Today we got to learn about industry 4.0, at the University of Rautingen, in their Werk150 learning lab. We got an introductory into AI through an award winning professors model on visual representation of how neural networks work and training. This was incredible and really allowed me to have a much better understanding for how the training and learning processes work and how the networks are built and about kNN nearest neighbors.
We also learned about Blockchain, how it works for the financial sector, and how it works in the supply chain. We did this by learning about hashes, the ledger, computing power and how it would a used because it’s transparent, secure and immutable and it’s accomplished through the decentralization of the information and control. The professor who taught this also had us do a workshop which really allowed us to understand how blockchain works, by having us create a few blocks of our own and authenticate with each other and learning how the first to find a hash with 2 zeros ti start receives a token and this is what mining is as it is strictly based on computing power for the amount of authentication and hashes it can go through. Average transaction rate is 15min. We also learned the immense about if power draw that it puts on the system to run it the way it’s run right now.
We also learned about co-bots, and other industry 4.0, and digital twin technologies. But most importantly how it can be applied and used in the industries that we are interested in, this is what was the most helpful, taking the theory and directly applying to to real industry examples and use cases.
What is amazing, is that all of these are extremely relevant to the technology start up that I have started recently called, BarrelSense Inc., as it is these technologies that we are brining and going to be using to implement the solutions that we want to innovate in, so I got to learn from many of their professors, and PhD’s about how I can implement this type of technology to drive the solutions for BarrelSense and the industry.
It’s was so cool to learn about some of these topics that are such buzz words and we have not explored in my traditional coursework that is so relevant to the innovating industries that we are going into , it’s many of the topics that the textbook have not been written for yet, but are so critical to learn and have a base understanding about in order to create innovate solutions for taking the next giant leap and know what is possible rather than asking if it’s possible!
Everyone that we met were awesome, from the faculty to getting in learn alongside our German counterparts and learn about our learning approaches and how they are both different and similar. Has very insightful and meaningful conversations with a few of the German faculty and dove into learning about some of their research, such fascinating stuff and what a truly incredible experience and thankful for the partnership that Purdue University and the University of Reutlingen have created, that I hope many more students get to experience!

