Fernando Ubis (MSc. Eng.) is the Research and Development Manager at Visual Components. In this role, he is responsible for all national and international research projects at the company. During his career he has specialized in production engineering, factory automation and ICT for manufacturing. He has worked in several projects integrating manufacturing techniques with the latest ICT technologies in simulation, robotics, VR/AR, AI and IoT. Fernando is actively involved in standardization activities under the IEC standardization committee, SC 65E (Devices and Integration in enterprise systems). Currently, Fernando is involved in several research projects to build the Factory of the Future. Smart Factories where newest 3D simulation and visualisation technologies combined with AI assists the worker to integrate and develop its skills in an increasing automated environment. Smart Connected Factories, where big data is generated, security handled, visualized and analysed using the latest AI/ML technologies to improve productivity along the entire product life cycle, reducing defects and enhancing the ROI.