Active learning based laboratory towards engineering education 4.0

Universities have a relevant and essential key role to ensure knowledge and development of competencies in the current fourth industrial revolution called Industry 4.0. The Industry 4.0 promotes a set of digital technologies to allow the convergence between the information technology and the operation technology towards smarter factories. Under such new framework, multiple initiatives are being carried out worldwide as response of such evolution, particularly, from the engineering education point of view. In this regard, this paper introduces the initiative that is being carried out at the Technical University of Catalonia, Spain, called Industry 4.0 Technologies Laboratory, I4Tech Lab. The I4Tech laboratory represents a technological environment for the academic, research and industrial promotion of related technologies. First, in this work, some of the main aspects considered in the definition of the so called engineering education 4.0 are discussed. Next, the proposed laboratory architecture, objectives as well as considered technologies are explained. Finally, the basis of the proposed academic method supported by an active learning approach is presented.Postprint (published version

A framework for smart production-logistics systems based on CPS and industrial IoT

Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) has received increasing attention from both academia and industry. However, several challenges including excessively long waiting time and a serious waste of energy still exist in the IIoT-based integration between production and logistics in job shops. To address these challenges, a framework depicting the mechanism and methodology of smart production-logistics systems is proposed to implement intelligent modeling of key manufacturing resources and investigate self-organizing configuration mechanisms. A data-driven model based on analytical target cascading is developed to implement the self-organizing configuration. A case study based on a Chinese engine manufacturer is presented to validate the feasibility and evaluate the performance of the proposed framework and the developed method. The results show that the manufacturing time and the energy consumption are reduced and the computing time is reasonable. This paper potentially enables manufacturers to deploy IIoT-based applications and improve the efficiency of production-logistics systems

Governance of Dual-Use Technologies: Theory and Practice

The term dual-use characterizes technologies that can have both military and civilian applications. What is the state of current efforts to control the spread of these powerful technologies—nuclear, biological, cyber—that can simultaneously advance social and economic well-being and also be harnessed for hostile purposes? What have previous efforts to govern, for example, nuclear and biological weapons taught us about the potential for the control of these dual-use technologies? What are the implications for governance when the range of actors who could cause harm with these technologies include not just national governments but also non-state actors like terrorists? These are some of the questions addressed by Governance of Dual-Use Technologies: Theory and Practice, the new publication released today by the Global Nuclear Future Initiative of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The publication's editor is Elisa D. Harris, Senior Research Scholar, Center for International Security Studies, University of Maryland School of Public Affairs. Governance of Dual-Use Technologies examines the similarities and differences between the strategies used for the control of nuclear technologies and those proposed for biotechnology and information technology. The publication makes clear the challenges concomitant with dual-use governance. For example, general agreement exists internationally on the need to restrict access to technologies enabling the development of nuclear weapons. However, no similar consensus exists in the bio and information technology domains. The publication also explores the limitations of military measures like deterrence, defense, and reprisal in preventing globally available biological and information technologies from being misused. Some of the other questions explored by the publication include: What types of governance measures for these dual-use technologies have already been adopted? What objectives have those measures sought to achieve? How have the technical characteristics of the technology affected governance prospects? What have been the primary obstacles to effective governance, and what gaps exist in the current governance regime? Are further governance measures feasible? In addition to a preface from Global Nuclear Future Initiative Co-Director Robert Rosner (University of Chicago) and an introduction and conclusion from Elisa Harris, Governance of Dual-Use Technologiesincludes:On the Regulation of Dual-Use Nuclear Technology by James M. Acton (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace)Dual-Use Threats: The Case of Biotechnology by Elisa D. Harris (University of Maryland)Governance of Information Technology and Cyber Weapons by Herbert Lin (Stanford University

Cyber-physical production systems: Roots, expectations and R&D challenges

One of the most significant directions in the development of computer science and information and communication technologies is represented by Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) which are systems of collaborating computational entities which are in intensive connection with the surrounding physical world and its on-going processes, providing and using, at the same time, data-Accessing and data-processing services available on the internet. Cyber-Physical Production Systems (CPPSs), relying on the newest and foreseeable further developments of computer science, information and communication technologies on the one hand, and of manufacturing science and technology, on the other, may lead to the 4th Industrial Revolution, frequently noted as Industry 4.0. The key-note will underline that there are significant roots generally -And particularly in the CIRP community -which point towards CPPSs. Expectations and the related new R&D challenges will be outlined. © 2014 Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license

Global Risks 2012, Seventh Edition

The World Economic Forum's Global Risks 2012 report is based on a survey of 469 experts from industry, government, academia and civil society that examines 50 global risks across five categories. The report emphasizes the singular effect of a particular constellation of global risks rather than focusing on a single existential risk. Three distinct constellations of risks that present a very serious threat to our future prosperity and security emerged from a review of this year's set of risks. Includes a special review of the important lessons learned from the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and the subsequent nuclear crisis at Fukushima, Japan. It focuses on therole of leadership, challenges to effective communication in this information age and resilient business models in response to crises of unforeseen magnitude

The Global Risks Report 2016, 11th Edition

Now in its 11th edition, The Global Risks Report 2016 draws attention to ways that global risks could evolve and interact in the next decade. The year 2016 marks a forceful departure from past findings, as the risks about which the Report has been warning over the past decade are starting to manifest themselves in new, sometimes unexpected ways and harm people, institutions and economies. Warming climate is likely to raise this year's temperature to 1° Celsius above the pre-industrial era, 60 million people, equivalent to the world's 24th largest country and largest number in recent history, are forcibly displaced, and crimes in cyberspace cost the global economy an estimated US$445 billion, higher than many economies' national incomes. In this context, the Reportcalls for action to build resilience – the "resilience imperative" – and identifies practical examples of how it could be done.The Report also steps back and explores how emerging global risks and major trends, such as climate change, the rise of cyber dependence and income and wealth disparity are impacting already-strained societies by highlighting three clusters of risks as Risks in Focus. As resilience building is helped by the ability to analyse global risks from the perspective of specific stakeholders, the Report also analyses the significance of global risks to the business community at a regional and country-level

”Et nää on näitä meiän kyberhyökkäyksiä nämä” – The government of one and all in everyday digital security in Finnish Lapland

The government of one and all in everyday digital security in Finnish Lapland This study contextualises the gradual institutionalising of conventional concepts of cybersecurity by providing a more human-centric perspective. While discussion of cybersecurity can be encountered in daily news and in the workplace ever more frequently, its content and practical implications often remain abstract to everyday life. When cybersecurity is understandably addressed in highly technical and/or strategic terms, involving specific threat imageries and vocabularies, the mundane effects of the (un)successful securitisation of cyberspace can receive less attention. However, it is precisely these everyday effects that justify and undermine everyday cyber/digital security, and influence the respective security roles assigned to all citizens in emerging cyber-physical societies. Drawing out commonalities and differences between human security and governmentality studies, this thesis critically examines the entanglement of digitalisation and cyber/digital security in Finnish Lapland: opportunities it provides and concerns it awakes in sparsely populated areas characterised by harsh climate, cultural diversity, long distances, and infrastructural issues, all of which relate to imagery of the Arctic as a developing region. It investigates the power relations and positions thus created, mainly through securitisation, development, and resilience. However, it also incorporates the related techniques of responsibilisation, human rights, commercialisation, surveillance and transparency, and, finally, techniques of the self, which aim at the assimilation of modern governmentality but also provide the means for its resistance. While digitalisation in Lapland is carried out with the stated aim of continuing service provision or improving it, it is efficiency and cost calculations that drive it. Digitalisation and cyber/digital security are not generally examined together but as two separate trajectories. This thesis brings them together hence addressing both positive (freedom to) and negative (freedom from) security. It also provides localised research on the effects of digitalisation in the northernmost areas of Finland, Sweden and Norway, partially addressing a gap in the current knowledgebase. The research was carried out by problematising the mainstream framings of cyber/digital security from a number of individual security perspectives: applying human security to digitalisation and cybersecurity in the European High North, examining the interconnection of digitalisation and regional re-organisation of health and social services, studying the responsibilisation of the users of digital sharing economy platforms in contract law, and through a case study on the use of ICT and views on the requisite security roles amongst people living in Lapland. The synthesis re-problematises a human security approach to digitalisation through governmentality studies. This move visualises power relations embedded in human security that regardless of its emancipatory aim turn the approach to support modern governmentality through responsibilisation of individuals and communities for their own security and wellbeing. The theories and approaches covered in this thesis show that a multitude of human behaviours in digitality ought to be acknowledged and security practices able to accommodate it developed. In the prevailing framings of cybersecurity, ICT corporations and states and/or societies are constituted as the main objects and subjects of security, whereas individuals are expected to behave in a digisavvy and safe manner and thus contribute to the overall effort of securing cyberspace. The main forms of public support in meeting the requirements of this kind of subjectivity are information provision, guidance and training, as well as societal accessibility policies. The aims of and values embedded in digitalisation remain unquestioned and increased connectivity is automatically expected to improve everyone’s quality of life. However, digitalisation also leads to novel inequalities, power imbalances and dependencies – or aggravates the existing ones – and to a loss of self-sufficiency. Digitalisation will not be turned around. However, as the power relations and positions it creates have not yet been firmly institutionalised, there is possibility to impact them, to turn them into networked relations that take people’s needs, wants and wishes into account – instead of advancing digitalisation merely in the terms of technology and/or administration. Instead of approaching people as a vulnerability and hence in need of education and support, they ought to be viewed as subjects who can decide for themselves. At the heart of this struggle is the question of what kind of world we wish to live in.Yksilön ja yhteisön hallinta arkipäivän digitaalisen turvallisuuden kautta Lapissa Tutkin tässä väitöskirjassa kyberturvallisuuden tavanomaisia, vähitellen institutionalisoituvia käsitteellistyksiä ihmiskeskeisestä näkökulmasta. Samalla kun kyberturvallisuudesta on tulossa uutisten ja työpaikkakeskusteluiden vakioaihe, sen sisältö ja käytännön vaikutukset jäävät usein abstrakteiksi ja kaukaisiksi ihmisten arkipäivän kokemuksesta. Tekninen ja/tai strateginen lähestymistapa kyberturvallisuuteen jättää kyberavaruuden (epä)onnistuneen turvallistamisen arkipäivän vaikutukset suhteellisen vähälle huomiolle, mikä on aiheen teknisyyden ja turvallisuuspoliittisen merkityksen vuoksi ymmärrettävää. Samalla se kuitenkin tuo mukanaan tietyt uhkakuvastot ja sanastot aiheen käsittelyyn, mikä rajoittaa sitä, millaisia sisältöjä kyberturvallisuus voi saada ja millaisia politiikkatoimia siihen voi kohdistua. Siitäkin huolimatta, että juuri ihmisten arkipäivän kokemukset joko oikeuttavat tai kyseenalaistavat kyber-/digiturvallisuuden politiikkana ja ne turvallisuusroolit, joita kansalaisille kehittymässä olevissa kyber-fyysisissä yhteiskunnissa asetellaan. Tarkastelen tutkimuksessa digitalisaation ja kyber-/digiturvallisuuden kietoutumista yhteen inhimillisen turvallisuuden ja hallinnan analytiikan teorioiden avulla. Keskityn digitalisaation avaamiin mahdollisuuksiin ja sen herättämiin turvallisuushuoliin Suomen Lapissa, jota luonnehtivat vähäväkisyys, kulttuurinen monimuotoisuus, haasteellinen ilmasto, pitkät etäisyydet ja infrastruktuurihaasteet. Edellä mainitut piirteet vaikuttavat siihen, että arktiset alueet mielletään usein kehittyviksi alueiksi ja niihin kohdistetaan tämän mukaisia politiikkatoimia. Mielikuvan mukaiset puhetavat ja käytännön toimet luovat valtasuhteiden ja valta-asemien verkoston, mitä havainnollistan pääosin turvallistamisen, kehityksen ja resilienssin tekniikoiden kuvauksen kautta. Kuvaukseen sisältyvät myös edellisiin liittyvät vastuuttamisen, ihmisoikeuksien, kaupallistamisen, valvonnan ja läpinäkyvyyden tekniikat, samoin kuin itsetekniikat, joilla pyritään modernin hallinnallisuuden sisäistämiseen, mutta jotka samalla mahdollistavat sen vastustamisen. Vaikka Lapin digitalisoitumisen julkilausuttu tavoite on ylläpitää tai parantaa palveluiden tarjontaa, sitä edistävät ensisijaisesti tehokkuus- ja kustannuslaskelmat. Digitalisaatiota ja kyber-/digiturvallisuutta tutkitaan yleensä kahtena erillisenä kehityskulkuna. Väitöskirjassa tuon nämä kehityskulut yhteen ja tarkastelen niin positiivista (vapaus johonkin) kuin negatiivista (vapaus jostakin) turvallisuutta. Lisäksi kontekstualisoin tutkimuksen Suomen, Ruotsin ja Norjan pohjoisimmille alueille, joilta vastaavanlaista tutkimusta on suhteellisen vähän. Tutkimuksessa problematisoin kyber-/digiturvallisuuden valtavirran käsitteellistykset yksilöturvallisuuden eri näkökulmista: soveltamalla inhimillisen turvallisuuden lähestymistapaa digitalisaatioon ja kyberturvallisuuteen Euroopan pohjoisimmilla alueilla, tarkastelemalla digitalisaation ja alueellisen terveys- ja sosiaalipalveluiden uudistuksen välisiä kytköksiä, tutkimalla jakamistalouden digitaalisten alustojen käyttäjien vastuuttamista sopimusoikeudessa sekä tapaustutkimuksella Lapin asukkaiden tietotekniikan käytöstä ja näkemyksistä kyber-/digiturvallisuuden roolituksista. Väitöskirjan synteesi problematisoi inhimillisen turvallisuuden lähestymistavan uudelleen hallinnan analytiikan avulla. Tämä teko visualisoi inhimillisen turvallisuuden sisältämät valtasuhteet, jotka voimaannuttamispyrkimyksistään huolimatta ajautuvat tukemaan modernia hallinnallisuutta vastuuttamalla yksilöt ja yhteisöt heidän omasta turvallisuudestaan ja hyvinvoinnistaan. Väitöskirjan sisältämät teoriat ja lähestymistavat painottavat inhimillisen käytöksen moninaisuutta digitaalisuudessa, mikä pitäisi tunnistaa ja kyetä huomioimaan turvallisuuden käytännöissä. Kyberturvallisuuden valtavirran käsitteellistyksissä tieto- ja viestintäteknologiayritykset sekä valtio ja/tai yhteiskunta ovat turvallisuuden pääasialliset viittauskohteet ja toimijat. Yksilöiden oletetaan toimivan taitavasti ja turvallisesti siten tehden oman osansa kyberavaruuden turvallistamisessa. Pääasialliset julkisen tuen muodot tämänkaltaisen toimijuuden saavuttamiseksi ovat tiedon tuottaminen, ohjaaminen ja harjoitukset, sekä erilaiset saavutettavuuspolitiikat ja -ohjelmat. Digitalisaation tavoitteita tai sen edistämiä arvoja ei kyseenalaisteta. Sen sijaan parempien viestintäyhteyksien oletetaan automaattisesti parantavan jokaisen elämänlaatua. Digitalisaatio kuitenkin tuottaa myös uudenlaista epätasa-arvoisuutta, vallan epätasapainoa ja riippuvuutta samalla kun se vahvistaa aiempia epätasa-arvoisuuksia ja riippuvuuksia sekä heikentää itseriittoisuutta ja omaehtoisuutta. Digitalisaatio ei ole kehityskulku, joka on käännettävissä ympäri. Niin kauan kuin sen luomat valtasuhteet ja -asemat eivät ole vahvasti institutionalisoituneet, niihin voidaan vaikuttaa. Tavoitteena tulisi olla valtasuhteiden verkosto, joka huomioi ihmisten tarpeet, tavoitteet ja toiveet sen sijaan, että digitalisaatiota edistetään ainoastaan teknologian ja/tai hallinnon ehdoilla. Sen sijaan, että ihmiset hahmotetaan haavoittuvuutena ja siksi koulutuksen sekä tuen kohteena, heidät pitäisi nähdä toimijoina, jotka päättävät omasta puolestaan. Tämän valtataistelun keskiössä on kysymys siitä, millaisessa maailmassa haluamme elää

Global Risks 2015, 10th Edition.

The 2015 edition of the Global Risks report completes a decade of highlighting the most significant long-term risks worldwide, drawing on the perspectives of experts and global decision-makers. Over that time, analysis has moved from risk identification to thinking through risk interconnections and the potentially cascading effects that result. Taking this effort one step further, this year's report underscores potential causes as well as solutions to global risks. Not only do we set out a view on 28 global risks in the report's traditional categories (economic, environmental, societal, geopolitical and technological) but also we consider the drivers of those risks in the form of 13 trends. In addition, we have selected initiatives for addressing significant challenges, which we hope will inspire collaboration among business, government and civil society communitie

Current and future graphics requirements for LaRC and proposed future graphics system

The findings of an investigation to assess the current and future graphics requirements of the LaRC researchers with respect to both hardware and software are presented. A graphics system designed to meet these requirements is proposed