Solution description

Introducing an interactive application called “F U T U R E  M E", which includes a gaming functionality to enhance the knowledge on Industry 4.0 technologies and a "Knowledge Hub" where players across Sri Lanka as well as the globe can join and share their knowledge, best practices or learn from other players. 

FUTURE ME is an application designed with challenges based on the industry 4.0 technologies. The game would consist of learning and application of technologies such as:

• 3D Printing
• A.I.
• Robotics etc.

Each challenge has levels with increasing difficulty. The game itself is a measurement of success as the levels increasing represent the knowledge the players gain. So, the higher the levels the player successfully completes, the higher the knowledge gained. Once the player click on the challenge of their choice and level, the player should try to complete it with the highest score possible.

At the end of each challenge the player will get a summary of what they accomplished along with a few quizzes to test what they've learnt. In order to make it competitive, each challenge will have a scoreboard that will display the top three players of that challenge along with the players score and position. Every 6 months, based on the scoreboard the top three players will be picked to intern at a company that functions with that specific technology, that way the player gets the knowledge digitally and through the internship he/she will be more qualified in that area with the benefit of physically working with that technology. If they succeed in their internship, companies could consider them for employment. There is also a scoreboard for overall performance in all challenges and based on that, the player with the highest score will be given a financial reward.

We believe this is the easiest and fastest way to educate the youth on these emerging technologies.

We are confident that the solution proposed would further help the continuous efforts by "FabLanka" to speed up the digital journey of the country.

Solution context

In fact with the increasing amounts of digital disruption happening all around the world if we don’t adopt industry 4.0 technologies we may find ourselves losing businesses or making it non-existent.

First, we went through a logical process of defining the problem, which is that the Sri Lankan youth lacks in sufficient knowledge of industry 4.0 technologies. In a quick survey, we interviewed few school and university students, teachers, lecturers and a director from the Sri Lankan Ministry of Education. Interview results proved that the current Advance Level/ Ordinary Level education system hardly has any provision to learn these technologies. In fact, Education Ministry struggle to continue the basic education specially due to Covid-19. Our research showed that some University students have a basic understanding about these emerging technologies and some of the components are being added to their curriculum as well. With these results, we managed to validate the problem statement.

After brain-storming, some research and consulting different levels of educational professionals we were able to detect the easily deployable technologies that would help us make the youth more competent in Industry 4.0 Technologies.

Solution target group

The preferred target groups include, school students, University students and recent graduates as they are more exposed to new technologies and their agility, speed of grasping new concepts. Furthermore, they are more open to testing new technologies which is an essential part of the learning process. 

The reason for choosing a game as the solution is because the young generation spends more time with their phones and other devices playing games and we believe this is the easiest and fastest way to capitalize this idea and reach the youth.

 

Solution impact

The solution will help generate a new group of youth proficient in Industry 4.0 technologies. They could possibly contribute to help deploying Industry 4.0 technologies among many organisations in the country and even globally. Therefore these areas will be improved.

• Productivity

• Lead time

• Quality

• Income

• Innovation

We are able to analyze the industry 4.0 knowledge improvement levels from the App itself. As it takes a count of participants, who pass through different knowledge levels and those who complete the internships and even enrolled in industry 4.0 related companies.

The App analyses the data stored in its database on a monthly basis and it will enable us to check the knowledge enhancement progress. Continues developments would carried out to get more functionalities added in order to get more youth engage.   

Solution tweet text

Do you want to enter the era of industry 4.0 Technologies in a fun and cool way? Come and enroll with F U T U R E M E , get the best knowledge and exposure ever! #Cool #FutureMe #FunLearning

Solution innovativeness

There are newsletters, documentaries, YouTube videos and many more currently available.

However, we haven't come across any applications similar to F U T U R E  M E, which uses gamification, a very attractive tool for the youth to learn industry 4.0 technologies. Therefore, with all its functions, this unique app makes it easier to reach a large target group within a very short period of time with a systematic knowledge and skill enhancement in industry 4.0 technologies. 

Solution transferability

Since this is an application, this could be used not only by the Sri Lankan youth, but also citizens from all around the world who has access to the internet. 
In fact, this could be enhanced with a lot of functionalities and used by the educational institutes to easily edify the students of the particular institute on industry 4.0 Technology.

Solution sustainability

We have spoken to companies with industry 4.0 solution business and they are willing to take few interns on-board each year. Furthermore, they have indicated the willingness to sponsor the development of this kind of application as its required to have a huge community who accept industry 4.0 Technologies for them to have more business.

We also thought of charging the players with a nominal fee of about $1 so that the application development cost, future enhancement cost  and the maintenance cost could be managed.

Solution team work

Due the limited time, only the two of us got together to take on this challenge this time as we understand each other’s skills very well. If we do get more challenges or opportunities, we are happy to enlarge our team with multiple-skilled members. This will also help improve the quality of the solution for the betterment of everyone as it enables us to analyse different dimensions. Further, different competencies will contribute to enhance the solution.

We got together and brainstormed and did the architecture of the solution first. Then, we divided areas of responsibilities to complete the different task with a time plan. We always did cross check within us so that both are on the same page.  Finally we did a rehearsal prior to the actual presentation to ensure we cover the entire content during the stipulated time.