Our June 2020 episode features an interview with Shimon Nof, a professor of Industrial Engineering in the School of Industrial Engineering at Purdue University.

Nof discusses the foundation of Industrial Engineering, Industry 4.0, emerging areas of research, and the role industrial engineers play in helping solve challenges from the pandemic we are facing with COVID-19.

He discovered industrial engineering in high school and it appealed to him more than other areas of engineering because of the human factors involved and how he could see himself contributing to society. Through his long career, his research has pioneered the development of knowledge-based computer-aided facility design and robotics control models. He has held visiting positions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and at universities in Chile, the European Union, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan, Mexico, the Philippines, Taiwan, and the UK.

Nof is also the Director of the PRISM Center, an NSF-industry supported center focused on Production, Robotics and Integration Software for Manufacturing & Management. His current research projects include cyber-supported integration and collaboration of distributed e-Work and robotics, as well as CCT (Collaborative Control Theory) with applications in industrial, management, transportation and agricultural systems.

Podcast Extras:

IE Frontiers for Future Work and Factories Companion Slides (PDF)