AUAP President presents a speech in the 2nd AUAP-MRSP International Conference

The Association of Universities of Asia and the Pacific (AUAP) in collaboration with Mechatronics and Robotics Society of the Philippines organized the 2nd AUAP-MRSP International Conference on 23 October, 2020, via ZOOM.

The purpose of this conference was to provide a thought provoking and knowledge-sharing platform, which promotes collaborative research work required for community and industrial development.

In this event, Prof. Mahmoud Nili Ahmadabadi, as the President of AUAP, presented a speech. The  text of the speech reads as follows:

The Mechatronics Engineering in Digital Era Conference, knowledge and experience sharing among participants and AUAP members

During past couple of centuries, industries have gone through four main revolutions. The first industrial revolution mechanized production using steam power. The second one enabled mass production using electric power. The third industrial revolution gave momentum to automation in production sector using electronics and information technology. And finally comes the fourth one: digital revolution. Advancements in digital electronics as described by Moore’s law brought about increased processing power and memory at smaller footprints and production costs. This has led to billions of devices which can interact with their environment using sensors and store, process, and transmit data in unprecedented rates. When combined with breakthroughs in other emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics, bioengineering, nanotechnology, etc., the possibilities are enormous. In this scenario, and looking towards a bright future, universities and university associations like AUAP can have pivotal role. In fact, member universities can share their knowledge and experiences via AUAP platform, give positive response to the demands of the world citizens and offer robust solutions to future challenges.

Self-driving cars are already on the streets of some of major world cities and could serve as a good example of how digital revolution is transforming our lives.

The internet of things is another manifestation of the digital revolution where sensors, instruments, and industrial machines are connected via high-speed networks and could exchange data and information which could lead to higher overall productivity.

If the twentieth century witnessed the sharpest growth in the development of high-tech machinery and hardware, this century belongs to software products where artificial intelligence plays a significant role in further automating the processes.

In the light of the aforementioned developments, mechatronics engineering is specifically well positioned to address the contemporary technological challenges. In addition to robotics and automation, Mechatronics as the intersection of mechanical, electronics, computer, and control engineering disciplines, could play an undeniable role in adding intelligence to industrial machines through integration of sensors and actuators and machine learning algorithms. As such, the mechatronics engineering training should be emphasized in the mechanical and electrical engineering curriculum regardless of the specific field of study.

One main obstacle which hinders the mechatronics training is the fact that the courses are extensively lab intensive which requires high capital expenditure. With the COVID-19 pandemic, many schools have opted for online classes with virtual labs. This experience could prove invaluable in trying new ideas in teaching mechatronics course and administrating the virtual labs. I hope that this conference, in addition to sharing research findings, be a venue to start the conversation about the best approaches to mechatronics engineering education and in near future we can collect and document the findings which will benefit all members of the AUAP.

Mahmoud Nili Ahmadabadi, (Prof.)

President of AUAP