University of Missouri Advancing Industry 4.0 Use

University of Missouri researchers are using a $1 million grant in support of the development of an Industry 4.0 lab, enabling engineering students to lead the future of digitization in manufacturing.

Researchers Jim Noble and Yi Wang are using a one-year, $1 million grant from the Missouri Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development to create hands-on learning experiences in an Industry 4.0 lab to help future engineers thrive in the latest industrial revolution’s technology-centered job market. MU’s Industry 4.0 lab, located in the College of Engineering, is scheduled to open in fall 2024.

“Industry 4.0 is multi-faceted, but at its core, it’s a fusion of information — cyber security, big data, cloud computing and blockchain — and cyber-physical manufacturing — sensors and Internet of Things (IoT), additive manufacturing, robotics, collaborative robots, autonomous material flow and digital twins,” said Noble, professor and chair of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering. “Our Industry 4.0 lab will be a showcase of how all these aspects fit together seamlessly.”

The college’s two existing manufacturing core labs — one focused on integrated industrial controls and automation and the other focused on a combination of traditional and advanced manufacturing — will provide undergraduate students with the foundational skillset needed for working in the Industry 4.0 lab.

“The Industry 4.0 lab gives us the ability to integrate skills at a higher level and the capabilities to continually keep students at the state-of-the-art level for industry,” Noble said. “It’s what industry is already starting to do.”

Part of the grant includes the development of courses for a potential undergraduate student certificate and an extension certificate that people in the industry can use for training purposes. The lab’s curriculum development will be supported by an industrial advisory board that includes 3M, Gates Corporation, Hubbell Power Systems, Rockwell Automation, and Tri Tech Automation.