# Curricula Developments regarding Industry 4.0 in an Asian-European partnership in 3 countries in South-East Asia

Roungsan Chaisricharoen, Denis Genon-Catalot, Vimontha Khieovongphachanh, Stéphane Mocanu, Emil Novakov, Phosy Panthongsy, Jean-Marc Thiriet, Kosorl Thourn, Denis Lubineau, Kanthanet Tharot, et al.

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## To cite this version:

Roungsan Chaisricharoen, Denis Genon-Catalot, Vimontha Khieovongphachanh, Stéphane Mocanu, Emil Novakov, et al. Curricula Developments regarding Industry 4.0 in an Asian-European partnership in 3 countries in South-East Asia. EAEEIE 2025 - 34th Annual Conference of the European Association for Education in Electrical and Information Engineering, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania, Jun 2025, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. pp.ID 10. hal-05134337

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https://hal.science/hal-05134337v1

Submitted on 28 Jun 2025

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Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Curricula Developments regarding Industry 4.0 in an
Asian-European partnership in 3 countries in South-East
Asia

Roungsan CHAISRICHAROEN

Computer and Communication Engineering
for Capacity Building (CCC), School of

Information Technology
Mae Fah Luang University
Chiang Rai, Thailand
roungsan.cha@mfu.ac.th

Denis LUBINEAU
IUT1

Univ. Grenoble Alpes
Grenoble, France
denis.lubineau@univ-grenoble-alpes.fr

Phosy PANTHONGSY
Department of Electronics and
Telecommunication Engineering
National University of Laos (NUOL)

Vientiane, Laos
p.panthongsy@nuol.edu.la

Kosorl THOURN
Dept. Telecom. and Network Eng.
Institute of Technology of Cambodia (ITC)

Phnom Penh, Cambodia
kosorl@itc.edu.kh

Denis GENON-CATALOT
LCIS

Univ. Grenoble Alpes
Grenoble, France
denis.genon-catalot@lcis.grenoble-inp.fr

Séphane MOCANU
LIG

G-INP, Univ. Grenoble Alpes
Grenoble, France
stephane.mocanu@grenoble-inp.fr

Kanthanet THAROT
Gscop, Gipsa-Lab

Univ. Grenoble Alpes
Grenoble, France
kanthanet.tharot@hotmail.com

Hamed YAHOUI
Dépt Mécanique

Univ. Claude Bernard Lyon 1
Lyon, France
hamed.yahoui@univ-lyon1.fr

Vimontha KHIEOVONGPHACHANH
Department of Electronics and

Telecommunication Engineering
National University of Laos (NUOL)

Vientiane, Laos
vimontha@fe-nuol.edu.la

Emil NOVAKOV
IMEP-LAHC

Univ. Grenoble Alpes
Grenoble, France
emil.novakov@univ-grenoble-alpes.fr

Jean-Marc THIRIET
Gipsa-Lab

Univ. Grenoble Alpes
Grenoble, France
jean-marc.thiriet@univ-grenoble-alpes.fr

• Authors are in alphabetic order

**Abstract**—Asean-Factori was a 3-year European project: ERASMUS+ Key Action 2, Capacity Building in High Education. It aimed at enhancing existing curricula in automation in 7 South-East Asian partners coming from three countries. This paper presents the activities achieved by UGA. The first action was the setting of platforms. The second action concerns the training of trainers for Industry 4.0 concepts and PLC labs in two steps: a first training in Grenoble on the existing labs in Grenoble and the training 2 was organized in Asia, on the actual platform developed in Europe, when received in Asia. The third action was the modifications or adaptations of curricula in order to take account of Industry 4.0, with local and national accreditations, based also on the Tuning approach. A fourth action was the actual implementation of classes for the Asian students. The fifth action was the organization of vocational trainings targeting employees in companies.

**Keywords**—Automation, Industry 4.0, Curricula Development, Accreditation, Asean countries, Key Action 2 project, Transfer of Platforms, Training of Trainers.

I. INTRODUCTION

Asean-Factori was a European project accepted for 3 years + 1
year of extension from 2020 to end 2023 by the European
Commission under the framework of the ERASMUS+ Key Action 2
CBHE (Capacity Building in High Education) programme. This
project aimed at enhancing existing curricula in the field of
automation in the 7 Asean (South-East Asian) partners of the project
coming from three countries: Cambodia, Laos and Thailand. Papers
[1] [2] explain the global context of the project. This paper presents

the activities achieved by Univ. Grenoble Alpes (UGA) together with
Mae Fah Luang University (MFU, Thailand), National University of
Laos (NUOL, Lao) and Institut de Technologie du Cambodge (ITC,
Cambodia), with the global results. The first action was the setting of
platforms, to be sent to Asia. Grenoble developed three platforms, this
action is described in the next section. The second action concerns the
training of trainers for Industry 4.0 concepts and PLC labs in two
steps: a first training in Grenoble on the existing labs in Grenoble and
the training2 was organized in Asia, on the actual platform developed
in Europe, once received in Asia; this action is presented in sections 3
and 4. The third action was the modifications or adaptations of
curricula in order to take account of Industry 4.0, with local and
national accreditations, based also on the Tuning approach, explained
in section 5. A fourth action was the actual implementation of classes
for the Asian students, available in section 6. The fifth action was the
organization of vocational trainings targeting employees in
companies, presented in section 7. The last section before the
conclusion deals with some sustainability issues and extensions
towards research.

II. PLATFORM DEVELOPMENTS

One of the main aspects of the project was to develop platforms
for Asian partners. Grenoble was in charge of 3 platforms (see Fig. 1).

The first lab (Benchmark 4 in the project nomenclature) is a lab
dedicated to the cyber-security of industrial systems [3]. This lab is
based on Schneider® technology. This platform is composed of a
PLC, with Digital and Analog Inputs and Outputs, a CAN interface
with a motor drive and an engine and a Human Machine Interface
(HMI). The cyber-security dimension is studied thanks to a
Stormshield® industrial firewall. This firewall allows controlling industrial network protocols as well as actual data values, which may be a crucial issue in the automation context.

<figure><img src="image_3.png" /><figcaption>Fig. 1: The Siemens platform for MFU, the Wago platform for NUOL and the Schneider/Stormshield platform for ITC</figcaption></figure>

The second lab (Benchmark 5 in the project nomenclature) is based on a Siemens® PLC. The main purpose of this platform is to study remote communication and also continuous systems. It is composed of a PLC with inputs-outputs and a Profibus interface. An RTU (Remote Unit) is connected to the main PLC through the Profibus interface. An HMI is provided to allow remote supervision, and also specifically to study the network infrastructure and message exchanges.

The third platform (Benchmark 6 in the project nomenclature) is oriented towards wireless networks, with an application particularly in the field of smart buildings. This platform is based on a Wago® PLC. As for the other platforms, some Inputs-Outputs are directly and physically connected to the PLC. Some wireless interfaces are provided, based on the EnOcean network. A Human-Machine Interface is provided with a web-server.

For the three platforms designed by Grenoble, we propose the usage of a specific emulation process card (called GICS-HIL card, GICS-HIL refers to Grenoble Industrial Control Systems Sandbox/Hardware in the Loop), which was initially developed in our university (see Fig. 2). This consists in an embedded Linux system, together with a network interface controller (NIC), various digital and analog inputs-outputs, some leds and switches. The purpose of this emulation card is to be programmed, in order to run a simulated system. The NIC allows the emulation process card to dialog with the other devices of the installation, as a normal process. The input-output interfaces allow a direct physical connection between the PLC and the emulation process card, this is one of the most interesting aspects of this card, since from the PLC perspective, there is an actual connection through the IOs. It is possible by using this card to simulate or emulate any kinds of processes, but of course some applications need to be programmed for that. This strategy allows also envisaging the remote programming of PLCs, with a validation on the emulated system, before to send the PLC with the programme to the customer company, directly on the plant.

<figure><img src="image_4.png" /><figcaption>Fig 2: The GICS-HIL card</figcaption></figure>

### III. FIRST TRAINING OF TRAINERS IN GRENOBLE

After some delays due to the pandemic situation, the first training was finally organized in Grenoble in spring 2022. The purpose of this training was for the colleagues to discover the Grenoble lab platforms, work on them, to appropriate both the technical and the pedagogical aspects, in order in the future for them to be able to manage and use these platforms with their students. This training lasted two weeks. It was organized on-site beginning of February with ITC (which was actually together with RUPP (Royal University of Phnom Penh) in Grenoble), and end of March with MFU (see Fig. 3). Unfortunately, it was not possible for our Lao colleagues to come to France, so their first training was organized on-line.

<figure><img src="image_5.png" /><figcaption>Fig. 3: Training of trainers in Grenoble (spring 2022)</figcaption></figure>

For on-site trainings, the content of these two weeks was organized in three sub-parts.

The first sub-part regards courses: the purpose is to give partners some basics or more advanced concepts regarding their centers of excellence. The course has been adapted to the exact background and needs of the Asian colleagues and their expectations; for that some preliminary surveys were filled by the Asian colleagues before the trainings. For some aspects of the course, these are new concepts for the Asian colleagues and it is more to increase their expertise whereas some other courses aim at being taught later by our Asian colleagues to their own students. The course is composed of five sections. The first section is an introduction to PLCs: what are PLCs, how they can be used, their hardware architecture and configuration, the way to program them, with practical examples, linked to the actual hardware architecture of each PLC. The second section deals with the PLC within its environment, and supervision issues. The purpose of this section is to present the interactions between the PLC and the supervision, the CIM architecture, the various industrial network protocols potentially existing. The third section focuses on cyber-security issues: this part is dedicated to a presentation of the main concepts and challenges around cyber-security, the specific challenges of Industrial Control Systems. The fourth section deals with emulation aspects, how to use the emulation card, how to develop emulated processes and how to interact with the emulation card within the lab. The fifth section deals with wireless networks and telecommunication aspects, what are the main challenges in the industry 4.0 environment, and how to use them within the proposed lab. Each of the five sections described above last around half a day. These courses give everybody a general overview of the needed knowledge, even if each of the specific center of excellence is specialized in one of the topics, considering first that some of these aspects are general background interesting for everybody and also that depending on the needs of local students or companies, it may be interesting to evolve in the future beyond the first need expressions of the centers of excellence. This part is interesting for the Asian partners also to prepare their own courses, for the future.

The second sub-part is the labs. This is the most important part of the training since the Asian colleagues will work on the labs, on the specific PLCs they will have for their centers of excellence, and so this training is really oriented towards "training of trainers". For that, before the arrival of the Asian colleagues, we (the UGA team, composed of teachers but also some master and PhD students) prepared some labs, adapted to the type of platform designed for the 3
Asian partners our institution is responsible for. When the colleagues attended the first training in Grenoble, their platforms were not ready yet, so we worked altogether on the platforms available in the lab room in Grenoble, these platforms being close to the ones which were sent then to Asia. During the first week of the training in Grenoble, the colleagues achieved the labs proposed, under the supervision of the UGA team. At the beginning of the second week, and based on the competences acquired during the first week, the Asian colleagues were asked to design their own problems, as if they had to manage students, and then they developed and implemented their own projects.

The third and last sub-part is the “social” and “discovery” activity. A tour of the city and a social dinner were organized. We organized also the visit of the Gscop laboratory, which is the research lab in the field with the greatest expertise in Grenoble. A visit of a Teaching Department (Dept. of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering) was also organized for the colleagues to see how a teaching Dept. is organized in France, and their relative labs.

For the on-line training (with the Lao team), unfortunately, it was not possible to organize the last part: “social” and “discovery” activities. The main challenge for the organization of this training was to define how to organize it on-line. Based on our own experience of lab teaching during the pandemics, and in order to be resilient to possible difficult connections (between Vientiane and Grenoble), it was decided to prepare an architecture on which we can simulate the PLC and that the training focused mainly on the programming of the PLC itself, without taking into consideration the other devices available on the platform for NUOL. It was decided to keep this part for the second training. The part dedicated on classes was achieved in the same way as for the ITC and MFU trainings, but on-line.

As a conclusion on this part, the organization of the first training in Grenoble was a good experience. The Asian colleagues were taught on the concepts of Industry 4.0 and trained on hardware close to their platforms. They were able during the second week to design and develop their own problems, which is a good result from the point of view for the “training of trainers” perspective. Of course, the on-line training for the third partner was more difficult to achieve, this aspect was taken into consideration for the preparation of the second training in Asia.

## IV. SECOND TRAINING IN ASIA

The second training was organized in Asia, in order to train people on the actual platform developed in Grenoble and sent to Asia, and maybe to remind some concepts, if needed. The second training was organized in NUOL beginning of July 2022, in ITC end of August 2022 and in November 2022 for MFU (see Fig. 4).

<figure><img src="image_6.png" /><figcaption>Fig. 4: Training of trainers in Asia (summer-fall 2022)</figcaption></figure>

The organization of the second training was the following:

- Installation of the platform in its Asian environment, in a room dedicated to the Center of Excellence. Connection of the platform to the local network.

- Work with the Asian colleagues, to transfer the competences to allow them to work autonomously on the platform.

During the second training in NUOL for example, one of our Lao colleagues gave a class to a group of 6 students, about PLCs, and then the students were asked to achieve a lab. It was a short experimental training of 2 days.

Another aspect, linked to dissemination, is to meet some people in the Asian institutions, for instance the Dean and other colleagues, in order that the existence of the Center of Excellence is known internally, in particular by the various Departments or Faculties which may be interested: for instances “Electronics/Automation” and “Computer/ Information Technologies”.

The global objective of the second training was the actual transfer of the platforms and the various pedagogical documents prepared for the platform by the European colleagues. Asian colleagues have taken to the new platforms, and began to develop their own pedagogical documents targeting their students. Another aspect was to check with the Asian colleagues their curricula modifications in order to teach Industry 4.0 concepts and to train students on the benchmark. The second part of the work was to design lab tutorials adapted to the actual benchmark in its Asian context, in the Center of Excellence. Some software configurations and finalizations were also achieved on the benchmark and, if needed, on the eight computers of the Centers of Excellence.

The quality process on these issues concerned the global checking of the Center of Excellence, the benchmark, and the eight computers, as well as checking that the Asian colleagues have the competence to manage the benchmarks and have them running, and finally that they are able to train students and other colleagues. During these trainings “2”, the four Asian colleagues trained in Europe had the opportunity to train some other of their colleagues (2 was the minimum, sometime it was more) and students on the benchmark. It was a way to test that everything is under control, maybe sometimes for the European colleagues to help Asian colleagues to adapt and improve their lab tutorials.

This leaded the Asian colleagues to develop their curricula, by adaptation of existing courses or development of completely new courses. This aspect is one of the most important ones in the spirit of the Key Action 2 “Curriculum Development” of the ERASMUS+ programme. This aspect is also a guarantee of sustainability for the continuation of activities after the end of the project.

## V. ACCREDITATION PROCESS ON THE ASIAN SIDE

The Accreditation process was used in the three countries according to the requirements of these countries and institutions, but also based on the best practices for instance of the Tuning methodology [4] [5] [6] [7] which is described in the next paragraph. Asian partners modified between 3 to 8 courses in one or several curricula or specialties each.

The Tuning Project (see Fig. 5)) concerns harmonizing European higher education. It is the result of a European initiative that aims to harmonize the content and structure of university degree programs across Europe, specifically in the fields of electrical and information engineering. The project was launched in 2000 in response to the Bologna Declaration, which called for the creation of a more coherent and compatible European higher education system.

The Tuning Project is based on the following principles:

- Focus on learning outcomes: The project focuses on the learning outcomes that students are expected to achieve at the end of their degree programs. These outcomes are expressed in terms of generic and subject-specific competences.

- Consultation with stakeholders: The project involves a wide range of stakeholders, including academics, students, employers, and professional organizations. This ensures that the learning outcomes are relevant to the needs of students, employers, and society as a whole.

- Use of the ECTS credit system: The project uses the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) to measure the
workload associated with each learning outcome and emphasize the relationships with Europe in the future.

This makes it easier for students to transfer credits between different institutions and countries. The Tuning Project has been implemented in a number of subject areas, including business administration, engineering, and science. The project has resulted in the development of reference points for generic and subject-specific competences for graduates of these subject areas. The impact on European higher education has been significant, and the project has helped to improve the comparability and compatibility of university degree programs across Europe. It has also helped to raise awareness of the importance of generic competences in higher education.

<figure><img src="image_7.png" /><figcaption>Fig. 5: Scheme of the Tuning methodology [8]</figcaption></figure>

Within the Asean-Factori project, this activity was divided in 4 parts, described below.

Part 1 describes the legal process to launch an accreditation for a course update in the national and institutional levels (delay, evaluation process, stakeholder...). A suitable timetable has been provided for the modification of the courses to update by each partner.

Part 2 presents the consultation of stakeholders to legitimate program modification (identification of social need, governmental). This part is divided in three sub-parts:

- An enquiry (meeting/questionnaire) about employers, professionals and professional bodies to get valuable advice for the modification of the degree's programme and vocational education offer.

- A survey of existing programmes dedicated to PLC at the national levels for each country.

- An interview of member of Education ministry or regional governmental office or any external body linked to Education social needs.

Part 3 deals with accreditation aspect. A description of the accreditation of the current modification of degree during the life time of the project is provided. The Asian partners explain how they adapt in their existing degree program the seminar and pedagogical lab courses.

Part 4 is related to the final accreditation by itself. The partners have provided the official accreditation letters regarding the new or modified courses which have been accredited. The Asian partners with which UGA worked modified the following courses:

- MFU modified Embedded Systems and IoT, Fundamental of Electrical Engineering, Model Based Design, Electronics & Electric Drives, Sequence Control and PLC, Computer Control Systems, Robotics and Applications, Intelligent Control Systems.

- NUOL modified Control System Engineering, Advance Digital Systems Design, Engineering Lab 4, PLC, Computer Network, Industrial Electronics.

- ITC modified Industrial network Protocol, Industrial automation, Power system architecture and protection.

## VI. ACTUAL IMPLEMENTATION OF CLASSES FOR THE ASIAN STUDENTS

This activity concerns the implementation of the courses and labs. Following the second training described section 5 and in parallel with the accreditation issues, courses and labs were actually implemented within the Asian institution programmes.

This activity was organized by trained Asian teachers with the help of the EU staff. These courses labs are now well implemented and accredited in the various Asian partner institutions, such that these actions will now be repeated every year in the future.

For the Asian institutions working with Grenoble the figures are:

- 320 students for MFU.

- 215 students for NUOL.

- 120 students for ITC.

For the global project (the total 7 partners in Asia), the number of students having benefitted from implemented courses and labs is 1051.

## VII. VOCATIONAL TRAININGS IN ASIA

As a "cherry on the top" in the quality process of the project, during the "vocational" training, the European colleagues were in Asia to help Asian colleagues check and finalize the contents of their curricula, lab tutorials, and the preparation and organization of the vocational trainings targeting industrial employees. The European colleagues participated in the vocational training managed, taught, and trained by the Asian colleagues. Surveys regarding vocational trainings were provided.

When the European colleagues were in Asia for the vocational trainings, some other actions were achieved for a good finalization of the project.

At MFU (see Fig. 6), we installed a new ET200 Siemens device we received very lately, configured the architecture, transferred to our Thai colleagues and developed the related pedagogical environment. We validated the labs and courses pedagogical resources (ebooks) prepared by our Thai colleagues, together with some advises for improvement. We took also the opportunity to work on Deliverables of the project and report on the project activities.
<figure><img src="image_8.png" /><figcaption>Fig. 6: Vocational training at MFU</figcaption></figure>

This meeting in NUOL (see Fig. 7) dealt with the practical lab monitoring, done by the European teachers, with the Asian teachers, and the Vocational training preparation and implementation. At the beginning of the mission, we organised, together P6 and P3 staff, the vocational training to be held end of the second week in Vientiane. At the same time, some updates of the Benchmark in Vientiane were achieved with late arrival (due to the shortage of electronic components) devices. Some working sessions regarding the reporting of the project were also organised.

<figure><img src="image_9.png" /><figcaption>Fig. 7: Vocational training at NUOL</figcaption></figure>

In ITC (see Fig. 8), we worked on the finalisation of the organisation of the vocational. We worked also on the balance of reporting for the project. Some official inauguration of the Centers of Excellence in ITC and RUPP (Royal University of Phnom Penh) were also held during our stay in Phnom Penh. Finally, we took the opportunity to work on the quality assurance process, by checking the complete set of reports designed by the partners, together with the coordinator, which held after to the design, by our colleague D. Lubineau of a tool for the automatic generations of the staff cost declarations (around 1200 sheets for the complete project...) (see Fig. 9).

<figure><img src="image_10.png" /><figcaption>Fig. 8: Vocational training in ITC</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_11.png" /><figcaption>Fig. 9: The Staff Cost Calculator deployed in the project</figcaption></figure>

Regarding vocationals, the typical programme of two days was:

- 1st day: Official opening by a representative of the institution and representative of the project

- Pre-survey then an introduction on Industry 4.0/5.0 environment,

- Course about PLC programming, basics of networking and use of the GICS-HIL card

- Labs in simulation

- 2nd day: Labs on the actual platform

- Post-survey

In MFU, the vocational training was designed to target the SUMMIT COMPUTER.CO., LTD, Chiang Rai. It was organized Saturday 11th November and Sunday 12th November 2023. The attendance was composed of eight persons from SUMMIT COMPUTER.CO., LTD.

In NUOL, the attendance was composed of one person from Industry and Commercial Chamber, 2 persons from Heineken, 3 persons from EDL, one person from Lao Tobacco Limited and 2 students. The vocational was organized Thursday 18th and Friday 19th May 2023.

In ITC, the vocational was organized Wednesday 16th and Thursday 17th August 2023. The attendance was composed of 16 people: 2 employees from Dynamic Engineering Steels Company, 2 from Cambodia Beverage Company Ltd, 2 from ISI Steel Co. Ltd, 2 from YHS (Cambodia) Food and Beverage Pte Ltd, 2 from ArrowDot, 2 lecturers from RUPP and 4 students from ITC.

The loop is complete, the trained trainers are now able to train themselves, other colleagues, students (training 2 in Asia described before), and employees (vocational training) using their centers of excellence and their benchmarks. From a quality point of view, this is a good feedback and verification that the Asian colleagues are well trained, they know and have the skills regarding these new devices and also, they emphasized their contacts with companies.

## VIII. PROJECT SUSTAINABILITY, RESEARCH EXTENSIONS

The Erasmus+ project Asean FACTORI 4.0 is an educational project targeting two user groups - Universities teaching automation technologies and industrial companies applying these technologies in practice. The main results of the project are the creation of new
teaching curricula, the training of several dozen Master's level students and automation professionals in modern automation techniques, and the realization of teaching platforms based on state-of-the-art PLCs. Each platform was developed targeting a specific application (building automation, cyber-security, remote control, etc.). Regarding the benchmarks designed by UGA, the main features are:

- For MFU: Siemens PLC, for application in the field of Supervision and process emulation.

- For NUOL: Wago PLC, for application in the field of Wireless communication.

- For ITC: Schneider PLC & Stormshield Industrial firewall, for application in the field of Cybersecurity.

During the project life time, professional relationships were also established between the different participants, and in practice a professional network was created. To ensure the sustainability of the project and capitalize on the momentum that has been created, a second phase of development at a higher scientific and educational level can be considered. The equipment developed is ideally suited to research work. For example, similar equipment (PLC) is used in the Gipsa-Lab research laboratory at UGA.

On the basis of the benchmarks, it is possible to develop general research activities in automation as well as in more applicative activities which are specific to each Asian partner. In terms of education, it's possible to train Ph.D. thesis students. It is also possible to carry out Master students' projects in the fields of interest of the different partners.

For example, ITC benchmark, which uses Stormshield protection technology dedicated to cyber security, can be used as a material basis for general research into automation network security. MFU Benchmark, which uses distributed input/output network technology (Profinet bus data on Internet protocols), can be used in the field of farm automation (smart farm) - an area of research being actively developed by partner MFU. Currently, the massive introduction of wireless data communication technologies (Industrial Wireless, IWLAN, LoRaWAN, Wireless IO) and 4th and 5th generation cellular industrial networks (NB-IoT, LTE-M ...) is opening up very interesting research prospects in distributed automation. The integration of PLC systems with computer networks, the concepts of PLC virtualization and hardware-in-the-loop (HITL) are also promising areas of research. In this regard a paper proposing the use of the project's benchmark platforms for research purposes was submitted to the Workshop dedicated to the Asean FACTORI project at the ECIT / DAMT / NCON 2023 conference in Phuket, Thailand [9].

Asean FACTORI has established a solid material base, and created a network of teachers, researchers and industrials that should be developed further in the future. Sustainability and extension of the project in the research field can be achieved on the basis of the individual contacts already established, or on a more organized and formalized basis by trying to organize and carry out new educational research-oriented projects.

## IX. CONCLUSIONS

On the conceptual dimension, the purpose of the project was to transfer the concepts of Industry 4.0 among which: automation: control, instrumentation, supervision, but also communication (wired and wireless), dependability and even cyber-security in an industrial context, these notions aiming at being part of new recognized curricula in the Asian institutions. The global project aims at proposing a network of centers of excellence in the field of Industry 4.0 providing some focuses on each of the concepts of Industry 4.0.

Each Center of excellence (6 within the project) got from the project a dedicated platform with a specific application and a specific PLC environment from a specific brand.

At UGA (Grenoble), we worked in partnership with 3 Asian partners. For ITC, a Schneider-based platform with a focus on cyber-security is now in Phnom Penh; for NUOL a Wago-based platform with a dedicated focus on wireless networks is available in Vientiane and was used during the second training; for MFU, a Siemens-based platform focusing on emulation and remote control is now in Chiang Rai. Second trainings in Asia to implement the platform and the pedagogical resources has been achieved in 2022; Vocational trainings were achieved in 2023, as a finalization of the project.

Despite the pandemics but also the “electronic devices crisis”, and consequently correlated delays, the project finished very well, the last components were finally issued. The three platforms are now in Asia and were used first for labs with students, and secondly for vocationals with employees from companies. The Asian partners updated their own curricula, in order to propose Industry 4.0 concepts within courses and labs using the platforms/benchmarks developed by European partners. Centres of excellence were established in each of the Asian institutions. New or updated courses were accredited within the national and institutional accreditation process, by each Asian institution.

## ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This paper is based on a project co-funded by the ERASMUS+ Programme of the European Union: Asean Factori 4.0, Across South East Asian Nations: From Automation and Control Training to the Overall Roll-out of Industry 4.0, 609854-EPP-1-2019-1-FR-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP.

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[8] https://tuningacademy.org/methodology/, reached 24th April 2024.

[9] E. Novakov, J.-M. Thiriet, Leveraging Asean Factori 4.0 Project Platforms and NB-IoT Cellular Communications for Research and Development Activities, ECTI / DAMT / NCON, 22-24 March 2023, Phuket.