John Williams Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering
The MIT Industrial Liaison Program presents "2025 MIT Bangkok Symposium - Unleashing AI: Transforming Industries, Empowering Futures," a symposium focused on the transformative potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) across various industries. As AI technologies rapidly evolve, businesses are faced with unprecedented opportunities to enhance productivity, innovate processes, and redefine operational models. Attendees will gain insights from leading MIT researchers and industry experts on how AI can drive efficiency, accelerate decision-making, and enable sustainable growth. automation, advanced analytics, and machine learning while addressing challenges such as ethical AI use, workforce transformation, and data governance. By bringing together academia and business leaders, this symposium will provide a forward-looking perspective on how AI can empower businesses to navigate future disruptions, foster innovation, and create a more resilient and adaptable industrial landscape.
Biotechnology is poised to enable entirely new manufacturing in the 21st century. The rapid advances in synthetic biology and genome-scale biology are powering new capabilities to make a range of products from basic chemicals to uniquely biologically-enabled products like tissues. Combining these 'front-end' technologies with emerging 'back-end' elements like continuous and integrated operations, automation, and AI/ML can enable new models for accessible biomanufacturing capacity. Growing new capabilities for biomanufacturing could transform the industrial base to enable circular bioeconomies that are both sustainable and prosperous.
Moderator: Steve Whittaker Program Director, MIT Industrial Liaison Program
Panelists: Ben Armstrong Executive Director, MIT Industrial Performance Center
J. Christopher Love Raymond A. (1921) and Helen E. St. Laurent Professor, MIT Department of Chemical Engineering, Member, Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT, Associate Member, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Associate Member, Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard
Faez Ahmed ABS Career Development Assistant Professor, MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering
Bruce Lawler Managing Director, MIT Machine Intelligence for Manufacturing and Operations
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Engineers, who know systems and processes, are generally separated from operators, who are often only trained on specific machines. New manufacturing technologies, whether in robotics or digital production, are transforming factory floors. Advanced manufacturing requires workers with a technician’s practical know-how and an engineer’s comprehension of processes and systems. Companies that want to move into advanced manufacturing often struggle to find people who know how to integrate technologies to optimize the whole system, manage technological advances, and drive innovation. We call this worker the “technologist.” As advanced technological manufacturing progresses, technologists will be essential in the adoption of next-generation factory systems. We believe that training programs for technologists can empower both incumbent and aspiring workers to be knowledgeable, productive, and adaptable contributors to a more robust US manufacturing economy (Liu & Bonvillian, 2024). MIT is excited to provide pathways for employees to advance in their careers, create training that allows companies to fill key roles, and build a workforce that will strengthen America’s industrial base.