Less downtime, less energy in predictive maintenance AI solution

Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) students used “out-of-the-box” thinking to create a unique energy saving and outage reduction business case to win the 25,000-dirham top prize at the inaugural Pioneers 4.0 Hackathon series recently.

MBZUAI Class of 2022 graduates Zhaksylyk Kazykenov and Aidana Nurakhmetova, together with Samar Fares from MBZUAI, and Shaikha Al Athmani from the University of Manchester, formed the winning team.

The challenge required participants to leverage data from sensors and manufacturing execution systems to develop a solution using artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies to enhance predictive maintenance.

“The solution we developed focused on predicting anomaly occurrence from time-series sensor data,” Nurakhmetova explains. “First, we closely analyzed the provided dataset and extracted only necessary feature columns. In other words, we applied a data preprocessing technique which means cleaning the data and transforming it to a valid format.

“Afterwards, we tried Microsoft Azure models although we faced some challenges. Thus, we trained another model called Prophet which helped us to identify the presence of anomalous patterns from the input. These anomalies detected in the manufacturing cycle led us to energy saving solutions and the prevention of unplanned sensor outages, making for a more efficient maintenance cycle.

“We were pleased with our efforts in such a short period of time and presented the solution on the second and final day to a jury of subject matter experts from MoIAT, EDGE, and Microsoft.”

A total of 15 students from some of the UAE’s leading universities, including the American University of Sharjah, Higher College of Technology, Khalifa University, MBZUAI, New York University Abu Dhabi, Zayed University, and the University of Manchester, collaborated in teams and proposed an innovative solution for the chosen problem statement.

The Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology (MoIAT) and EDGE Group PJSC (‘EDGE’ or ‘the Group’) Pioneers 4.0 Hackathon is part of a series of initiatives to accelerate digital transformation in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The hackathon series aims to bridge the gap between university studies and the industrial ecosystem, creating an opportunity for bachelor, master’s and Ph.D. students to put theoretical knowledge into practice and contribute to solving some of the industry’s pressing challenges nowadays. This aligns with the mission and vision of MBZUAI to provide a pipeline of AI experts to drive the UAE’s adoption of 4IR advanced technologies. MBZUAI will celebrate the graduation of its first 52 master’s students on January 30, 2023.

Tariq Al Hashmi, Head of Technology Development and Adoption at MoIAT, said, “This hackathon is a prime example of how leading national companies can work together with global corporations and academic institutions, using the UAE’s industrial ecosystem as a platform to support not only one another’s objectives but also the upskilling of national talent. We congratulate the winners of the first Pioneers 4.0 cohort and look forward to witnessing the longer-term impact of the initiative.”