Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Because of the current economic situation, there is usually a very limited time and resources for training people for a long time. So they expect that this part is being done through their education.
[00:00:18] Speaker B: Hello everyone and welcome to the Robot Industry Podcast. My name is Jim Beretta, I'm your host and I'm excited today to welcome Humbers Sean Jafari to the podcast today. And Sean is PhD, he's a P. Eng, he's the Dean of Engineering at Humber College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning. So welcome to the podcast, Sean.
[00:00:42] Speaker A: Hi Jim, and thank you so much for having me.
[00:00:45] Speaker B: So can you tell our audience a little bit before we get into our conversation? Can you tell our audience a little bit about you?
[00:00:51] Speaker A: As you mentioned, my name is Sean Ghaffari. I'm the dean of the engineering at Humber Polytechnic and I am looking after the programs in the engineering field including mechanical, electrical, electromechanical electronics, mechatronics, sustainable building, civil architecture and a bunch of others.
[00:01:12] Speaker B: So you're a busy guy and so I appreciate your time today. And can you tell our audience what a polytechnic is? Because we have a lot of people across North America and they may not have heard that term before.
[00:01:23] Speaker A: That's a very good question, Jim. Polytechnic is actually something between the typical community college education and university education. In the community college education it is very focused on the skills and hands on practices while the university is focused more on the theory based. Polytechnics is between them. So have the best of both sides of the world in education. We not only provide enough theoretical knowledge to our students in the different fields, but also we offer them opportunity to practice what they have learned in the classroom through a hands on and project based learning.
[00:02:07] Speaker B: And so tell us a little bit more about your background now. How did you end up at Humber? It's exciting and I'm excited to hear about it.
[00:02:14] Speaker A: Very interesting.
So actually I finished my Bachelor in Mechanical Engineering.
I used to work in the automotive industry, specifically in the paint shop of the large auto manufacturers.
So I got a chance to continue my education in the master and the PhD in the university of Waterloo. And after my graduation there I joined GE Canada as an engineer for the nuclear and vertical motors. And I got a chance to teach a couple of the courses in the college and I fell in love in the teaching. So I stand. I stayed in the field for almost seven years and moved to the more leading or leadership position after that.
[00:03:07] Speaker B: Oh, that's great. And we'll have to talk about GE Nuclear because I've done some work there too. So maybe after the podcast or another podcast, I'm going to read this because this is the program you're in charge of is called FAST and it's the faculty of Applied Sciences and Technology is growing to meet the needs of industry and engineering, Mechatronics, robotics, information technology, data analytics, cybersecurity, sustainable design and skilled trades.
That's exciting. And what are some of your most interesting courses from I think from like a student perspective.
[00:03:39] Speaker A: Let me go one step back. So first the Humber Polytechnic have six different faculty faculty. Applied Sciences and Technology is one of the largest faculty within the Humber and within the faculty of Applied Sciences and Technology which we call it fast, we have a few clusters, Engineering cluster is one of them. And as I mentioned we have different programs from the two year diploma, three year advanced diploma, four year degree. Hopefully very soon we are going to have applied master as well.
Our courses and our programs, as I mentioned on the concept of the polytechnic, they are a very balanced combination of the hands on and theory base so students get a chance to practice what they have learned very soon during their study time. A lot of projects in the, in the courses are being offered. I can say that students like the courses that they will see that something is going to happen. Pneumatic hydraulic PLC Robotics is a big, very, very crowded lab. A lot of students love to have the robotics, electronics and other aspects of the engineering fields.
[00:05:01] Speaker B: So you must talk to because you're so hands on, you must talk to a lot of manufacturers about what their needs are, what their projects are, anything they can get, you can give or get to them. What do those conversations sound like? Sean?
[00:05:14] Speaker A: It is absolutely correct. So because of my job I have to meet a lot of industry leaders from very large entities to the small and medium sized enterprises.
The reality is that every employer looking for the carrier ready graduates.
So because of the current economic situation there is usually a very limited time and resources for training people for a long time. So they expect that this part is being done through their education. This is why that we are working very closely with the industry to make sure that the technical and non technical actually attributes are going to be offered to the students and make sure that they are going to have competencies before their graduation.
[00:06:05] Speaker B: And what are some of the challenges that manufacturers have? So are they looking for robot programmers or PLC programmers or we have, what are those things that they are looking for?
[00:06:14] Speaker A: Another good question, Jim. You know technology is changing very fast these days. So it's very important that you can reflect your knowledge and your skills to the next level and next generation of the technology.
So I can say for myself, when I started the engineering, I started with AutoCAD version maybe 1.2 and when I get to the GE it was AutoCAD, I don't know, 14 and Solidworks and now students using a version that I really don't know. What is that? It's very important that the learning is going to be conceptual and you learn how to have the attribute of the lifelong learning as well too and reflect your knowledge to the new technologies very fast.
[00:07:02] Speaker B: So employers want to know what kids who are going to be able to learn and who are going to be able to adapt and who are going to be able to stretch.
[00:07:09] Speaker A: Absolutely. You know, the days that you are just experts in the one specific field I think is gone.
The employers expect from the graduates not only to be technical savvy, but also they have good communication and presentation skills. They can talk with the people. In many cases a graduate can play, can have different hats in the industry from the sales to the technical person to mainten.
So pivoting in these jobs and problem solver.
It's a very important aspect of the graduates that we have from Humber.
[00:07:50] Speaker B: I'm going to go in a bit of a limb here to say that we actually have a lot of really good machine builders and robot programmers and PLC programmers up here in Canada. So because I'm exposed to a lot of them. Would you say that that's true?
[00:08:04] Speaker A: It is absolutely true. I agree.
Especially that space we are working with a variety of the different industries from the North America to Europe. So our classes are dominated with the technologies that coming from Japan, from Europe, Germany, France, Italy to North American manufacturer. So our students have the chance to expose to these different technologies and more important that's to learn how reflect their knowledge from one platform to the other one.
[00:08:41] Speaker B: I think it's so valuable to be able to teach kids how to learn and teach them how to be able to take the thing that they learned in automatic robot AI vision to other parts of the curriculum.
[00:08:51] Speaker A: Absolutely. So these days everybody talking about the AI I'm pretty sure very soon it is being used practically in the robotics.
So the robots programming is going to be much more advanced than what it is now, which is just syntax based.
It's going to be smart to be adaptable.
And so the graduates and the people who go to work fields, they need to know not only about the artificial intelligence, but also how they are going to apply those concepts within the robotics and automation.
[00:09:27] Speaker B: Thank you for that. So where do your grads go? Is there, are there any like, I'm assuming they go everywhere. But are there any big employers that you're seeing a lot of people go to?
[00:09:35] Speaker A: Again, another good question.
I can say that it is very depends on the job market demand.
So I see that a lot of our grads going to the automation system, automotive, to the consulting, engineering consulting, a lot of them are going to work in the food and packaging. Interestingly they are very successful in the, in the hydro and energy sector and even to the tcc. As I said, because we work mostly on the competency base for the students.
Typically they can be capable to adopt themselves with the different situation of the work. They are very, very high demand and usually they are going to be hired before they are going to be graduated.
[00:10:27] Speaker B: And they're so smart today with data. Right. And that everybody's about data. Can you just kind of expand on that? Is that what the employers are looking for? People who kind of know their numbers?
[00:10:37] Speaker A: Absolutely. So recently because of the significant changes in the sensor technology, the amount of the data and the quality of that is increased significantly.
Just collecting the data is the step one. The question is what do you do with this data and how do you protect it to big question about the data. So a lot of courses that we have is about data analytics and how you're going to extract the features of the data that is going to be useful for the decision making. And we have at the same time other cluster that we have, the ict which is focused on the cybersecurity and data analytics which these days are a very, very hot topic, especially protecting the data of the people.
[00:11:25] Speaker B: It's interesting how much data is going to be important to graduating students and hiring entities. And let's talk a little bit about cybersecurity. How does that look like from your course's perspective?
[00:11:37] Speaker A: So I say that cybersecurity, similar to the AI is a must know competency these days in whatever type of the, you know, fields of the work that you see.
Unfortunately the cyber attacks can happen from the bank to the, to the nuclear station to the even a simple shop that they process food.
So, so you see that because of the variety of these unfortunate events, you need to educate yourself to be self sufficient and at least you know that how to work with a professional to protect yourself.
[00:12:17] Speaker B: So do you see any trends, you know, you're noticing when you're talking especially the kids are coming in interested in manufacturing, are these the trends? It's AI, it's, it's cyber, it's vision, that kind of thing.
[00:12:30] Speaker A: Yeah, you named all of them. So basically robotics, AI integration of the robotics and AI is very, very hot topic flexibility in manufacturing. You know, these days everybody wants to have whatever they buy is going to be designed for them and very, very flexible per their needs. So manufacturing lines are going to be more flexible based on the people request.
So that's another very important aspect of the data.
Customer satisfaction is coming from the customer service phone lines to the actual manufacturing lines. So those are going to be affected the actual manufacturing, very, very importantly.
And again, the knowledge and awareness about the cybersecurity and how you're going to protect yourself and your entity after any sort of the cyber attack. These are typical trends in the automation environment.
[00:13:38] Speaker B: Shaun, do you see any other new programs coming online for. For Humber?
[00:13:44] Speaker A: We are working on the energy sector, you know, that's the request. And the demand of the energy is increasing significantly.
So obviously in order to address this high demand, you need to have technical people ready to run and work in this field. And so we are working with the different entities for the nuclear, for the green energy, for the microgrid system.
That's one trend. The other one is that advanced manufacturing, again technology is changing significantly and we need higher level of education for the graduates who can adopt the new technology within their place of the work.
So these are the two typical things that I'm looking in the pipeline.
[00:14:34] Speaker B: And I also note that your description of fast, it also includes sustainability. So that's kind of an interesting topic because it kind of across all kinds of different teaching and hiring, right?
[00:14:47] Speaker A: That's absolutely correct. So we have programs for the sustainability, especially our new engineering degree of the sustainable building engineering. It's a very interesting combination of the design architecture and sustainability and including the need of the people that will leave. Because these days where you live is not only where you sleep, is not a BNB anymore.
It's a work of the. It's a place of the work. It's a place of the sometimes exercise. And so it's very important to address a complete aspect of the different requirements of the people where they live.
[00:15:32] Speaker B: I was chatting with Phoenix Contact a few months ago or maybe a year ago and they were they as one of their experiments, they hooked up all their equipment to all their offices and labs. So they started to use measuring equipment to give their cells feedback of where they're consuming power and where they could help become more green. It was fascinating.
[00:15:51] Speaker A: Exactly. So I think sustainability is again another must have skills and mindsets for every engineer. And every technical people working outside because we have one earth and we can consume with the rate that we are consuming now. It's not very sustainable for the future.
[00:16:16] Speaker B: No, it's something we all need to think about. So are you finding students are better? They're more focused, they're more pushing you guys around more. What's happening from the student perspective that's coming into your facility?
[00:16:27] Speaker A: Absolutely. You know Jim, our students are, you know, in the higher ed education. It's a very interesting relationship with the education entity and the students. They are both customers and both. They are our product, if you want to call it in this way. It's very, very interesting relationship. So we listen to our students, they are smart, they are working outside, they hear from the media, they are very active in the social medias.
So in many cases that they have some suggestion to get involved in the different competition, different perspective of the technical work, we listen to them and we incorporate those ideas within our program.
[00:17:17] Speaker B: So your students are getting more sophisticated and are actually pressing your buttons. Right. Because they want, they want what they want, they want a good job when they graduate, they want to have fun, they want to understand all these new technologies and they want to do the best for their themselves but also their prospective employers.
[00:17:32] Speaker A: Absolutely. And this is our job to satisfy that need.
[00:17:35] Speaker B: So and how do you get like. So you've got people that work under you and you've got to keep them abreast of the newest technologies. How do you find out about new tech that's coming down? Is it through your conversations with your. With your employers?
[00:17:48] Speaker A: Different ways, Jim. So all of my program have a, have a committee called program advisory committee which they are people that not only hire students but although they are active in the industry and give us a feedback regarding the curriculum, regarding the graduate attributes of the students.
That's one set of receiving the data. The other one is that from the net network of the faculty that we have, a huge number of our faculty are still active in the industry and they give us a very valuable feedback about what is going on in the industry and what are the trends. Third one that we actively participate in the different trade shows, conferences and this type of the events that the new companies and the new ideas are going to be presented there.
And we have a number of the events which one of them is coming very soon in April 2023, which we call it the Capstone Showcase.
And we invite community and our industry partners to come and see the capability of our work of the students that they have done through a Capstone project and that is another venue to receiving their feedback.
[00:19:05] Speaker B: Oh no, that's so interesting. And I'd love to see these capstone projects.
What kind of things are they doing? Are they inventing software or is it a hardware solution or is it something.
[00:19:14] Speaker A: In between all over the thing. So we have projects of the fully robotic system to make fully automated station to the how to.
We had a project recently that the students connected the guitar to the fully automated note making system to.
For example, one of the very interesting projects I recently saw is that a watering system that check the chemical of the soil and based on that is going to check the plants through the AI system and find out what is a suitable chemical should be and adding that to the system. So you know a lot of these projects, some of them coming from the industry, some of them are coming from the students case of one day. Believe me, if you have time, you're more than welcome to ship.
[00:20:14] Speaker B: Well and it's so life changing for some of these kids because they could get hired or they could or they could create their own company out of a capstone, correct?
[00:20:22] Speaker A: Absolutely. So it is a full spectrum of the people that coming to to hire our students to some of them coming as a startups and wants to join the student teams for the future development. So different, different opportunities.
[00:20:41] Speaker B: Well, thank you very much for coming onto the podcast today Sean. I certainly appreciate your time and is there anything we forgot to talk about?
[00:20:47] Speaker A: No, I just want to thank you for inviting me and promoting the automation and robotics through your very interesting podcast. I am a big fan of your podcast and I refer it to my students and my colleagues and wish you all the best.
[00:21:06] Speaker B: Well, thank you very much. And how can people get in touch with you? Or find out more about the programs.
[00:21:11] Speaker A: At Humber Humber CA and you can go through the different web pages and spend time and lots of videos, lots of information and if you want to reach out to me, Sean ghaffariumber CA.
[00:21:23] Speaker B: Our sponsor for this episode is Earhart Automation Systems. Earhart builds and commissions turnkey solutions for their worldwide clients. With over 80 years of precision manufacturing, they understand the complex world of robotics, automated manufacturing and project management. Delivering world class custom automation on time and on budget. Contact one of their sales engineers to see what Earhart can build for you. And their email address is infoerheartautomation.com and Earhart is hard to spell. It's E H R H A r d t automation.com and I'd like to thank and acknowledge our partner A3 the Association for Advancing Automation. They are the leading trade association in the world for robotics, vision and imaging, motion control and motors, and the Industrial Artificial Intelligence technology set. Visit automate.org to learn more. And if you'd like to get in touch with us at the Robot Industry Podcast, you can find me, Jim Beretta on LinkedIn. We'll see you next time. Thanks for listening. Be safe out there. Today's podcast was produced by Customer Attraction Industrial Marketing, and I'd like to thank Chris Gray for the music, Jeffrey Bremner for audio production, my partner Janet, and our sponsor, Earhart Automation Systems.
