Without research guidance from a graduate school, the manufacturing industry will become eclipsed and a traditional mode of production

Yan Zhang is on his fifth year of participating in Produktion2030’s Graduate School. His research area is Digital Twins Approach support for Smart Product Service System Design for Global Manufacturing Companies.

Yan thinks that manufacturing today seems to be a mature and highly competitive traditional area which is currently being caught up by many developing countries in terms of quantity and scale.

— This will bring new challenges to the manufacturing industry to find ways to create value, not only the environmental sustainability issues that have been concerned in the past, but also how digitalization and artificial intelligence can enable the manufacturing industry to create more value and provide practitioners with jobs and stable incomes, says Yan.

And that is why he thinks Produktion2030’s Graduate School has an important part to play:

Without research guidance from a graduate school, the manufacturing industry will become eclipsed and a traditional mode of production.

Yan thinks that Produktion2030’s Graduate School has established a systematic network allowing participating PhD students to look at the future development of the manufacturing industry, and the research directions and challenges that need to be carried out, from a higher level.

— The courses I have taken have all been great, some have been exceptional. The best part is that the courses are conducted among different universities campus and colleges, giving us the opportunity to learn about what other universities and scholars are doing. In the end, it is like a puzzle that shows Sweden’s knowledge system for digitalization and sustainability in future manufacturing, says Yan.

Yan would recommend Produktion2030’s Graduate School to other PhD students. He thinks the knowledge system is systematic and the course system complete which help build research capabilities and learn relevant knowledge.

At the same time, you will meet other PhD students in similar fields. Some of them have become friends and research partners. It provides us with an entry point and opportunity for social interaction in our future research and industry work in Sweden. This is great!, he finishes.