Executive Summary

The Industry 4.0 District is a major undertaking by UAE University as part of its ambitious plan to be the “University of the Future”. This “District” will host Labs that will bring about different aspects of the Fourth Industrial Revolution into the education of UAEU students in terms of courses and programs, projects, research, and industrial applications. The “District” will start by hosting five major laboratories, namely; Robotics and Artificial Laboratory, Mini-Factory, Fabrication Laboratory, App Factory, and a Materials Library. Students, faculty, freelancers, and industries will have access to these labs to be able to try out, prototype, and test their ideas in different fields and may be guided in turning their ideas into commercial products. We anticipate that “District 4.0” will transform the way we conduct education in the STEM fields in the region.

District 4.0 Goals

The Labs that will be hosted in District 4.0 will serve in putting UAEU in the forefront of incorporating the Fourth Industrial Revolution into Higher Education in the country and in the region. Establishing District 4.0 will serve to:

• Build and establish a facility to host the UAEU Industry 4.0 District Labs and provide for the needed infrastructure to run them.
• Link the Industry 4.0 Labs with the National Agenda and Government Initiatives.
• Establish the facilities required to teach Industry 4.0 concepts for manufacturing to align with United Arab Emirates 4IR strategy.
• Establish an industrial robots research lab to conduct state of the art research in the area of AI and automation.
• Prepare a pool of national talents and entrepreneurs for Industry 4.0 and equip them with the required knowledge and skills in advanced science and technology.
• Attract Industry funding to UAEU by providing real application solutions.
• Play a leading role in the transformation process of local industries into using 4IR through technical consultation.
• Acquire state of the art equipment and supporting software.
• Provide affordable Industry 4.0 services to designers and innovators.
• Attract talented students and researchers to use the resources and services available in the labs.
• Provide various training courses and workshops on the use of labs’ equipment and software.
• Promote entrepreneurship by transforming students’ ideas and prototypes into startups through the UAEU Science and Innovation Park.

Strategic Alignment

This project supports the UAEU 2017-2021 strategy and its goals as specified in the table below:

UAEU Strategic Goals	Initiatives and Activities in relationship to Project
Goal 1: Prepare students to be distinguished in their areas of specialization, leaders and productive members of society.	Create new tracks and programs that use “District 4.0” in their curricula  This project will allow students to design and develop real-world products as part of their course projects, graduation projects, and research programs.
Goal 2: Develop research capacity and innovation in areas of national and global importance.	Existing and new graduate programs will be able to use “District 4.0” in their degree thesis research External grants will be devoted to research and solve real problems relating to the local and global industries
Goal 3: Expand international accreditation for the university and its academic programs and promote the university’s global reputation.	District 4.0 is expected to establish regional and international collaborations with well-established international centers in the field Programs that are developed in relation with “District 4.0” will seek accreditation from international accreditation bodies
Goal 4: Promote the University’s role in the transfer of knowledge and skills to serve society.	Direct collaboration with local industry to implement elements of 4IR, such as smart automation, will be established in the form of applied research projects and the full integrated solution will be offered Workshops in 4IR will be offered to local industry
Goal 5: Ensure high quality, efficient and transparent administrative services.	District 4.0 Labs will implement best practices in administration and fiscal policies
Goal 6: Entrench a culture of innovation in the institutional work environment.	Seed the culture of entrepreneurship and innovation by turning ideas and prototypes into startups