Siemens has extended its partnership with Swinburne University of Technology, announcing that it will install its MindSphere industrial IoT operating system at the university’s Hawthorn campus.
The initiative has also garnered support from Alliance Automation, Globetech, NZ Controls, Centric PA, Spectrum Automation, Nukon, Interlate and Mescada, all of which have signed up to a MindSphere Foundation Partner agreement.
The move follows Siemens’ announcement of August 2017 of plans to provide $135 million worth of industrial software to digitalise the university’s Factory of the Future inside Swinburne’s Advanced Manufacturing and Design Centre (AMDC) and create what it was claimed would Australia’s first fully immersed Industry 4.0 facility. The new MindSphere centre will be located in the Factory of the Future.
MindSphere is described as “a cloud-based, open IoT operating system from Siemens that connects your products, plants, systems, and machines, enabling you to harness the wealth of data generated by IoT with advanced analytics,” and that “connects physical manufacturing, energy and infrastructure assets to the virtual world.” It already has more than one million connected devices and systems worldwide, according to Siemens.
Siemens says the centre will enable students, academics and industry partners to collaborate and co-create local and global projects based on MindSphere. Siemens Australia chairman and CEO Jeff Connolly said it was the first partnership between MindSphere and an Australian university.
“The centre is unique in its industry and business engagement model in the tertiary sector – opening the campus to industry and businesses for co-creation, while facilitating education, training and research.”
Swinburne’s deputy vice chancellor (research & development), professor Aleksandar Subic, said the centre would provide an environment for industry and students to co-create, develop and demonstrate the capabilities and outcomes made possible using MindSphere.
“The centre will facilitate the creation of applications in advanced manufacturing, smart cities and transport, health and other areas. This is an important stage in the implementation of our Industry 4.0 Strategy,” he said.
“Students across the entire education and training continuum, from apprenticeships across bachelor’s and master’s programs and all the way to PhD research, will be developing and using this technology for different industrial applications as part of their learning in collaboration with industry.”
He added: “The centre will demonstrate in action the value of partnerships between industry and the education sector by driving innovation and positive transformation. The access to MindSphere at our Factory of the Future will help demonstrate the Industry 4.0 facility as a whole.”
