Introduction to Emerging Technologies

The course aims at making students aware of a range of emerging technologies – for use mainly in the domains of manufacturing, transportation, and service operations – as well as technology readiness level, interdependence, technology system opportunities, relevant standards, and business aspects in relation to emerging technologies, such as costs. The main purpose of the course is that students gain an overview of and understand the characteristics of emerging technologies that have the potential to change existing industrial and business systems. 

• Overview of and introduction to a range of emerging technologies mainly within Industry 4.0 and industrial automation, such as robotics, drones, Internet of Things, connectivity, data storage, cloud computing, industrial digital twins, machine learning/AI, etc.

• Technology readiness level, interdependency of technologies, technology system opportunities, as well as business potential in terms of how an emerging technology – or a set of technologies – enables companies to compete on specific priorities, such as time, costs, quality, flexibility, services, etc.

• Overview of the role and relevance of international standards for broader adoption of emerging technologies in selected industry sectors

• Overview of selected methods for design and implementation of emerging technologies

• Overview of methods and tools for economic, sustainability, and risk assessment that can be applied for industrial and business systems when planning the implementation of emerging technologies 

The overall learning objective is to develop students’ awareness and understanding of emerging technologies, mainly in the domains of manufacturing, transportation, and service operations.  

Upon completion of the course, students have gained knowledge and understanding of and can reflect on: 

•  A range of emerging technologies, including their technology readiness level, interdependence, technology system opportunities, associated standards, and aspects of business potential  

•  Methods and frameworks related to executing the implementation of emerging technologies 

•  Methods for design, operations, maintenance, and improvement of industrial and business systems via use of emerging technologies 

• Overall economic, sustainability, and risk management perspectives related to emerging technologies 

Upon completion of the course, students can: 

• Identify and review/screen emerging technologies of relevance in, mainly, the domains of manufacturing, transportation, and service operations 

•  Assess technology readiness level, interdependence, technology system opportunities, associated standards, and business potential of a set of emerging technologies 

•  Outline a plan for executing the implementation of emerging technologies and discuss the potential for success 

•  Discuss aspects related to emerging technology-based design, operations, maintenance, and improvement of industrial and business systems

• Assess and deploy methods of relevance for assessing emerging technologies from economic, sustainability, and risk management perspectives 

Upon completion of the course, students can: 

• Develop a clear and sufficient proposal for implementing emerging technology/technologies in a manufacturing, transportation, and/or service operations context 

These are examples of literature. The final literature will be announced on Itslearning during August the latest: 

• Rotolo, D., Hicks, D., & Martin, B.R. (2015). What is an emerging technology? Research Policy, 44, 1827-1843. 

• Hubbard, S. (2021). Tech Trends: 2021 Simple Guide for Future Technologies. AI, IoT, Edge Computing and 10+ Innovations, Independently. 

• Marr, B. (2021). Business Trends in Practice: The 25+ Trends That are Redefining Organizations, Wiley 

• van Erp, T., Rytter, N.G.M., Sieckmann, F., Larsen, M.B., Blichfeldt, H., & Kohl, H. (2021). Management, Design, and Implementation of Innovation     Projects: Towards a Framework for Improving the Level of Automation and Digitalization in Manufacturing Systems, 9th International Conference on Control, Mechatronics and Automation (ICCMA): IEEE, 211-217. 

Applied teaching methods will be a combination of classroom lectures, case examples, lab visits, (potentially) industry site visits, and guest speakers. Problem solving exercises and simulation-based training methods might also be in use.  

The expected workload is based on a guideline of 27 hours per ECTS point. For this course, this results in 135 hours. These hours are distributed across preparation and class attendance, preparation for the exam, and the exam itself.

The 135 work hours are distributed as follows: 
Lectures: 30 hours. 
Preparation for lectures: 35 hours. 
Preparation for and the exam itself: 70 hours. 
Total: 135 hours.