NEWS
A Study Calls for Redefining Engineering Education to Achieve the Fourth Industrial Revolution Objectives
Dr. Mohammed Ali Bin Shams, Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering called for strengthening information communication technologies (ICT) in oil and gas industry and encouraging the next generation of engineers to prepare for an interdisciplinary future. He said that to bridge the gap, the industry, academia and the government need to work together.Dr. Bin Shams presented his paper “Bapco’s Journey Towards the 4th Industrial Revolution: Creating Opportunities for Success†at the International Conference on 4th Industrial Revolution, organized by the Bahrain Society of Engineers, in collaboration with the National Oil and Gas Authority (NOGA). The conference was held at the end of February.
In the paper he co-authored with Dr. Mark Hodgkinson, Bapco’s Quality Assurance Manager and the Operational Excellence, Dr. Bin Shams described the journey of Bapco towards achieving the objectives of the 4th Industrial Revolution. The researchers provided an explanation of current digital infrastructure, data-based applications such as advanced control systems, multi-variable prediction models currently in use, and a smart control platform for various databases.
The paper assessed the current technical and cultural gap in the areas of institutional and individual readiness for change and governance, and the future roadmap for realizing the ideas of the 4th Industrial Revolution by 2024.
The researchers explored some of the concepts through several mini-projects, such as preventive maintenance of heat exchangers using operational data, and hence shifting from planned maintenance to pre-emptive maintenance.
In another experiment, they reviewed the automation of the textual and psychological analysis of non-digital files, which usually included a written description of daily events by operators, thus extracting information to identify potential damage, avoiding it as much as possible, and linking it to other databases for distinct operational decisions.
The conference, which was held at the Gulf International Convention Center, aimed at creating a strategic platform for those involved in the 4th Industrial Revolution and associated technologies to share best practices in the various industrial sectors in Bahrain and to launch potential opportunities through the exchange of expertise, collaboration and strategic partnerships.
