Skilling human resources for effective CPS implementation

Sai Anurag Nandagiri, Manager- Academic & Corporate Partnerships, IITI DRISHTI CPS Foundation
Dr. Dheeraj Rane, Senior Engineer – Cloud Computing, IITI DRISHTI CPS Foundation

Industry sectors such as manufacturing, healthcare, infrastructure, and agriculture are increasingly adopting Cyber Physical Systems (CPS). Such systems necessitate the integration of a number of emerging technologies, including AI- ML, agent-based modeling and simulation, digital twin, embedded systems, computer vision, and cloud computing. To thoroughly understand these inter-disciplinary technologies and create a breakthrough in their advancement, essential skill sets must be developed adequately. The dissemination of this expertise has long been a bottleneck, especially for MSMEs, which account for the second-largest labor share in our country after agriculture. Aiming to fill this gap, DRISHTI CPS hosted a roundtable for MSMEs in central India to discuss their digital transformation, training, and technology requirements.

Over the previous year, DRISHTI CPS has upskilled over 2000 people, leveraging the experience of its expert pool of 200+ affiliate members from various fields, collaborators, and internal technological resources. One of the primary goals of upskilling programs at DRISHTI CPS has been to improve participants’ practical experience and hands-on training in CPS. These activities have also resulted in the formation of new collaborations for technology development and startup programs. A skilling course was conducted jointly with SMC Corporation focusing on skilling participants with the building blocks of smart manufacturing. In a similar vein, DRISHTI CPS ran an intensive 5-day skilling program on practical uses of failure modeling and predictive analytics in diverse sectors. Sessions were conducted by experienced professionals from IIT Bombay, IIT Indore, University of Cambridge, Glasgow Caledonian University (UK), Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL) Hyderabad, besides other institutions.