W1: The promises of automation and artificial intelligence in the (post) crisis of COVID-19 (107)

Abstract

The objective of this half-day workshop is to cover the long term consequences of the shutdown of businesses imposed by the government on the growth of artificial intelligence and automation in the industries. The opportunities of growth in the field will impact on the education plans of the electrical engineering departments and the expected trajectory in the academic life of the students as well as the future goals of the researchers. After the emergence of the covid-19 pandemic, since, the contagion rate is so high and there is not known vaccine for the pandemic, the governments have imposed various restriction and highly urged the citizens to uphold the social distance to reduce the risk of infection. Consequently, the works have been changed to get done remotely, and the meetings have been recommended to become online. The recent practice of distant working also has impacted on the running policy of the universities and the educational organizations and the classes have been shifted toward the virtual meetings, remote instructions and distance mentoring. Therefore, from one hand, the faculty members and teachers needed to come over the new scheme of distant teaching and mentoring, and from the other hand, the students required to adopt to the skills of using new technologies in addition to the learning the contents of the courses, plus the difficulties in dislocation from the dormitories within the semester. Hence, as a result of the resort of the governments, businesses and universities to the internet based remedies, a huge interest in the digitalization of businesses and smartization of life style is emerged, with the wider adoption of information technology (IT) based techniques and connectivity based solutions. Although, we wish the impacts of COVID-19 get damped and it leaves just temporary disruptions on the societies, however, it is estimated to entail the broader impacts and would change the common practices of living and making business; such that the return to the normal times will be just partially possible and the new normality will be different to the past normality. In the current circumstances that governments, businesses and universities have decided to prioritize the remote working plans for the employees, the electrical engineering departments can take the opportunity and devise the appropriate plans for the preparation of the students for the job market through embedding the required digitalization and internet based working skills and new course development. The higher attention to the automation of industries and artificial intelligence skills will highly impact on the career planning of the students to pivot on the proper directions. Therefore, the novelty in this half-day workshop is the comprehensive coverage of the global impact of the pandemic on the growth of the automation and artificial intelligence from the different aspects of businesses demands of digitalization and smartization, the impact on the future educational programming and the carrier planning of the students for tomorrow. 

For up-to-date information regarding this workshop, please link to The promises of automation and artificial intelligence in the (post) crisis of COVID-19

Schedule

1. Introduction of the marketing theory and technology management

• Logic of marketing
• Business models
• Dominant logic of marketing
• Value delivery, value co-creation, value capture

2. Impact of coronavirus on the change of business models

• Servitization of industries
• Smartization of industries
• Digitalization and the impact on the businesses and societies

3. Impact of acceleration of digitalization in the businesses

• Impacts on the internal management and role of artificial intelligent
• Impacts on the external affairs of businesses and customer relationship management
• Opportunities of technology in the market of tomorrow
• Multi-agents and robotics
• Big data, social networks, e-commerce, mcommerce
• Robotics and autonomous agents

4. Jobs that technology will create

• Future job positions on the artificial intelligence
• Future job positions on automation

5. Business objectives of electrical engineering departments

• Continuity of education
• New curriculum planning
• AI based innovation in learning techniques

6. Some challenging problems and concluding remarks