FNF- KLID International Workshop on 4th Industrial Revolution
The 4th Industrial Revolution represents a trend of the revolutionary digital transformation of the manufacturing and an unprecedented conversion between the IT and the production process. Some futurologists explain Industry 4.0 with “Super-Intelligence and Hyper-Connectivity” as its two vital axes.
From October 31st to November 1st, Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (FNF) co-organized a two-day workshop program on the 4th Industrial Revolution with the Korea Local Information Research & Development Institute (KLID), in partnership with the Busan IT Industry Promotion Agency (BIPA).
Starting with welcoming remarks by Dr. Christian Taaks, the head of FNF Korea, and Dr. Dae-Bum Ji, the President of KLID, the first session about “Industry 4.0 - Trend, Impact, and Responses in Germany” began. The first speaker Hans Siglbauer from the VDI Technology Center Germany lectured about Industry 4.0 as an economic, organizational, and policy revolution. With a lot of practical experience, Dr. Michael Arnold of the PEER Group introduced the case of Germany and gave best practices, how to cope with challenges from the Industry 4.0 at a local level. Also, a fascinating insight into a practical implementation offered Dr. Se-eok Han, who introduced the Smart City initiatives of Busan in the context of the 4th industrial revolution.
It followed a lively discussion about regulation and deregulation in Germany and Korea and whether the government should be a facilitator during the process of digital transformation. A recurring topic regarding Industry 4.0 is also the question of the loss of jobs.
Taking some illusions about the current possibilities of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Prof. Christian Wallraven, Korea University, lectured in the second session about AI as a driving force of Industry 4.0. The participants learned that there is still a lot of research to do and how AI often gets overestimated. Mr. Jeong-wook Lim, General Director at Naver Business Platform, lectured about Cloud Computing and pointed out the advantages of the usage of Clouds. Very interesting was the fact that Korea is the only country in the world that doesn’t use ‘Google’ as the primary search engine, except for a few countries due to censorship. The following discussion was focused on the risks of AI, the relevance of Clouds, and data security.
On the next day, FNF Korea and KLID organized a topic-related field trip. During the visit of the Busan Smart City Pavilion, the participants learned more about the Smart City innovations in Busan. At the VR/AR Convention Center, they could immerse themselves in the virtual reality and try different implementations. The highlight of the day was the visit of the Busan port, where the participants got an exclusive guided tour through the huge port and learned more about the incredible logistics.
FNF Korea has been working on smart cities and the 4th industrial revolution for several years now. FNF will continue to organize similar conferences and workshops in the upcoming future.