Universities play an essential role in preparing human resources for the industry of the future. By providing the proper knowledge, they can ensure that graduates will be able to adapt to the ever-changing industrial sector. However, to achieve this, the courses provided by academia must cover the current and future industrial needs by considering the trends in scientific research and emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), and Edge Computing (EC). This work presents the survey results conducted among academics to assess the current state of university courses, regarding the level of knowledge and skills provided to students about the Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, and Edge Computing. The novelty of the work is that (a) the research was carried out in several European countries, (b) the current curricula of universities from different countries were analyzed, and (c) the results present the teachers’ perspective. To conduct the research, the analysis of the relevant literature took place initially to explore the issues of the presented subject, which will increasingly concern the industry in the near future. Based on the literature review results and analysis of the universities’ curricula involved in this study, a questionnaire was prepared and shared with academics. The outcomes of the analysis reveal the areas that require more attention from scholars and possibly modernization of curricula.

In the era of Industry 4.0 (I4.0), a significant challenge hindering digital transformation is the lack of mutual understanding between academia—particularly within engineering and computer science—and the industrial sector, especially small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This gap can result in industries missing out on the potential benefits of cutting-edge scientific research and innovations that can address their daily concerns. At the same time, academics may struggle to identify real-world application areas for their emerging technological solutions. Moreover, the ever-increasing complexity of industrial challenges and technologies has widened the hiatus. To address this issue, our study introduces a comprehensive taxonomy, developed through a transparent, iterative process and presented via a user-centric web platform. Distinct from existing taxonomies, ours emphasizes practical applicability by categorizing and connecting industrial challenges with I4.0 technologies using articles, best practices, and use cases from academic and grey literature, thereby effectively bridging the academic-industrial communication gap. Its effectiveness and practical utility were validated in a workshop as part of the Erasmus+ project PLANET4, where industry professionals provided positive feedback after applying it to real-world challenges. Future work will include expanding the taxonomy, developing an Industry 4.0 ontology, and further enhancing the usability and maintainability of the developed web platform.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) often encounter practical challenges and limitations when extracting valuable insights from the data of retrofitted or brownfield equipment. The existing literature fails to reflect the full reality and potential of data-driven analysis in current SME environments. In this paper, we provide an anonymized dataset obtained from two medium-sized companies leveraging a non-invasive and scalable data-collection procedure. The dataset comprises mainly power consumption machine data collected over a period of 7 months and 1 year from two medium-sized companies. Using this dataset, we demonstrate how machine learning (ML) techniques can enable SMEs to extract useful information even in the short term, even from a small variety of data types. We develop several ML models to address various tasks, such as power consumption forecasting, item classification, next machine state prediction, and item production count forecasting. By providing this anonymized dataset and showcasing its application through various ML use cases, our paper aims to provide practical insights for SMEs seeking to leverage ML techniques with their limited data resources. The findings contribute to a better understanding of how ML can be effectively utilized in extracting actionable insights from limited datasets, offering valuable implications for SMEs in practical settings.

Today, one of the biggest challenges for digital transformation in the Industry 4.0 paradigm is the lack of mutual understanding between the academic and the industrial world. On the one hand, the industry fails to apply new technologies and innovations from scientific research. At the same time, academics struggle to find and focus on real-world applications for their developing technological solutions. Moreover, the increasing complexity of industrial challenges and technologies is widening this hiatus. To reduce this knowledge and communication gap, this article proposes a mixed approach of humanistic and engineering techniques applied to the technological and enterprise fields. The study's results are represented by a taxonomy in which industrial challenges and I4.0-focused technologies are categorized and connected through academic and grey literature analysis. This taxonomy also formed the basis for creating a public web platform where industrial practitioners can identify candidate solutions for an industrial challenge. At the same time, from the educational perspective, the learning procedure can be supported since, through this tool, academics can identify real-world scenarios to integrate digital technologies' teaching process.