2024 RAPDASA-RobMech-PRASA-AMI Conference

First Announcement and Call for Papers

Following the success of the 2023 RAPDASA Conference, joined by RobMech, PRASA and AMI, hosted at the CSIR in November 2023, we are pleased to announce the first call for papers for the 2024 RAPDASA international conference to be held on 28 – 31 October 2024 at the Boardwalk Hotel and Conference Venue in Gqeberha, South Africa. RAPDASA is again joined by Robotics and Mechatronics (RobMech), the Pattern Recognition Association of South Africa (PRASA) and the South African Advanced Materials Initiative (AMI).

This conference will bring together experts from industry, R&D institutions, academia and students in additive manufacturing, materials engineering, rapid product development, pattern recognition, robotics and mechatronics to present research, network and expand the fraternity that has been built by the previous conferences.

The theme of the 2024 conference is: Unlocking Advanced Manufacturing

This is a call to everyone involved with advanced manufacturing in its various forms. Our collective aim is to support and advance the manufacturing industry for inclusive economic growth, academic collaboration, increasing competitiveness and improving the livelihoods of people.

The conference will offer opportunities for local and international participants from industry, R&D institutions, academia and government, to connect and collaborate to grow the next generation of advanced manufacturing enterprises across the African continent and globally.

Conference papers on the following topics are welcomed:

Additive Manufacturing
Rapid Prototyping
Advanced Manufacturing
Computer-aided Design
Product Engineering
Reverse Engineering
Design
Simulation and Modelling
Process Modelling
Structural Analysis
Materials Selection for Design
Materials Engineering
Materials Processing
Tooling Design and Development
Classifiers and related topics
Speech processing
Natural language processing
Computer vision and image processing
Bioinformatics
Signal processing
Remote sensing
Artificial intelligence
Machine learning
Computational analytics
End-user applications and systems
FMS Artificial Intelligence
Knowledge Based Systems
Information Technology Applied to Manufacturing
Computer-Aided Engineering Education
Sensors and Applications
Robots and Automation
Lean Manufacturing Logistics
Modelling and Simulation Scheduling
Management of Technology
Operations Management
Education and Training using Robotics
Agile Manufacturing, Mechatronics
Distributed Control Systems
Energy
Manufacturing Neural Networks
Mobile robotics
Mining robotics

Who should attend?
The Organizing Committee, on behalf of RAPDASA, RobMech, PRASA and AMI, invites product designers, engineers, production staff, technical directors and managers from industry involved in design, development and manufacturing of products and components to participate or simply attend the conference. In addition, participants from international product development and materials engineering communities, academia and R&D institutions are also invited to attend and participate in the conference. Furthermore, additive manufacturing, robotics and pattern recognition, are becoming important for general managers and CEOs and the world of finance and investment. Ample opportunities will be available to meet with experts in the field.

Important deadlines:
Deadline for submission of paper and poster abstracts: 29 March 2024
Notification of acceptance of abstracts of papers and posters: 8 April 2024
Deadline for submission of full papers: 3 June 2024
Feedback on paper reviews: 2 September 2024
Submission deadline for final revised papers: 30 September 2024
Submission deadline for poster designs: 30 September 2024
Please see Conference abstract & paper submission for instructions on how to submit an abstract to the conference.

Publication of papers
Abstracts must first be accepted before submission of a full paper can proceed. All papers submitted for the conference will be subjected to a double-blind peer review process, which will be led by the Technical Committee. Papers accepted after peer review will be published in the conference proceedings in MATEC Web of Conferences. Selected papers that comply with the scope of the journal and are of high quality, will be submitted for publication in the ISI accredited The South African Journal of Industrial Engineering (SAJIE).  

Industry presentations
As an alternative to the above publication of peer-reviewed papers, industry participants can present their applied research in a non-peer-reviewed format. Only an abstract must be submitted for such industry presentations. Industry presentations are not included in the conference proceedings.

The deadline for industry abstracts is 28 June 2024.
Companies or organisations that wish to be a sponsor of the conference proceedings may contact Rynette Coetzer at info@rapdasa.org.