More than 1 000 North-West University (NWU) students from the Faculty of Engineering attended a recent lecture that was hosted by Siemens and ESTEQ on the campus in Potchefstroom

Siemens is a leader in vertical IT technologies with thousands of software developers worldwide, and ESTEQ is the leading supplier of Engineering Simulation solutions in South Africa.

They gave an insightful presentation on the origins of Industry 4.0, the fourth industrial revolution that is based on digitalisation, and the effect it has on industry.

According to Tommie Chambers, an engineer at Siemens, digitalisation is already changing every aspect of our lives and existing business models. He said that the key characteristics of digitalisation are speed, flexibility, quality and efficiency.

Tommy also spoke about digital twins and how they are used throughout the product lifecycle to simulate, predict, and optimise the product and the production system before investing in physical prototypes and assets.

Simply put, a digital twin is a virtual representation of a physical product or process used to understand and predict the physical counterpart’s performance characteristics.

“Digitalisation enables industry to turn its product ideas into reality in a new way by drawing on technological trends like generative design and intelligent models,” he said.

The presentation ended with a competition resulting in a handful of students walking away with Samsung tablets and LED lights that were sponsored by Siemens. The Faculty of Engineering and Siemens have had a long-standing relationship since 2003.

 Tommie Chambers, an engineer at Siemens, speaks to NWU engineering students about digitalisation.