under Industry 4.0.

Emotional Intelligence

Along with the technical expertise, Industry 4.0 engineers need to be emotionally intelligent as well to feel sympathy and empathy for each other so that the working environment becomes helpful for everyone’s professional and personal growth in synchronization with the rapid change of new technology.

Judgement and Decision-Making

Industry 4.0 engineers should also have the ability to identify an issue, gather data corresponding to it, analyze the collected data, make meaningful representations and draw conclusions effective for driving decisions.

Service Orientation

Along with analytical skills, Industry 4.0 engineers need to be inclined towards providing the best engineering solutions to their clients. This requires them to have the ability to connect to their customers for a more effective and efficient resolution of customer issues and concerns.

Negotiation Skill

Not only service orientation, but Industry 4.0 engineers should also have good negotiating capabilities over multiple digital platforms to establish a mutually beneficial relationship between the organization and its clients.

Cognitive Flexibility

An Industry 4.0 engineer needs to have the ability to adapt easily to any working environment changes, operating role switching, changes in consumer demands, and technological advancements.

Need for the Change

An immediate change in engineering education policy has to take place worldwide that would sustain the professional development of a budding engineer following these 10 skillsets. The engineering students must be facilitated with proper upskilling & reskilling training by the higher educational institutions, governments & industries to ensure their employability in the advent of much-awaited Industry 4.0.

Further Readings

World Economic Forum, “The Future of Jobs Report 2018”

http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Future_of_Jobs_2018.pdf

The Washington Accord

https://www.ieagreements.org/accords/washington/

John Clemons, “The Next Generation Of Industry 4.0”, Forbes Technology Council,

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2020/05/26/the-next-generation-of-industry-4-0/#4e83133643f3

Publish in Best Journals, Get out of Mediocrity: A Reviewer’s Perspective

40^th Day of 2020 Lockdown. An email notification popped up on my phone- a renowned journal inviting me to volunteer as a peer reviewer for a manuscript. As I accepted it, I had a sudden flashback to my conversation with a young researcher a few days back. Recently, her article got rejected from one of the best journals. She was extremely worried as she had no clue that despite having a strong technical content why her paper got rejected! My experience as a reviewer for many quality engineering journals (Science Citation Index Expanded & Scopus Indexed) and conferences of international repute helped me to guide her on this aspect. However, just like her, many budding researchers of our country struggle to write a paper even if they are great at their technical domains. With a dream of quality publication, after several attempts of submitting manuscripts to different good journals due to successive rejections, they get frustrated and they finally give up. Unfortunately, all their efforts end up with a publication in a mediocre journal that does not allow them to be recognized as good researchers. So, it is important for them to know the exact evaluation metrics used by the reviewers to judge the quality of a manuscript.

Quality Journal Review Metrics

I summarize eleven crucial metrics that are commonly used by the reviewers for evaluating the quality of a manuscript.

Complete Originality: The work must not be previously published by the authors elsewhere. The manuscript must be free from plagiarism.
Clear Novelty: The manuscript must contain new and substantial information. Therefore, the authors need to explain the novelty very clearly.
Proper Title: The title is the banner-element of your manuscript. It should contain the fewest possible words but should describe the work in the fullest possible way.
Good Abstract: The abstract should clearly and correctly describe the content of the manuscript.
Meaningful Problem Statement: The problem addressed must be significant and concisely stated.
Comprehensive Research Method: The theoretical and/or experimental methods must be described comprehensively.
Well-justified Interpretation: The interpretations and conclusions must be justified by the results. The article must be free from potentially serious errors which may invalidate the results.
Adequate reference cited from the best journals: Sufficient reference from the best journals must be added in the literature review of the Introduction section. Also, a tabular comparison must indicate the superiority of the proposed method/technique/design over other 5-6 techniques published in the best journals in the last 2-3 years.
Well-indicated Application: The manuscript must contain a precise note regarding the application of the proposed method/technique/design.
Acceptable Quality of Language: The manuscript must be free from all grammatical errors. It is very crucial as it may lead to direct rejection. Also, the language should be clear, interesting and engaging for the reviewers.
Correct Format & Typesetting: The template given in the journal website must be followed. All font types as prescribed by the journal must be maintained. The reference format should not deviate from the journal requirements. No plots, diagrams and illustrations should be given in .jpg format as it blurs the detailing. The graphic content should be of either .png and .tiff (with 300 dpi resolution) or .eps (most acceptable vector image) format.

How to Measure the Manuscript Quality?

The quality of your manuscript must be ‘measured’ quantitatively. Here I give a score-card template that may help you begin the quantitative assessment of your manuscript.

Manuscript Quality Assessment
Manuscript Title:
Authors:
Date of Assessment:		Assessed by:
Score Card
Sl. No.	Manuscript Assessment Metrics		Score (Out of 10)	Remarks
1	Originality
2	Novelty
3	Title
4	Abstract
5	Problem Statement Clarity
6	Description of Research Method
7	Interpretation of Results
8	Adequacy of Quality of References Cited
9	Description of Possible Application
10	Grammar & Quality of Language
11	Format & Typesetting
Average Score

Your manuscript must not score less than 7 at any of the eleven assessment-metrics of scale 10. If it scores less in any metric, please improve and re-evaluate until number 7 comes at your end. This systematic self-assessment before submission will lead to fewer rejections by good journals.

Four Tips for Future Engineering Researchers

For any research work, it is essential to set a specific goal for achieving significant outcomes which in turn will increase your paper publication frequency. In this regard, I would like to share four tips that may help reduce the “Inception to Publication” time.

Tip 1: Grab the current trends

All research works done at the primary level of any technological development have a higher acceptance rate. So, you need to start early. The researchers must refer to The Hype Cycle, yearly published by Gartner, Inc. It predicts the trending technologies yearly that are going to impact Worldwide trades and community for the next 5 to 10 years. As per Gartner Hype Cycle 2019, I enlist some of the technologies that are in the rising stage- for example, Cultured or Artificial Tissue, Decentralized Autonomous Organization, Nanoscale 3D Printing, Flying Autonomous Vehicles, Light Cargo Delivery Drones, etc. There are some other tools like- MIT Technology Review & IDC Predictions that may also be helpful.

Tip 2: Link your research to the current trends

It is important to find all possible ways to link your research area to the current trends to be an early-contributor. My suggestion is that even if you don’t find the topics in Gartner’s list that you might be working on currently, try to bridge your topic with Gartner’s list in all possible ways. For example, if my research area is “Antenna Design”, I can bridge it to the trending technology in the following way: “High-Performance Antenna Design for Flying Autonomous Vehicles”.

Tip 3: Pick the right journal

Before submitting your manuscript to any journal, it is important to verify whether your research topic meets the journal’s focus area. I would like to mention three online tools that help in finding the most suitable journal out of the crowd for an engineering research article.

IEEE Publication Recommender™
Elsevier JournalFinder
Springer Nature Journal Suggester

In these tools, once the Title or Abstract is given, a possible list of journals under their publication group is generated. The authors can select their best-fit journals based on several parameters like- Publication Type, Impact Factor, Indexing, Acceptance Rate, Submission-to-Publication-time, etc. As per my opinion, the journals showing Impact factor greater than 1, Indexed in SCIE, with moderate publication time & medium acceptance rate are highly preferable for a quality publication in optimum time.

Tip 4: Use the Power of Collaboration

It’s a reality that an academic institution might not have all the research facilities. But still, you can have if you look out for. After getting some initial success in your domain, simply find out the active researchers of the same domain who are working in different research laboratories of the country or abroad. You need to create a stable professional network with them. Discussing a current research topic or sharing ideas will help you get many potential research collaborators across the globe.

A Promise

I believe that the review metrics and tips discussed so far will help all promising researchers of different engineering backgrounds to get out of all mediocrity in publication quality. The post-pandemic world will bring several opportunities for new humanitarian technologies. Let’s contribute together in making a pool of research findings through publication in best journals for sustainable development of humanity.

Further Readings

SCIE journal search

https://mjl.clarivate.com/search-results

Scopus-indexed journal search

https://www.scimagojr.com/journalrank.php

Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, 2019

https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/3956015/hype-cycle-for-emerging-technologies-2019

MIT Technology Review

https://www.technologyreview.com/

IDC Predictions

https://www.idc.com/cee/events/66895-idc-predictions-2020

IEEE Publication Recommender™

https://publication-recommender.ieee.org/

Elsevier JournalFinder

https://journalfinder.elsevier.com/

Springer Nature Journal Suggester

https://journalsuggester.springer.com/

Can robots save people from Covid-19? Know more about the new humanitarian hero

Co-contributor: Ms. P Soni Reddy, CSIR Senior Research Fellow, University of Kalyani, India

The global outbreak of new pandemics like Covid-19 poses a serious threat to the safety and sustainability of humanity on the earth. The fight to save mankind gets extremely difficult when the disease is highly contagious and spreads like wildfire through person-to-person interactions. Social distancing and sanitization have emerged as two important aspects of combating such disease. However, implementing these preventive measures in densely populated countries like- India and China is a herculean task. To make this task easier robots have emerged as the new humanitarian hero in the present Covid-19 crisis.

Robots and Unmanned Autonomous Vehicle (UAV), commonly known as Drones, offer some key advantages in pandemics like Covid-19:

Enable quick and easy reach to any difficult to reach location.
Provide a swift means of transportation for the delivery of emergency items.
Perform all operations with minimum person-to-person interactions, thereby effective in restricting the transmission of the viral disease.
Provide good area coverage in a short period.

Several innovative ways of engaging robots in the fight against the present pandemic situation can be seen throughout the world.

Robots for crowd surveillance

One of the most difficult tasks in combating the pandemic is to encourage people to follow the norms of social distancing strictly. It is really difficult to monitor crowds in densely populated remote areas. In this regard, Unmanned Autonomous Vehicle (UAV), commonly known as Drones, with its ability to quickly reach remote areas compared to other modes of transport makes the job of patrolling quite easy. The option to monitor and control the crowd remotely makes it even more appealing in the current pandemic situation.

Robots for broadcasting safety message

The law enforcement agencies are finding drones equipped with facial recognition and loudspeakers an incredible tool for scanning public places, monitor the crowd, and broadcast safety messages. These drones can easily help police officials in locating areas where people are not following the rules of social distancing properly. The facial recognition feature allows in easy identification of people venturing outside without wearing masks. The integrated loudspeaker allows in broadcasting important safety messages or announcements. Safety guidelines like stay at home, follow social distancing, use a face mask, pay attention to the sanitization directions, etc can be effectively conveyed in a short period over a large area compared to traditional broadcasting techniques.

Robots for monitoring health

One of the key symptoms of Covid19 infection is high fever. Therefore, people with elevated temperatures have a high probability of being infected by the Covid19 virus. The most simple and effective method of screening Covid affected individuals is by measuring body temperature.

“Pandemic Drones” are being deployed in many parts of the world that can identify individuals with flu-like symptoms. Drones equipped with infrared cameras are found to be effective for accurate measurement of body temperatures through thermal imaging. Integration of specialized sensors, computer vision (CV), and facial recognition system along with image processing algorithms in drones allows measurement of temperature, respiratory and heart rates of individuals. In addition to this, these drones can also effectively monitor people displaying flu-like symptoms in public places and critical areas like- hospitals, nursing homes, airports, offices, etc. The “Pandemic Drones” have shown high accuracy in the measurement of heart and respiratory rates within a range of 10 meters.

Robots for telemedicine

Hospitals and critical care units across the globe are struggling to cater to the exponential surge of patients. Limited healthcare staff and critical care facilities have pushed researchers to come up with innovative solutions for the effective handling of incoming patients. Robots powered with artificial intelligence (AI) tools have shown prospects in classifying the patients into critical, mild, and new infection cases by analyzing their CT scans. This analysis would help in identifying patients requiring immediate critical care facilities. These robots can also be used to keep track of the patient’s health condition.

Similarly, robots equipped with testing kits can collect patient’s test samples and deliver them safely to the lab without the fear of any further contamination during the process. Robots powered with 5G are also being used to allow health care staff and doctors to interact remotely with the patients and gather their health statistics. This remote presence, also known as “telepresence”, of doctors before the patient provides the much-needed protection to the health care staff, the front-liners in this fight against the deadly virus.

Robots for delivery of emergency items

The contagious nature of the coronavirus has forced everyone to minimize person-to-person interactions. Lockdown across the world has led to a shortage of staff for delivering emergency supplies like- medical supplies, patient test samples, and essential food items. “Contactless delivery” is the main challenge here. During such testing times remote-controlled robots are a blessing.

Drones and autonomous vehicles are being operated to deliver critical medical supplies like– medicines, testing kits, protection gears, etc to the hospitals. Similarly, drones are also being used to collect Covid patient test samples and deliver them to the testing unit. Robots are actively used to deliver essential items to the quarantine centers including food to the patients. They are also used for collecting trash from hospitals and quarantine centers treating infected patients for safe disposal.

Robots for sanitization

Ground and aerial UAVs have been actively used across the world for sanitization of public areas, especially the Covid affected areas, healthcare centers and quarantine units to curb the spread of the infectious disease. Remotely controlled, ground operated, robotic tanks, sprayers with caterpillar tracks are being used in disinfecting streets and public spaces like- rail and bus transport stations, parking lots, housing complex, construction grounds, etc. These robots have been reported to operate at a speed of 7 km per hour covering an area of approximately 40,000 square meters in disinfectant mist.

Drones loaded with liquid disinfectants are also being used on a large scale for sanitization applications. Drones with the capacity of carrying about 15 liters of disinfectant can cover about 20 kilometers per day including round-trips to the control center for replacement of battery and disinfectant. Such coverage under within the period is difficult to match by any human conducted sanitization activity under pandemic circumstances.

Ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI) method typically used in water purification has been innovatively clubbed with robotics for fighting against Covid19. The highly concentrated short-wavelength UV-C light also known as “germicidal UV” kills all microorganisms (including virus and bacteria). UV lamps equipped self-driving robots are being effectively used in the sanitization of critical health care units and hospitals within a short period (approximately within 10 minutes). These robots can be remotely controlled using an app. UV robots loaded with a disinfectant sprayer can perform different types of sanitization activities based on the requirement.

The path ahead

As the ice at the Arctic and Antarctic melts the fear of many unknown deadly virus outbreaks looms over the world. But does that mean we should lose all hope? In the fight for survival against the present pandemic the world has found its new technological hero- Robots. Covid19, in all its negativity, has opened new areas for path-breaking innovations