Automated driving cars are equipped with several different types of sensors, such as, radars, ultrasound, GPS, LiDARs, and video cameras, that contribute to obtain a correct perception of the surrounding environment in various driving conditions. These sensors require a transmission channel able to support high bit rates (e.g., video cameras and LiDARs are the most bandwidth-demanding devices) and high synchronization levels. In addition, safety-critical automotive control applications require deterministic and reliable communications. This means that the transmission/reception times of safety-critical data have to be known and guaranteed.

Automotive Ethernet is considered the solution to overcome the drawbacks of current in-vehicle communication architectures, that are characterized by several small networks connected via gateways, and to move towards a homogenous in-vehicle network. In this context, the Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) set of standards defined by the IEEE TSN Task Group is a useful tool set that enables reliability, determinism and time synchronization in automotive communications over Ethernet links. TSN networks consist of IEEE 802.1Q bridges with special features, such as time-synchronization, enhanced scheduling and traffic shaping, path selection and reservation, fault-tolerance, and many others. These features make TSN networks very suitable for supporting deterministic communications for automated driving cars.

The talk will explore Automotive Ethernet and the most significant TSN standards for automotive communications.

Prof. Lucia Lo Bello is tenured Associate Professor with the Department of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering, University of Catania, Italy. She received the M.S. degree in Electronic Engineering and the Ph.D. degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Catania in 1994 and 1998, respectively. She was also Guest Professor at the University of Malardalen, Sweden (2014) and a Visiting Researcher with the Department of Computer Engineering, Seoul National University, Korea (2000-2001). Since 2004 she has been actively involved in standardization activities, relevant to wired and wireless industrial networks, at both national and international level. Her research interests include automotive communications, with a special focus on Automotive Ethernet, IEEE Audio Video Bridging and Time-Sensitive Networking, industrial networks, real-time embedded systems, and wireless sensor networks. She authored or coauthored more than 150 technical papers in these areas. She is responsible for several international and national projects in the area of real-time embedded systems and networks. Prof. Lo Bello is Senior Member of the IEEE and was the Chair of the IEEE Industrial Electronic Society Technical Committee on Factory Automation for two terms (2014-15) and (2016-2017). She is the current IES representative within IEEE Women in Engineering.

The Fifth Generation Mobile Networks (5G) are seen as a key enabler for diverse-natured industry verticals (such as automotive, manufacturing, mining, utility, health, etc.) by providing a platform to support heterogeneous sets of network quality requirements. The presentation will discuss a paradigm shift in mobile network implementation and will discuss how Artificial Intelligence and automation can support Telecom industry. The work is focused on automating multiple use cases using 5G and Artificial Intelligence.

Rafia Inam is a senior project manager at Ericsson Research in research area Artificial Intelligence, Sweden. She joined Ericsson research in 2014 and worked on 5G for industries. She also worked as Single Point of Contact for Scania. Her research interests include 5G network slices and management, using AI for automation, use cases applied to 5G, service modeling for Intelligent Transport Systems, automation and safety for CPS, reusability of real-time software and ITS. She received her Ph.D. from Mälardalen University, Sweden, in 2014. Rafia has co-authored 38+ scientific publications and 34+ patent families.

The Water and Wastewater online monitoring is getting more important in order to fulfill the environmental targets as well as optimize the process costs. It has been still typical to use laboratory analysis for monitoring and optimizing the water process. The frequency of the laboratory measurement is normally ones pro day or couple of times during the week and because of so seldom taken samples as well as the results of the laboratory measurements comes with delays it is not possible to create optimization control applications on the basis of those measurements. In order to optimize the water /wastewater processes it is at first needed reliable measurements. In this article there are presented different kind of monitoring applications / technologies in the water / wastewater process and what are the benefits of using those.

M.Sc (tech.) Heli Karaila; Business manager Valmet has global responsibility of Valmet wastewater business. Heli has been developing business as well as selling and developing wastewater related products globally and in that way, she has learnt to know the wastewater market very well. In Valmet, which is a global technology company, Heli has started her career by doing end customer projects and developing automation related solutions, like quality measurements and controls for the pulp and paper processes. Therefore, Heli has long experience not only from wastewater but also pulp and paper industry. Valmet is a member of the Finnish Water Association as well as Finnish Water Forum. Heli has been an active member of these associations and in that way, she has also large Finnish water and wastewater network, which includes companies, municipalities as well as authorities. Heli is a member of the Finnish Society of Automation Board since 2019.

In order to stay competitive, European SMEs need to embrace flexible automation and robotics, ICT and cyber security to maintain efficiency, flexibility and quality of production in highly volatile environment. Raising the output and efficiency of SMEs will have a significant impact on Europe’s manufacturing and employment capacity. Robots are no longer standalone systems in the factory floor. Within all areas of robotics, the demand for collaborative and more flexible systems is rising as well. The level of desired collaboration and increased flexibility will only be reached if the systems are developed as whole including perception, reasoning and physical manipulation.

Minna Lanz works as a Professor of Mechanical engineering focusing on Production Systems and Technologies. She coordinates research and development projects focusing on following topics on Manufacturing ICT, Industrial robotics, human-robot collaboration, safety, sustainable manufacturing, and education research in technology rich environments. Aside from the project management and research work, her interests have been in public private partnerships, financial instruments for SMEs and collaboration in EC-funded projects. She is a member of Finnish Robotics Association, EFFRA, Manufuture, Vanguard Initiative and euRobotics, and actively contributes to Visions and Strategic Research and Innovation roadmaps.

In crop farming, pests and plant diseases cause losses for both grain yield and quality. With the accurate plant disease prediction system, the farmers could optimize the chemical spraying and thus obtain economical and environmental benefits. The plant disease modelling is a challenging and widely discussed topic in modern agriculture. This presentation introduces a novel point of view for the net blotch prediction. In this approach, the weather measurements are combined with the historical net blotch observations. This research is realized together with Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke). The financier for this research project is Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Finland.

Outi Ruusunen (née MÄYRÄ) is a post-graduate student (M.Sc. (tech)) in Control Engineering research group in Environmental and Chemical Engineering Unit at University of Oulu. Her research interests include data analysis in both industrial and non-industrial applications and process modelling. She is active with the teaching development and takes studies on education at the moment. She has been the responsible project leader in modelling and data analysis as a tool in plant protection-project since 2018.

This research addresses the optimal planning of an integrated supply chain network for waste-to-energy systems. A mixed integer linear programming model is presented, which simultaneously considers the tactical and operational decisions related to transportation, inventory, production, and distribution. The objective of the proposed model is to find a balance between supply chain costs, waste reduction, and using the generated waste efficiently. It also ensures environmental sustainability in the operations of waste-to-energy systems and continuous feedstock supply. The considered waste type is combustible nonbiodegradable municipal solid waste with low moisture content, and the employed technologies are pyrolysis, gasification, and combined heat and power to produce electricity and heat. The proposed model is formulated and solved using GAMS/CPLEX.

Maryam Mohammadi is currently a Post-doctoral Research Fellow in Process Control and Automation Research Group, School of Chemical Engineering, Aalto University, Finland, working in the field of municipal solid waste management. She has developed mathematical models to achieve a sustainable system for optimizing the processing route for the best utilization and conversion of waste into useful products in the full potential, in addition to maximizing the profit of the integrated waste supply chain network. Maryam has received her Ph.D. in Manufacturing Engineering from the University of Malaya, Malaysia where she mainly worked on metaheuristic algorithms for solving lot-sizing and scheduling problems in single and multi-plant environments. Maryam has in-depth knowledge related to supply chain management, production planning and control, operations research, and optimization methods. She is a member of the Finnish Society of Automation since 2018.

Participants will have the opportunity to pitch and/or present their research activities for networking.

Dr. Sanna-Maija Kiviranta is the Head of Pre-Award Services at Aalto University. She has extensive experience in different research funding related positions for example at Aalto University, University of Helsinki and Academy of Finland. She has also served as an expert evaluator for EU Commission (REA) for several programmes.

Participants will have the opportunity to visit the ABio Center and have a demo on the process automation set up for the factory of the future.

After graduation from Helsinki University of Technology, Sirkka-Liisa Jämsä-Jounela gained practical experience in working for a number of companies in the Finnish process industry. She joined Kemira Engineering and worked as a control engineer at the Siilinjärvi phosphate plant. She was later employed as a research scientist (industrial researcher) by the Academy of Finland and Kemira Oy and worked for her Ph.D. as a visiting scholar at the Department of Metallurgical Engineer, University of Utah, USA. After the Ph.D. degree, she joined the Outokumpu Group, where she worked as a senior consultant and received practical experience in international automation projects. Prof. Jämsä-Jounela has also made MBA studies at the Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration, at Glasgow University, United Kingdom and at the European Business School in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Currently, Prof. Sirkka-Liisa Jämsä-Jounela heads the process control group at the School of Chemical Engineering in Aalto University. The laboratory provides education in process automation, mainly in the fields of Chemical Technology, Forest Products Technology and Materials Science and Rock Engineering. Prof. Jämsä-Jounela has supervised about 250 MSc exams and about 15 Ph.D. students. She has published over 250 international conference and journal papers, mainly on process control and automation. She has given numerous invited lectures and plenaries in international conferences and workshops.

Prof. Jämsä-Jounela began her affiliation with IFAC as a member of the TC Automation in Mining, Mineral and Metal Processing, and was later appointed Chair of this Technical Committee. Prof. Jämsä-Jounela served as IFAC Vice President and Chair of the Technical Board. She has been the IPC chair in numerous events organized by IFAC and other international societies. She has also been the Chair of the Nordic Process Control Group and the board member of the European Union Control Association. Prof. Jämsä-Jounela has been the associate editor of the IEEE TCST and is a member of the Finnish Academy of Technologies. Prof. Jämsä-Jounela has served Aalto University, School of Chemical Engineering as a Vice Dean (Research) and as a Member of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council in Academy of Finland.