SYNOPSIS

First, there has so much hype about Industry 4.0 and Digitalization in Malaysia without understanding what it is and how it can benefit us all as engineers. Next, there are engineers from all sorts of background claiming to be specialists in Industrial 4.0 for the sake of business profitability, employment prospect and quick publicity purposes. This talk, in trying to differentiate the ‘specialist’ from the ‘novice’, will examine the definition of Industry 4.0 and Digitalization within the Malaysian context, to establish what is and what is not.

The Malaysian engineering arena is currently full of limited, outdated but experienced automation engineers and abundant, Gen-Z fresh graduate engineers, who have potential. There must be ‘something’ in-between both in quality and quantity, if Malaysia is to progress. The philosophical arguments that the University should produce relevant workers and good engineers should be able to adapt to the working environment is explored in detail and their relevance highlight appropriately.

There are many approaches that can be taken to better prepare the students for Industrial 4.0 and Digitalization, none of which, that can be said to be right or wrong. However, these need to be explored with an educational hindsight and an employment foresight. The talk is aimed to assist as many of the new graduates to position themselves in the ‘right place at the right time’ to enter the world of endless digital employment.

There are many practicing engineers that would like to get into the ‘trendy’ field of Industry 4.0 and Digitalization. Even though the practicing engineer has an advantage over the fresh graduate, the path to being recognized as a specialist in this area is not easy, given one’s past recognitions. This talk will reveal the many strategies that can be used by the practicing engineer to leverage his/her way into this lucrative field of digital automation.
  

BIODATA OF SPEAKER

A specialist in Electrical and Organizational Information automation systems, Ir. S. Vignaeswaran has established his technical expertise in the design and implementation aspects of Distributed Control Systems (DCS), Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition Systems (SCADA), Substation Control System (SCS) and has published international papers on them. The publications reflected a wide area of industry sector and has leveraged on his electrical, instrumentation and industrial control expertise. His interest in SCADA systems and subsequently project management has led him to present an ‘out of the box’ project and information management paper to the Institution of Engineers, Australia as part of his Australian chartered certification.

He has a wide area of electrical engineering experience in the Oil & Gas, Building Services, Utility, and Mining. He has worked overseas in a USD 3 billion dollar Saudi Arabian King Saud University project. He has a high passion for cross-discipline applications, automation, advanced information systems and project management. With a formal education in Electrical Engineering from Monash University, Australia, 1989,  Vignaeswaran has gone on to obtain his Masters of Science in Business Information Systems / Information Technology from University of Keele, United Kingdom. His MSc (BIS/IT) thesis in 2002 was on the development of a Web-based SCADA system.