Swinburne IEEE Tech Talk and Factory of Future Visit
Data-Driven Cyber-Physical Systems: Edge AI in Modern Engineering
- Background
Engineering industries are undergoing rapid transformation driven by advances in digital
technologies, automation, and data-driven systems. Concepts such as Edge AI and
distributed intelligence are increasingly shaping how engineers design, manufacture, and
maintain complex infrastructure and production systems.
These technologies allow organizations to process data closer to physical assets, optimize
operational performance, and improve decision‑making through real-time analytics and
low-latency computation. As engineering organizations adopt these tools, the
expectations placed on graduate engineers are evolving rapidly.
While universities provide strong theoretical foundations, many employers report that
graduate engineers often lack several practical competencies required for modern
engineering workplaces. These include systems thinking, familiarity with embedded and
edge computing platforms, data literacy, and the ability to work effectively in
multidisciplinary teams.
To help bridge the gap between academic training and industry expectations, IEEE
student branch of Swinburne proposes organizing a tech‑talk style event focused on Edge
AI and the professional skills required for the future engineering workforce.
2. Event Overview
This event will feature a keynote presentation by Prof. Prem Prakash Jayaraman, Director
of the Factory of the Future at Swinburne University of Technology and a leading
researcher in distributed systems, IoT, and Edge AI.
The event will provide post-graduate students, graduate engineers and final‑year
engineering students with insight into Edge AI technologies, industry trends, and the
practical skills required to remain competitive in the evolving engineering industry.
In addition to the keynote presentation, attendees will participate in a guided visit to the
Swinburne Factory of the Future. This visit will showcase ongoing research and industry
collaboration projects involving Edge AI, smart sensing systems, robotics, and real-time
data processing at the edge.
By combining a live demonstration of advanced engineering technologies with an expert
academic perspective, the event aims to provide both practical exposure and career
guidance for early‑career engineers and researchers.
3. Keynote Content and Technical Focus
The keynote presentation will provide a deep technical perspective on Edge AI and its
role in modern engineering systems. The speaker will introduce the concept of Edge AI,
highlighting how machine learning models are deployed on embedded systems, sensors,
and edge devices to enable real-time decision-making without reliance on cloud
infrastructure.
The presentation will explore system architecture for Edge AI, including edge-cloud
collaboration, distributed intelligence, and resource-constrained model deployment.
Practical examples will demonstrate how Edge AI improves efficiency, reduces latency,
enhances data privacy, and enables autonomous operation in applications such as smart
manufacturing, robotics, and industrial automation.
The talk will also discuss challenges associated with Edge AI, including computational
constraints, model optimization, energy efficiency, and system integration. Emphasis will
be placed on how engineers can design robust and scalable edge systems.
The session will connect these technologies to real-world industry applications and
outline how they are influencing the skills and competencies required of modern
engineers. Attendees will gain insight into how Edge AI is being adopted in practice and
how they can prepare to work effectively in increasingly distributed and intelligent
engineering environments.
4. Objectives
The key objectives of the event are:
• Introduce students to Edge AI technologies transforming modern engineering industries.
• Demonstrate real-world applications through a guided tour of the Factory of the Future.
• Highlight the practical skills and competencies employers expect from graduate
engineers.
• Provide career insights and professional advice for students and early‑career engineers.
• Encourage engagement between students, researchers, and industry professionals.
Registrations: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/data-driven-cyber-physical-systems-edge-ai-in-modern-engineering-tickets-1986395765206?aff=oddtdtcreator
Date and Time
Location
Hosts
Registration
-
Add Event to Calendar
- Swinburne University of Technology
- John Street, Hawthorne
- Melbourne, Victoria
- Australia 3122
- Building: Engineering Building
- Room Number: EN 102
- Contact Event Host
- Co-sponsored by IEEE VIC Section
- Starts 25 March 2026 01:00 PM UTC
- Ends 07 May 2026 02:00 PM UTC
- No Admission Charge
Speakers
Prem of Swinburne University of Technology
Data-Driven Cyber-Physical Systems: Edge AI in Modern Engineering
Prof. Prem Prakash Jayaraman is a Professor and Director of Swinburne Factory of the Future and Digital Innovation Lab. His research interest is in the areas of Internet of Things, Mobile and Cloud Computing solving real world problems faced by governments, industries and society. He has worked and led several industry-led research and development projects including OpenIoT (www.openiot.eu) a EU funded open source framework for the Internet of Things. He is very passionate in carrying applied research that has direct impact to the industry and community. He has experience working/contributing to projects in the following areas: Industry 4.0/Future Manufacturing, Smart Cities, Smart Agriculture, Mining, Food Processing, Healthcare.
With this event Prof. Prem will deliver a 30 minutes talk on Data-Driven Cyber-Physical Systems: Edge AI in Modern Engineering for the participants.
Biography:
Prof. Jayaraman is a Professor in Internet of Things and Distributed Systems and leads a number of strategic initiatives at Swinburne - Factory of the Future, Digital Innovation Lab and Advanced Manufacturing Industry 4.0 Hub. He leads a team of academics, industry professionals, research fellows and engineers to deliver digital transformation programs within the university in partnership with several industry partners (Australian SMEs and global businesses) enabling Australian industries to be more efficient and locally/globally competitive.
The Advanced Manufacturing Industry 4.0 Hub - the only university-based Industry 4.0 advisory and consulting program of its kind, delivered by industry-professionals to help manufacturing businesses transition to Lean Industry 4.0 (I4.0). Bringing together a mix of seasoned manufacturing, R&D and commercialisation experts, the Hub helps organisations access the benefits of Industry 4.0 digital technologies, including 3D printing, autonomous robotics, the Industrial Internet of Things, artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual/augmented reality (VR/AR). SMEs embark on a unique digital transformation journey and leave with targeted digital manufacturing solutions, which they need to make an impact in their business with. AMI4.0 Hub’s flagship service is the futuremap® I4.0 Business Assessment, providing industries with a comprehensive and intuitive way to assess their readiness and future targets for I4.0. The assessments deliver short-, medium- and long-term recommendations to boost productivity, improve process control, enhance factory visibility, create better training outcomes, and improve manufacturers’ confidence to adopt new technologies and make informed technology investment decisions. The Hub has delivered its services to over 500+ manufacturing organisation across Victoria (including 30+ I4.0 Business Assessments) – 70% of which are SME manufacturers.
Exemplar recent Digital Transformation projects delivered by his team –
• Industrial IoT Solution to improve yield, reduce waste and subsequently bring a more positive environmental impact - https://www.aumanufacturing.com.au/motorone-swinburne-team-up-for-industrial-iot-project
• Low-cost industrial internet of things (IIoT) solution to address issues related to the inconsistency of labelling in red meat processing operations. - https://www.ampc.com.au/getmedia/dc08b960-049b-41c6-b914-1a78e59e347b/221-064-Annual-Report-2021.pdf (Smart Label Solution)
• The 5G-IoT solution for real-time road condition monitoring – helping Council to proactively identify the location of maintenance issues such as illegal dumping and damage to road signs. - https://councilmagazine.com.au/brimbanks-5g-garbage-trucks-collecting-more-than-just-rubbish/
Prof. Jayaraman plays an important role in setting the strategic direction to manage the existing research-industry engagements, growing new whole-of-university strategic partnerships as well as contributing to the operationalising of the Swinburne 2025 strategic plan. The primary focus is to identify, foster and establish new strategic partnerships in Industry 4.0, digital innovation and transformation (with specific focus on Digital Manufacturing) that align with Swinburne’s values and in leading digital transformation of Australian industries.
Prof. Jayaraman is a world leading expert in Internet of Things and Distributed System. Prof. Jayaraman’s research has aimed to develop novel and resilient Internet of Things architectures that work in uncertain distributed environments. He has received over $7.5Mil in competitive external research funding (CAT 1 – 4) from both industry and ARC to fund his research (a significant portion of this income is to conduct industry-based research). He has published over 150 papers in several top venues including IEEE Communication and Tutorials, ACM Surveys, Transaction of Cloud Computing, Elsevier Computational Science, Transactions on Large-Scale Data- and Knowledge-Centred Systems, IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, The Scientific World Journal in the related area of his research.
His Google Scholar citation is 5800+ with a h-index of 38 (https://scholar.google.com.au/citations?hl=en&user=bvgJEG0AAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate).
He has pioneered the Internet of Things systems research area developing and deploying Industrial IoT solutions for various domains including Agriculture, Manufacturing, Food and Beverages, Mining and Health. Prof. Jayaraman has been awarded 2 VC awards for his excellence in industry-based research and has won two best paper awards at top tier computer science conferences.
Prior to joining Swinburne, Dr Jayaraman was a Post Doctoral Research Scientist (2012 - 2015) in the Digital Productivity and Services Flagship of Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) Australian Government's Premier Research Agency. Prior to that, he worked as a Research Fellow and Lecturer at the Centre for Distributed Systems and Software Engineering, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia (2010 - 2011). He is an active member and a significant contributor (research and development) to the EU FP7 STReP project, Open-source platform for Internet of Things (OpenIoT - www.openiot.eu) – the first project to develop a platform for Internet of Things. The OpenIoT project was awarded the prestigious Black Duck Rookie of the Year Award in 2013.
Email:
Agenda
Event Program
Date: Friday, 8th May 2026
Start Time: 3:30 PM
3:30 PM – 4:00 PM | Guided Visit – Swinburne Factory of the Future
Attendees will participate in a 15–30 minute guided tour of the Swinburne Factory of the
Future. The tour will demonstrate existing projects involving smart manufacturing
systems, digital engineering platforms, robotics, and automation. The visit will provide
participants with direct exposure to advanced manufacturing technologies currently being
developed and applied in industry collaboration projects.
4:00 PM – 4:05 PM | Transition to EN102 Lecture Hall
Attendees will be guided from the Factory of the Future to the EN102 Lecture Hall for
the keynote presentation.
4:05 PM – 4:10 PM | Opening Remarks
The event organizers will provide a short introduction outlining the purpose of the event
and introducing the keynote speaker
4:10 PM – 4:40 PM | Keynote Presentation – Prof. Prem Prakash Jayaraman
The keynote will focus on Edge AI systems, distributed intelligence, and real-time
decision-making in engineering applications. The talk will also highlight industry
expectations and required technical skills.
4:40 PM – 5:00 PM | Q&A Session
Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions related to technological trends,
career development, and the evolving expectations of engineering professionals.
5:00 PM – 5:30 PM | Refreshments and Networking
The event will conclude with an informal networking session accompanied by
refreshments. This will provide an opportunity for attendees to interact with the speaker,
discuss career pathways, and connect with fellow engineering students and professionals.