Laboratory Capacity Building for Industry 4.0

The purpose of the “Laboratory capacity building for Industry 4.0” project is to raise the quality of students’ education so that they develop the competencies needed to work in industry and be as ready as possible to easily get involved in practical projects of VET consortium member companies. To ensure this and at the same time respond to the above-mentioned needs of the economy, it will be necessary to equip and adapt VTI laboratories with modern equipment, but also to improve the competences of VTI teaching staff.
By achieving the main goals of the project, we expect the following results to be achieved:
• Students’ theoretical and practical knowledge will be improved, and additional skills will be developed for working in a real business environment.
• Trainees will learn how to properly use technical equipment and get familiar with new technologies which are relevant at the workplace, as well as acquire knowledge of work-related processes in Industry 4.0;
• The competences of the teaching staff will be improved with specific training, which is a prerequisite for better quality improvement of students’ competences.
• A new, modern laboratory for CNC machines and robots will be formed in the form of a training center, which will play a very important role in the process of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering education on bachelor and master study programs, which will create better conditions for students to learn and work on practical projects.
• The existing Laboratory for machines and materials as well as the Laboratory of advanced technologies will be modernized with new devices, equipment and tools. At the same time, the necessary networking of these laboratories with the newly formed CNC laboratory will be carried out in accordance with the real working conditions in the environment of Industry 4.0
The innovation that this project brings is the networking and integration of very important components such as CNC machines and collaborative robots into a unique information system, rare even for modern companies in Serbia. It is special that the integration is done not only at the level of CAD/CAM tools, but the Product Data Management system is assigned to the CAD/CAM/CAPP system.
In cooperation with partners from the economy, the necessary practical knowledge that students should acquire during learning through work will be defined, which will reduce the gap between the results of professional education and the needs of the labor market.