Organizations and individuals are facing tremendous challenges in today’s workplace. How work gets done, when and where work gets done and now who does the work are key questions that leaders have to tackle. In this symposium we will address the impact of Artificial Intelligence on the future of work. How can new technology tools like generative AI improve productivity and product quality for firms, as well as flexibility and job quality for workers? How can we tackle workforce development in new ways to gear up for this paradigm shift in the workplace?
John Roberts has been Executive Director of MIT Corporate Relations (Interim) since February 2022. He obtained his Ph.D. in organic chemistry at MIT and returned to the university after a 20-year career in the pharmaceutical industry, joining the MIT Industrial Liaison Program (ILP) in 2013. Prior to his return, John worked at small, medium, and large companies, holding positions that allowed him to exploit his passions in synthetic chemistry, project leadership, and alliance management while growing his responsibilities for managing others, ultimately as a department head. As a program director at MIT, John built a portfolio of ILP member companies, mostly in the pharmaceutical industry and headquartered in Japan, connecting them to engagement opportunities in the MIT community. Soon after returning to MIT, John began to lead a group of program directors with a combined portfolio of 60-80 global companies. In his current role, John oversees MIT Corporate Relations which houses ILP and MIT Startup Exchange.
Christophe Lienard joined the Bouygues Group in 2011 and was appointed Chief Innovation Officer for Bouygues SA in September 2017. From 2013 to 2017, he was Chief Innovation Officer at Colas, one of the world leaders in mobility infrastructures, and created and ran the Colas Innovation Board. In October 2015, Colas announced the launch of Wattway to produce photovoltaic energy from roads, which won the climate solution trophy at COP21. Previously, Lienard was Deputy CEO and Director of the Anovo Group from and earlier started his career with the Swedish group Atlas Copco. Lienard is a graduate from “Arts et Métiers ParisTech,” a National Graduate Engineering School engineer, has an advanced degree from UPMC Paris on energy conversion, and an Executive MBA from ICG. He is cofounder of the think tank Futura Mobility, cofounder and Vice President of IMPACT-AI, and a member of the Scientific Committee of the Global Center for the Future.
Pattie Maes is a professor in MIT's Program in Media Arts and Sciences. She runs the Media Lab's Fluid Interfaces research group, which aims to radically reinvent the human-machine experience. Coming from a background in artificial intelligence and human-computer interaction, she is particularly interested in the topic of cognitive enhancement, or how immersive and wearable systems can actively assist people with memory, attention, learning, decision making, communication, and wellbeing.
Maes is the editor of three books, and is an editorial board member and reviewer for numerous professional journals and conferences. She has received several awards: Fast Company named her one of 50 most influential designers (2011); Newsweek picked her as one of the "100 Americans to watch for" in the year 2000; TIME Digital selected her as a member of the “Cyber Elite,” the top 50 technological pioneers of the high-tech world; the World Economic Forum honored her with the title "Global Leader for Tomorrow"; Ars Electronica awarded her the 1995 World Wide Web category prize; and in 2000 she was recognized with the "Lifetime Achievement Award" by the Massachusetts Interactive Media Council. She has also received an honorary doctorate from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium, and her 2009 TED talk on "the 6th sense device" is among the most-watched TED talks ever.
In addition to her academic endeavors, Maes has been an active entrepreneur as co-founder of several venture-backed companies, including Firefly Networks (sold to Microsoft), Open Ratings (sold to Dun & Bradstreet) and Tulip Co (privately held). Prior to joining the Media Lab, Maes was a visiting professor and a research scientist at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab. She holds a bachelor's degree in computer science and a PhD in artificial intelligence from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium.
With multiple leadership roles at MIT, Kathleen is on the front lines of technology and innovation. Right now, she is passionate about AI education, digital transformation, and sustainable fashion. She is a strategic leader with a unique skill set for transforming organizations as well as building new ones.
As Executive Director of the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence, Kathleen works with a multidisciplinary research team on Supermind Design, a methodology for designing intelligent human/machine organizations. She is putting that into practice at MIT Open Learning, where she leads MIT Horizon, a digital learning platform helping organizations to train at scale about emerging technologies such as AI.
Our world is filled with complex systems of people and machines that we humans have designed: from companies and governments to economies and societies and as technologies and human desires change, the configurations of these systems often need to change, too. Supermind Design is an approach that emphasizes generating innovative new possibilities for how to configure these systems.
Ben Armstrong is the executive director of MIT’s Industrial Performance Center. His research and teaching examine how workers, firms, and regions adapt to technological change. In his work, Ben has collaborated with governments, non-profit organizations, and firms to understand how scholarship and education can be useful to practitioners and policymakers. Previously, he worked for Google Inc. and served on the board of an open-source hardware non-profit. Ben received his PhD from MIT.
Catarina has been working with the Cambridge/Boston startup ecosystem for over 10 years and joined Corporate Relations with a solid network in the innovation and entrepreneurial community. Prior to MIT, she was part of the team that designed and launched the startup accelerator IUL MIT Portugal, which was later rebranded as Building Global Innovators. She was based in Lisbon and worked in direct relation with the Cambridge team. She held positions including Operations Coordinator, Program Manager, and Business Developer. The accelerator soon achieved steady growth in large part due to the partnerships that Catarina led with regional and global startup ecosystems. After that, she worked at NECEC, leading a program that connects cleantech startups and industry. In this role, she developed and built a pipeline of startups and forged strong relationships with both domestic and European companies. She has also held positions in Portugal and France, including at Saboaria e Perfumaria Confiança and L’Oréal as Technical Director and Pharmacist. Catarina earned her bachelor's in chemistry and pharmaceutical sciences in Portugal. She went on to earn her Master of Engineering for Health and Medicines in France.
Peter Godart, PhD is the co-founder and CEO of Found Energy, an MIT spinout commercializing breakthrough technology that turns aluminum into fuel for generating low-cost, clean hydrogen on demand. He holds BSc degrees in mechanical and electrical engineering and an MSc and PhD in mechanical engineering from MIT. After earning his bachelor’s degrees in 2015, Dr. Godart spent two years as a research scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (347G), where he worked daily operations for the Mars Science Laboratory (“Curiosity”), qualified hardware for the Mars 2020 Rover (“Perseverance”), and led a research team in the exploring aluminum-based fuel for potential Europa lander applications. For his doctoral work, Dr. Godart developed new ways of extracting energy from aluminum waste to power electricity generation and seawater desalination in the aftermath of natural disasters, laying the groundwork for his company. Dr. Godart is also an avid educator and writer, and his first book Thermodynamics and ClimateChange is available on MIT Opencourseware.
VirjKan is an engineer, designer, and entrepreneur. Her work centers on building experiences that reshape human relationships with the environment and each other. She is the CEO of Primitives Biodesign, a biomaterials startup that produces functional, intelligent, and biodegradable materials to combat environmental issues in kelp conservation, plastics pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and food waste. As an avid scuba diver, Virj draws on her first-hand experiences with marine ecosystems, to develop market-based solutions to drive climate action. Virj Kan received her master of science degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she utilized ocean-based materials to develop stimuli responsive biopolymers that changed color, released odor, and changed shape for industrial design applications. She has over seven years of hands-on materials engineering and formulation experience with a range of biological materials. Her body of work spans from engineering functional biomaterials, to building digital fabrication tools, designing 3D robotic manipulation, IoT and mobile computing interfaces at the Samsung Design Innovation Center & NASA Jet Propulsion Lab.
John Xin is a proven business executive with 20+ years of experience across financial services and automotive industry; Past experience include business development, strategic partnerships, fundraising, product innovation, corporate investment and management consulting. Prior to founding Lunewave, he was a Managing Director of Strategic Partnerships Group at a Fortunate 100 company responsible for ~$500M in annual revenue.
Patrick Stack has beendeveloping software for the surface metrology, finite element analysis, and additive manufacturing industries for over 25 years. Patrick founded the software company, TrueGage, which has been in the surface metrology software business for 20 years. Currently he is working for GelSight, a manufacturer of mobile tactile sensors and software, as a Principal Software Engineer. Patrick is a member of the B46.1 Standard Committee on Surface Texture Analysis.
Prior to joining MIT in September 2022, Olivier Cadet was Senior Vice President Global Operations, Americas, and President of Kongsberg Maritime Inc. located in Houston, TX and responsible for Kongsberg Maritime operations in the Americas region. Prior to assuming his role in July 2018, Olivier was Executive Vice President of Products & Services, based in Norway. In that role, Olivier was overseeing the teams managing Kongsberg Maritime’s products portfolio aligned with market demands and future trends, such as autonomous operations and digital performance. Olivier was also accountable for Kongsberg Maritime’s strategic initiative around Information Management System and Smart Data.
Olivier started his international career in the offshore drilling industry in 1998, working for Schlumberger/Transocean as a Controls Engineer where he was involved in the installation, commissioning and support of Dynamic Positioning and Automation systems on offshore drilling rigs. In 2004 Olivier joined Air Liquide, the world leader in industrial gases, where he served for 9 years in a variety of innovation management roles, including R&D Group Manager and Program Director, driving Air Liquide’s research efforts in the field of Advanced Process Control and Operations Research to support the company’s efficiency program.
A dual citizen (U.S./France), Olivier graduated from the Grenoble Institute of Technology (INP Grenoble) in France in 1998 with a Master of Engineering (Diplôme d’Ingénieur) in Electrical Engineering. He completed the Advanced Management Program with MIT Sloan Executive Education in June 2022.