Manufacturing giant Siemens has teamed up with five universities around the country to launch new teaching programme that aims to build the UK’s skill base.
Siemens has announced Connected Curriculum, an initiative which will see universities work with the group – the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe – to bring advanced industrial tools, data and approaches into their apprenticeship, undergraduate and masters courses.
So far, Newcastle University, the University of Sheffield, Liverpool John Moores, Middlesex University and Manchester Metropolitan University have signed up.
Connected Curriculum’s launch comes 18 months after Siemens’ MindSphere Innovation Network (MINe), in partnership with higher education providers, was set in motion.
Festo, the global supplier of automation technology and provider of industrial training and education programs, is a key delivery partner for the new curriculum.
Connected Curriculum is focused on Siemens Digital Industries industrial software portfolio and cloud-based Internet of Things (IoT) platform MindSphere, an operating system which connects industrial machines and devices via IoT protocols.
MindSphere allows data from multiple sources to be captured and analysed simultaneously, creating a real-time picture of the whole production process via a single, powerful and intuitive interface.
The Connected Curriculum announcement was made by Brian Holliday, managing director of Siemens Digital Industries, at the 2019 MindSphere Innovation Network (MINe) Symposium,
a two-day event hosted by the University of Sheffield.
He said: “Collaboration is central to delivering successful, robust and secure industrial IoT projects. Universities can be key partners in this process, often having expertise industry doesn’t such as data science, visualisation and insights into human behaviour including how people engage with technology.
“This is why Siemens developed the MindSphere Innovation Network in partnership with several universities two years ago, which in turn has informed the Connected Curriculum we have announced this week.
“I am now looking forward to working with Newcastle, Sheffield, John Moores, Middlesex and Manchester Metropolitan universities to help explore the full potential of Industrial IoT with our MindSphere platform at the heart of the process.”
