Industrial AI and Its Applications

Distinguished Research Seminar Series

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Date

24 Sep 2021
Organiser

Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, PolyU
Time

09:00 - 10:30
Venue

Online via ZOOM

Speaker

Prof. Jun Ni

Remarks

Meeting link will be sent to successful registrants

Summary

Artificial intelligence (AI) techniques have been successfully applied in various social and consumer applications, such as voice and image recognitions, social media, advertisement, etc. However, AI techniques have seen limited adoption in industry, primarily due to the difficulty in obtaining adequate sets of training data that are required by various machine learning or neural networks. Furthermore, industrial applications often require guaranteed performance (e.g., speed, accuracy, and certainty). This presentation will discuss the challenges of adopting AI techniques to industrial applications, and propose a concept of industrial AI (augmented intelligence). Often, in industrial applications, there are limited training sets that are available for machine learning or artificial neural network training. However, there frequently exist engineering models derived based on the fundamental understanding of the engineering design and analysis. Furthermore, experienced operators or engineers accumulated significant knowledge or experience over their professional career. The value behind historical maintenance records should also not be overlooked. Additionally, when sensory data and algorithms are combined with the engineering models, human experience or expert knowledge, and historical records, a new paradigm of industrial AI (iAI) becomes a powerful solution to many industrial problems. Selected applications will be presented to demonstrate the value of this new iAI.

Keynote Speaker

Prof. Jun Ni

Shien-Ming Wu Collegiate Professor of Manufacturing Science,
College of Engineering, The University of Michigan, USA

Honorary Dean of UM-SJTU Joint Institute
Founding Dean, Global Institute of Future Technologies
Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China

Honorary Dean of S. M. Wu School of Intelligent Engineering
South China University of Technology, China

E-mail: junni@umich.edu

Professor Jun Ni is the Shien-Ming (Sam) Wu Collegiate Professor of Manufacturing Science and Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan, USA. He served as the founding Dean of the University of Michigan – Shanghai Jiao Tong University Joint Institute located in Shanghai, China. Professor Ni is currently serving as the Chief Manufacturing Officer and co-President of Engineering and Manufacturing Systems and of Research and Development Systems at CATL.
Professor Ni’s research covers many topics in advanced manufacturing, including quality assurance, precision manufacturing, and intelligent maintenance systems. He has published over 500 technical papers, and supervised 95 PhD graduates and 65 MS graduates.
Selected honors and awards that Professor Ni received are the World 20 Most Influential Professor in Smart Manufacturing by Society of Manufacturing Engineers (2020), Stephen Attwood Excellence Award in Engineering, the University of Michigan (2015), Alexander Schwarzkopf Award for Technology Innovation by National Science Foundation USA (2014), International Science and Technology Cooperation Award from the People’s Republic of China (2013), Gold Medal from Society of Manufacturing Engineers (2013), S. M. Wu Research Implementation Award from North American Manufacturing Research Institute (2013), the Magnolia Gold Medal from Shanghai Government (2010), Ennor Manufacturing Technology Award from American Society of Mechanical Engineering (2009), and Presidential Faculty Fellows Award from National Science Foundation (1994). He is an elected Fellow of International Society of Engineering Asset Management, International Society for Nanomanufacturing, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and Society of Manufacturing Engineers.
Professor Ni has been invited to serve as a guest/advisory professor at many institutions, including Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Tsinghua University, Xi’an Jiao Tong University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology and 10 other institutions. He served in the Advisory Board of the Ministry of Science and Technology of PRC to consult for the strategic planning in advanced manufacturing. He served as a consultant for Korea Institution of Materials and Machinery, and South African’s Department of Science and Technology’s Advanced Production Roadmap. He served as a member of the External Advisory Board at Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute and as a member of the International Advisory Board of the State of Michigan. He served as a Vice Chairman of Global Agenda Council on Advanced Manufacturing at the World Economic Forum since 2010 and is very active in various national and international studies of policy recommendations for advancing manufacturing competitiveness globally.