Biography:

Dr. Weiming Shen is a Professor at Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), China. Prior to joining HUST, he worked for 20 years at National Research Council Canada as Research Officer, Senior Research Officer, and Principal Research Officer. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, Fellow of IEEE, Fellow of Engineering Institute of Canada (EIC). He is an internationally-recognized expert on Agent-Based Collaborative Technologies and Applications. He has published several books and over 500 papers in scientific journals and international conferences in the related areas. His work has been cited over 14,000 times with an h-index of 53. His book titled “Multi-Agent Systems for Concurrent Intelligent Design and Manufacturing” and a few related review papers are among the most cited on agent-based intelligent manufacturing. He is the Co-Editor-in-Chief of IET Collaborative Intelligent Manufacturing, an Associate Editor or Editorial Board Member of over ten international journals (including IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering; IEEE Transaction on SMC: Systems; IEEE SMC Magazine; Advanced Engineering Informatics; Computational Intelligence; Intelligent Buildings International; Service Computing and Applications) and served as guest editor for several other international journals. He is the Co-Chair of the IEEE Technical Committee on Computer Supported Cooperative Work in Design, has been Program Committee Co-Chair of the CSCWD conferences since 2001, and served as General Chair/Co-Chair or Program Committee Chair/Co-Chair for over 30 international conferences.

Speech title: 

Application of Agents in Intelligent Manufacturing and Industrial Automation

Abstract: 

Agent technology represents a novel paradigm for developing intelligent manufacturing and industrial automation systems. During the past 25 years, a significant number of researchers and practitioners have been trying to apply intelligent software agents in the areas of engineering design, collaborative intelligent manufacturing, supply chain management, and smart product services. Recent developments and fast advancements of Cloud/Fog/Edge Computing, Internet of Things, Cyber-Physical Systems, Digital Twins, Big Data, and Blockchains provide new opportunities for applications of intelligent software agents in intelligent manufacturing and industrial automation, but also bring a lot of new research challenges. This talk presents some first-hand experience in developing agent-based collaborative design and manufacturing technologies and systems and discusses future trends, R&D opportunities, and challenges.