This book offers an in-depth look at Industry 4.0’s applications and provides a conceptual framework for design principles and easy implementation. The book touches on the impact of Industry 4.0 and also examines the key technological advances and potential economic and technical benefits through case studies featuring real-world implementations. Industry 4.0 Key Technological Advances and Design Principles in Engineering, Education, Business, and Social Applications discusses the impact of Industry 4.0 and workforce transformation. The book examines the key technological advances that support Industry 4.0 and examines their potential economic and technical benefits through case studies. It covers the connection Industrial 4.0 has with IT and communication technologies and demonstrates the technological advancements and how to use their benefits towards and through examples of real-world applications. This book offers a conceptual framework and road map for those making decisions as they go through the next stage of transformation. This book mainly targets academicians, professionals, business professionals, start-up companies, and researchers at undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral levels.

World-renowned economist Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, explains that we have an opportunity to shape the fourth industrial revolu­tion, which will fundamentally alter how we live and work. Schwab argues that this revolution is different in scale, scope and complexity from any that have come before. Characterized by a range of new technologies that are fusing the physical, digital and biological worlds, the developments are affecting all disciplines, economies, industries and governments, and even challenging ideas about what it means to be human. Artificial intelligence is already all around us, from supercomputers, drones and virtual assistants to 3D printing, DNA sequencing, smart thermostats, wear­able sensors and microchips smaller than a grain of sand. But this is just the beginning: nanomaterials 200 times stronger than steel and a million times thinner than a strand of hair and the first transplant of a 3D printed liver are already in development. Imagine “smart factories” in which global systems of manu­facturing are coordinated virtually, or implantable mobile phones made of biosynthetic materials. The fourth industrial revolution, says Schwab, is more significant, and its ramifications more profound, than in any prior period of human history. He outlines the key technologies driving this revolution and discusses the major impacts expected on government, business, civil society and individu­als. Schwab also offers bold ideas on how to harness these changes and shape a better future—one in which technology empowers people rather than replaces them; progress serves society rather than disrupts it; and in which innovators respect moral and ethical boundaries rather than cross them. We all have the opportunity to contribute to developing new frame­works that advance progress.

Describes 250 occupations which cover approximately 107 million jobs.

The vitality of the innovation economy in the United States depends on the availability of a highly educated technical workforce. A key component of this workforce consists of engineers, engineering technicians, and engineering technologists. However, unlike the much better-known field of engineering, engineering technology (ET) is unfamiliar to most Americans and goes unmentioned in most policy discussions about the US technical workforce. Engineering Technology Education in the United States seeks to shed light on the status, role, and needs of ET education in the United States.