Keynote Wednesday, Sept. 25th, 2013

Roland Bent

"Intelligent Networking as a Key for Industry 4.0"

Roland Bent, born in 1958, studied electrical engineering with main focus on telecommunications engineering at the University of Applied Sciences of East Westphalia-Lippe in Germany. He has been working at Phoenix Contact GmbH & Co. KG since 1984. The company is one of the worldwide leading suppliers for electromechanical and electronic interface products as well as comprehensive automation solutions with a turnover of 1.6 Billion Euro in 2012 and approx. 13000 employees globally.
Roland Bent started his career as a development engineer for industrial fieldbus systems and automation technology. Since 2001, as a member of the Executive Board, Roland Bent is liable for marketing and product-development as well as innovation and technology management of the Phoenix Contact Group.
Besides his work at Phoenix Contact, Roland Bent has further responsibilities in various industry and scientific organisations. He is involved in the National Platform for Electrical-Mobility as the Vice-Chairman of working group 4 (standardisation). He is a member of the Board of Directors of the trade association Automation and Chairman of the Board of Department 6, industrial controls, switch gear, switch plants of the German Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers� Association (ZVEI e. V.). As the Vice Chairman of the Board working group �International Standardisation� of the ZVEI he is involved in the standardisation strategy of the German electrotechnical industry. He also is a member of the exhibitors� advisory board of the trade fairs SPS/IPC/DRIVES, Electronica and Hanover Fair.
For the �Institute Industrial IT� (inIT) of the University of Ostwestfalen-Lippe Roland Bent is acting as a member of the Science Advisory Board, he also is in the Board of Trustees of Fraunhofer Institute IOSB, Karlsruhe. Since 2010 he is a guest professor at the Tongji University in Shanghai. Furthermore Roland Bent is the President of the German Committee and the German representative in the Council Board of IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission).








Picture: Roland Bent

Keynote Thursday, Sept. 26th, 2013

Prof. Charles Curry

"From Light Years to Nanoseconds - A Journey Through Time"

�Time� plays a vital part in our World today. We never have enough of it and yet, without it, nothing would get done. Charles will take the audience on a journey through �Time� where the audience will be encouraged to interact with the speaker. Case studies, photos and video clips will help to illustrate key points.

The journey will begin with a wide ranging review of the components of �Time� and time scales. These include the three essential components: Time of Day, Timing and Phase. Then more aspects of �Time� will be explored including clocks, UTC (Universal Coordinated Time), nanoseconds & light years, the speed of Light, frequency, the electromagnetic spectrum, leap seconds, bending time, relativity, gravity, time transport and more.

The journey will continue by exploring why accurate �Time� is vital in everyday life including a review of industries and applications that just would not work without �Time�. These include Telecoms, Power, Computing, Navigation, Transport, and Broadcasting.

Finally what happens when time goes wrong or gets damaged? Can we interfere with SatNav? What would happen if the Sun got �wind�? Can we make time go backwards? Does time change when we go into space?


Prof. Charles Curry, B.Eng, CEng, FIET. Managing Director

Charles Curry is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and founder & Managing Director of Chronos Technology Ltd. Charles graduated in Electronics from Liverpool University in 1973, and started his career at GEC Hirst Research Centre working on silicon MOS boundary research, progressing to Racal Instruments where he was responsible for sales of test equipment including specialist frequency and time products such as Loran C and Caesium standards. Later with GSE Rentals Charles was involved with some of the first civil GPS and laptop PC deployments into the North Sea offshore oil industry during the early 1980�s.

He founded Chronos, a leading system integrator for synchronisation and timing products in the UK telecom industry, in 1986. Chronos has supplied and installed thousands of GPS & Timing systems worldwide for mobile and fixed line telecom operators. The Chronos Synchronisation MasterClass has been delivered to more than a 1000 delegates across the globe.

Charles founded the International Telecom Sync Forum (ITSF) in 2001 and chairs the ITSF Steering Group. He is also a member of the Workshop in Sync in Telecommunications Systems (WSTS) Steering Group which meets annually in Boulder, Colorado. Charles is on the Steering Group for the Technology Strategy Board�s Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN) for Digital Systems - Location and Timing Programme. Charles is also a member of the Industry Advisory Boards for the Universities of Liverpool and Bath, Electrical and Electronics Faculties.

In 2012 Charles was awarded Honorary Professorships from the University of Bath, Faculty of Engineering & Design, Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering and the University of Liverpool, Department of Electrical Engineering & Electronics.





Picture: Prof. Charles Curry