College of Engineering and Applied Science » Research » Centers & Labs » Industry 4.0/5.0 Institute

College of Engineering and Applied Science (CEAS) graduate students pose at the Digital Futures building.

Industry 4.0/5.0 Institute

What's your company's challenge? We'll assemble an expert team to find solutions.

graphic with circles reading: Big Data Analytics, AI, Robotics, modeling and simulation, human-centered design, virtual reality, advanced materials design

The Industry 4.0/5.0 Institute at the University of Cincinnati is an industry/university collaborative platform that enables industry, researchers, and students to come together to create innovative solutions that improve business outcomes and benefit society by applying systems-thinking approaches to:

  1. Solve complex technological challenges ​and business needs of industrial members
  2. Fulfill current and future employee skill needs of the industrial members​
  3. Train future technology leaders in cross-disciplinary thinking​
  4. Provide stimulating research projects for UC faculty and students
  5. Address societal needs in the context of Industry 4.0/5.0 adoption
  6. Serve as an incubator for commercialization​

Why this Institute?

The development and adoption of Industry 4.0/5.0 technologies requires complex interaction among human, socioeconomical, and technical aspects.​ Collaboration with academia is the way to transition into the future, including closing the skill gap for the current and future workforce. 

With access to leading experts and researchers from a multitude of disciplines across the university, the Industry 4.0/5.0 Institute can build a team to tackle any problem. 

Areas of Focus

  • AI, machine learning, deep learning, and big data analytics
  • Physics-based modeling and simulation, augmented reality/virtual reality to enable real-time “digital twins” 
  • Human-centered industrial systems, including human factors & man/machine interface and interaction assessment and design
  • Human performance integration and augmentation
  • Developing cyber-physical systems such as autonomous vehicles, drones and factory robotics
  • Advanced manufacturing techniques (additive, subtractive, forming)
  • Cybersecurity in the context of IoT/IIoT platforms, CloCom

Our Value

  • Based on the tested National Science Foundation (NSF) model for industry/university collaboration 
  • Provides a sustained collaborative platform for innovative solutions to industry and community
  • Innovative applied solutions of basic research to specific problems
  • Leveraging academia and industry collective resources, infrastructure, expertise, benefits, and risks
  • Engagement with industry experts. Direct industry members’ input and oversight over project selection through Advisory Board vote 
  • Workforce development
  • Customized short courses and educational program for industry members and their enterprise partners
  • Talent pipeline: student training in a multidisciplinary environment through project work and undergraduate/graduate level internship
  • Low overhead academic research 
  • High ROI for research dollars
  • Shared/licensable IP and opportunities for follow-on/spinoff projects
  • Access to faculty expertise across the campus

Industry 4.0 — or the fourth industrial revolution — is the integration of advanced technologies into manufacturing, creating "smart factories." Industry 5.0 is the next step, focusing on collaboration between humans and machines to create more sustainable and socially responsible manufacturing processes.