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The German government introduced the concept of "Industry 4.0" in 2011 as part of its high-tech policy, aiming to address emerging challenges and sustain the competitiveness of the German manufacturing industry. This paper explores the assessment of a firm's preparedness for Industry 4.0 through readiness modeling. Recognizing the complexity of Industry 4.0 technology adoption, the study proposes a two-phase research approach involving identifying impediments and evaluating readiness based on each company's maturity level. Leadership emerges as a critical factor in determining a company's strategy for implementing Industry 4.0, emphasizing the need for industrial managers to prioritize assessing preparedness levels and overcoming obstacles to change. The study underscores the importance of institutional policies and stakeholder support, calling for further investigation to articulate Industry 4.0 hurdles and identify strategies for mitigation. Success in the next stage of digitization hinges on adopting effective technology and business strategies. Germany and other developed nations enjoy a significant advantage through using smart devices as platforms for innovative services and business concepts. To stay competitive globally, businesses and nations must leverage this advantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction of distance education over several decades ago appropriately created and provided opportunities to those interested in pursuing education at their own pace. Distance education over time took several distinctions, including online learning, learning on-demand, etc. The high-speed internet and the introduction of interactive software significantly improved online learning. They attracted several educational and academic institutions around the world to utilize these mediums to deliver educational and learning materials on demand. These delivery methods have proven to be cost-effective and significantly attractive to academic and technical institutions interested in expanding their markets and allowing applicants from a distance to pursue education and improve their technical skills. With the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, online education using digital interactive software became a norm and many education institutions encouraged their instructional teams to learn and adopt an institution-recommended system medium to deliver their lectures from the traditional face-to-face or in-person to synchronous or asynchronous methods. Texas A&M University campuses, including College Station and the campus located in Qatar (Middle East), followed the recommended delivery method in March 2020. Texas A&M University formally started delivering inperson degree programs in its Qatar campus in the fall of 2002. This campus is located in Hamed Bin Khalifa Campus (formerly known as Education City). Since its inception, it has been offering four ABET-accredited engineering degree programs in chemical, electrical, mechanical, and petroleum engineering. By May 2023, over 1,300 completed and received undergraduate degrees in these four disciplines. The campus has historically and consistently been well regarded for its quality education and innovative approaches to teaching and learning methods in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA Region). An empirical study has been conducted at Texas A&M University in Qatar and Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, in two undergraduate courses taught on these two campuses. This article is intended to the results of this study and also report on the observations of students' participation and academic performance during remote in-class (synchronous) and face-to-face learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent global pandemic and the academic efforts, nationally and internationally, to minimize teaching and learning interruption due to this unexpected phenomenon provided educators an opportunity to explore alternative teaching and learning methods. Several online communication mediums saw opportunities to explore these needs and stimulate the innovative use of these technologies. The engineering education community was among the groups who cautiously led this transformation. Over the past twenty years, the Texas A&M University-Qatar campus has established itself as one of the leading academic institutions in the region. The Education City in Doha, Qatar, houses six American university branches, among which Texas A&M University-Qatar is the only one that offers four ABET-accredited engineering degrees in Chemical, Electrical, Mechanical, and Petroleum. Texas A&M University-Qatar campus has consistently been regarded as an institution that often takes the lead in developing, implementing, and assessing the most innovative use of innovative teaching and learning methods to engage students in learning further actively. This paper reports some of the results of an empirical study conducted at Texas A&M University in Qatar and Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, in two undergraduate courses taught on these two campuses. This study also compared students' academic performance in synchronous learning environments with face-to-face teaching and learning options. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fourth industrial revolution, known as Industry 4.0, and its underlying digital transformation advances exponentially each year. People's lives and workplaces are radically changing due to this digital revolution. By methodically identifying specific sustainability roles of Industry 4.0, this paper adds to the existing corpus of literature on the subject. The study first explains the architectural design of Industry 4.0 and reviews key design concepts and technological trends. The Internet of Things (IoT), Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), cloud-based manufacturing, and smart manufacturing are the four driving forces behind Industry 4.0, and they all contribute to manufacturing processes becoming totally digital and intelligent. Manufacturing processes of separated and improved cells will be transformed into a fully integrated, automated, and improved production flow attributed to nine Industry 4.0 pillars; (1) Big Data and Analytics (2) Autonomous Robots (3) Simulation/Digital Twin (4) Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) (5) Augmented Reality (6) Additive Manufacturing (7) Cybersecurity (8) Cloud Computing (9) Horizontal and Vertical System Integration. As a result, conventional production connections between suppliers, producers, and customers, as well as between people and machines, evolve and become more efficient. This study also uses interpretive structural modeling to illustrate the relationships between the various Industry 4.0 sustainability roles in their environment. The findings show complex precedence relationships between several Industry 4.0 sustainability functions. The manufacturing sector and the economics of value creation are being transformed by Industry 4.0. The advantages of Industry 4.0 technology for sustainable development have received much positive attention in recent years. Expectations for the opportunities that Industry 4.0 technologies offer for smart manufacturing are very high, but a significant roadblock for companies pursuing digitalization and sustainable thinking is the need for a more accurate understanding of how Industry 4.0 technologies enable sustainable manufacturing. This current study fills that knowledge gap by creating a road map that shows how Industry 4.0 and its underlying digital technologies may be exploited to support and enable the triple bottom line of smart manufacturing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A digital twin or digital replica is a virtual model of a physical asset such as a product, process, system, or facility. It utilizes data from an actual physical asset to understand better and augment its performance, powered by artificial intelligence (A.I.), machine learning, and data analytics. Digital twins can mirror a physical twin and reveal issues before they occur. They rely on sensors embedded in the physical world to transfer real-time data about the operative process and environment. The data collected from the connected sensors is then analyzed on the cloud and is accessible via a dashboard. Digital twins are powerful masterminds to drive innovation and performance. Unsynchronized production can easily cause problems such as the backlog of intermediate warehouses, unsmooth production, and long production cycles. Synchronized production helps to improve overall efficiency and reduce waste. The material handling, production logistics path, movement pattern, suspension, and caching mode of the WIP (Work-In-Process) need to be planned based on the equipment's action and behavior mode. Unloading, distributing, and delivering raw materials to the manufacturing unit and warehouse are all part of material handling. The digital twin technology provides a highly efficient runtime environment for simulating complex systems and searching for robust computational optimization models. Digital twin technology has a wide range of economic value depending on the monetization model. This study explored costly industrial or business equipment, services, or processes that can be optimized by reducing asset downtime and lowering overall maintenance costs. These capabilities are essential, making internal software competencies crucial to driving value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID 19 Pandemic and its long global persistence created challenges in the United States and many countries worldwide. As reported by the media, academic education had been one of the major sectors of the community that the arrival of this pandemic has significantly impacted and became temporarily paralyzed due to the high speed of infection of the virus. Due to their access to the high-speed internet system, many academic campuses and k-12 institutions have adopted online instructions and learning processes using the available group communication software systems, including Zoom, WebEx, SKYPE, etc., as a viable alternative method in the absence of face-to-face instructional opportunities. Although many experts in online teaching have discussed the positive and negative features of online education methods through their articles, a small number of articles concentrated on student learning abilities based on their cultural backgrounds and locations. This article reports the outcomes of a study primarily focused on student learning in two undergraduate egineering courses in an institution in the United States and its international branch. The study further reports on some success achieved due to modifications in the content and delivery methods that might be necessary to make a practical and positive impact on these learners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to COVID 19 Pandemic and to slow down its speed of public infection, all academic campuses in the United States and their branch campuses overseas had decided to shut down the face to face or in-person on-campus classes and replace them temporarily with virtually online methods using the available group communication software systems including Zoom, WebEx, SKYPE, etc. Although many articles reported the outcomes of some studies and assessments of the effectiveness of these methods on student learning ability and their responses to these alternative methods, no study has assessed students' learning abilities under these methods and based on their cultural backgrounds and locations. This article intends to report the results of a comparative study of student learning in two undergraduate engineering courses in an institution in the United States and its international campus. The article reports the influence of cultural elements and student learning habits in these environments. It further reports on some modifications in the content and delivery methods that might be necessary to make a practical and positive impact on these learners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past three decades, the engineering education and engineering programs in the United States and abroad have gone through several reforms. Their curricula have gone through significant revisions and refinements. Several intense reforms and activities in engineering programs have primarily concentrated in two areas. These include new and recently developed knowledge into the courses and curricula, primarily utilizing hands-on and experiential learning methods to prepare engineers' next generation. In addition, the emergence of professional/soft skills including communications-presentation and public speaking and writing, entrepreneurial and business strategies awareness, leadership, and ability to work in a team whose members represent different and diverse backgrounds concerning ethnicity, educational background, cultural diversity, etc. These types of reforms often are originated by some pioneering programs and eventually are caught up by other institutions either due to the recommendation of alumni and former students, members of the advisory board, or other program's constituencies. Furthermore, aside from some articles that appeared in the academic journals and conference proceedings, there is not much information publicly available to serve as a guiding light to show the best and most effective methods to incorporate these skills into curricula. And also, the established milestones to measure and compare the engineering program's achievements. The efficacy of various techniques in delivering and instilling these professional/soft skills is often questioned. No factual data regarding the long-term benefits of these skills have been made public. It has also been noticed that programs' status and reputation incorporating these demanded professional skills into their curricula have positively enforced their reported achievements. The new frontier in engineering education, engineering education for the 21st Century, required professional skills for new engineers, training a new generation of engineers for the new global market, entrepreneur engineers, world-class engineering education, and incorporating communication skills in engineering curricula. Success is about people - leaders and lead engineers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large number of international academic institutions offering engineering programs have successfully gone through the accreditation process over the past decade. However, many more programs in the Middle East and the Far East are actively working to prepare for accreditation in the coming years. Texas A&M University at Qatar has been one of such academic institutions in the Middle East that all its engineering programs became accredited over a decade ago. This paper outlines the process developed and implemented by the institution and its engineering programs to get ready for the initial review and successfully institutionalized the lessons learned throughout the years. The article also discusses the challenges normally faced at the early stage and the training required to engage the faculty and staff for a successful visit fully. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engineering curricula in the US, in general, contain several courses with primary focus on writing and communications to assist engineering students in developing better writing, established branch campuses, these needs become further felt as for a large majority of these students the English is the secondary language and acquiring college degrees in their homeland often prevents them from being exposed to the English-speaking people daily. Although most of the students admitted to the program earn respectable scores in the standards test such as the ACT or SAT, building and strengthening their English communications is often paramount. This paper describes the process incorporated in the petroleum engineering curriculum at Texas A&M University at Qatar campus to develop and maintain students' competency in English communications [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many academic institutions outside the United States have become an ABET accredited programs over the past decade, and many more are expressing interest in becoming one. Alike their counterparts in the United States, ABETaccredited engineering programs must maintain and adapt curricula, student outcomes and educational objectives that reflect and respond to the needs of industry and the engineering discipline seeking accreditation. For engineering programs with little prior knowledge about ABET and its requirements, including defining the program constituencies, collecting data and acquiring systematic feedback, and interpreting outcomes are often challenging. Although a large number of engineering programs outside of the United States established an advisory board for their respective programs, there are not many reports published to show how the programs have capitalized on and benefited from the wealth of knowledge and experience collectively exist in this group. The Petroleum Engineering Program at Texas A&M University at Qatar (TAMUQ) recently conducted a survey and collected information for its Advisory Board. The Petroleum Engineering Advisory Board comprises of nineteen members with high visibility and prominent leadership positions in their respective organizations. This paper reports on the data collected through this survey and key suggestions made by this distinguished group of leaders to further improve the program's impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In general, the accreditation is a process intended to ensure that degree programs in engineering fields are consistent with regards to quality standards and requirements set by their respective professional organizations. Initialed in 1932, as the Engineers' Council for Professional Development (ECPD) and then in 1980 renamed as the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), Inc. is a coalition of over thirty five professional societies and organizations with over two thousands volunteers conducting program reviews. Over the past two decades, many academic institutions outside the United States had prepared and have gone through the accreditation process and more are joining annually. This paper presents the process and its challenges as well as the experience gained by an American university branch campus in in the Middle East. The paper also presents the benefits of accreditation in attracting more academic well-trained students to engineering programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Instruction in higher education institutions continues to proceed along the traditional path. Exposure to real-life experiences relevant to the discipline of study could greatly enhance students' understanding of how their study relates to the real world. This is particularly important for engineering students where the focus is on finding practical solutions to real-life problems. Offering such experiences, however, is restricted by many limiting factors. Recent technological advancements in the fields of simulation and virtual/augmented reality present a viable solution to offer semi-real experiences that avoid many of the limiting factors. An important consideration for this approach is that students won't have to physically leave campus to gain the intended experience. In this presentation, authors present the applications of the virtual reality as a teaching medium for providing students with realistic experiences in relation to manufacturing processes. This presentation is also intended to demonstrate how: • Complex systems utilizing simulation tools that support virtual reality and allow the students to walk through and interact with the virtual surroundings could be developed. • Students could utilize the virtual environment to further improve real systems. • Students could create and experiment with their own models and to optimize their proposed systems output by 3D virtual systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]