About

Our Mission

Provide unique service offerings in the domain of industrial digital transformation.

Our Vision

To reduce cost, boost productivity and efficiency and improve the process and product quality across multiple industry sectors through developing Holistic Digital Twins (HDT) and applying and integrating artificial intelligence and other technologies in process optimization and control from the machine tool to plant level.

Who We Are

The expertise, overlaps and synergies among UBC, Fraunhofer IESE and Fraunhofer IWU

The UBC Manufacturing Automation Laboratory (UBC MAL) was established by Prof. Yusuf Altintas in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at UBC in 1986. UBC MAL is well known in the field of Machine Tool Engineering with research activities in digital modelling of mechanics, dynamics, kinematics and control of machining operations. UBC MAL has about 35 graduate research assistants, research engineers and postdoctoral fellows. The digital machining software tools developed by Prof. Altintas’s institute have been used by companies such as Siemens, Daimler Benz, MTUin Germany and Rolls Royce, Boeing, Pratt & Whitney, GE, Sandvik Coromant, Starrag, Liechti, GM, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Embraer, ASCO Aerospace, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Makino, DMG Mori Seiki and many others around the world.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering IESE in Kaiserslautern has been one of the leading research institutes in the area of software and systems engineering as well as innovation engineering for 25 years. With its applied research, the institute develops innovative solutions for the design of dependable digital ecosystems, thereby accelerating the economic and social benefits for its customers. BaSys 4.0 aims to enable the changeability of plants in the context of industry 4.0. In it, the basis for the transformation to industry 4.0 on the shop floor is created. Currently, BaSys 4.0 is continued for another 3 years in the next iteration BaSys 4.2. In the follow-up project, the focus lies on virtualization and “what-if” simulations based on digital twins. Additionally, the scope is broadened from discrete manufacturing to the process industry.

Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology IWU is a leading institute for resource-efficient production within the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft serving the manufacturing sector at large. For 25 years, the main focus at IWU has been application-oriented research and development in the field of production technology for the automotive and mechanical engineering sectors. Core activities include the development of intelligent production systems for the manufacturing of car body and powertrain components as well as the optimization of their related forming and cutting manufacturing processes. Fraunhofer IWU has achieved an international reputation for developing efficient value chain and supply chain processes, particularly in the machine tool, vehicle and component production sectors. New recent research includes methods to combine manufacturing technologies and novel functional materials as well as the digital transformation of manufacturing.