This year’s International Intelligent Manufacturing Systems Forum will be held May 17-19 in Cernobbio, Italy.

Global manufacturing companies, government research and development agencies and funding sources, leading university researchers and small- and medium-sized companies from around the world will be gathering to discuss the future prospects for collaboration and the next phase of the global Intelligent Manufacturing Systems program. The forum is the culminating event of the first 10-year phase of the IMS program, a large-scale, cost-sharing research and development initiative that involves industry, academia, research organizations and governments from Europe, Asia, North America and Australia.

Attendees from around the world will discuss the technical results of IMS to date and investigate the potential for future manufacturing research, technology and applications. Sessions will be chaired by the leading minds in their respective fields and will include topics such as innovative design, quality management, modeling and simulation, virtual engineering, nanotechnology, unmanned factories, supply chain performance measures, services, lean manufacturing, education issues, intelligent devices, robots, process controls and fault detection, among others.

To date, more than 450 companies, universities and research institutes have participated in dozens of large-scale collaborative IMS programs pursuing the leading edges of manufacturing research and development. "IMS opens the door to find out what’s happening in other regions," says Sujeet Chand, chief technology officer for Rockwell Automation.

The meeting in Italy will focus on the global challenges in manufacturing organizations are partnering and collaborating in the area of intellectual property. "We’re seeing the realization that global collaboration is going to be a key part of any organization’s success," says Kevin Lewis, managing director of the IMS Inter-Regional Secretariat. "Sharing resources in the right way is going to be critical to how companies and economies grow in the future."

Conference participants also will be discussing the creation of "communities of common interest." Under the IMS umbrella, these rapid response networks from academia, government and industry will collaborate and discuss research and development subjects that necessitate joint action and show immediate potential.

To view the complete program for the event and to register, click here.