Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Manufacturing: An Overview
Speaker: ACM Distinguished Speaker Prof. Ram SriramChief, Software & Systems Division, NIST
Time: Feb. 6th 2026, Friday, 12pm to 1:30pm
Location: In Person: ITE 325b
Lunch provided!
Abstract
Artificial Intelligence (AI) focuses on developing computer programs that emulate human intelligence and problem-solving strategies. Since its inception in the 1950s, AI has evolved through multiple waves—from knowledge-based expert systems, to neural networks and machine learning, and now toward a third wave that integrates learning with knowledge structures.
In this talk, Prof. Sriram will provide an overview of major AI methods and discuss their applications in the manufacturing domain, including expert systems, neural networks, and other machine learning techniques.
Bio:
Prof. Ram D. Sriram is the Chief of the Software & Systems Division at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)’s Information Technology Laboratory (ITL). He previously served on the engineering faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he founded the Intelligent Engineering Systems Laboratory and initiated the pioneering MIT-DICE project in collaborative engineering.
Prof. Sriram has authored or co-authored nearly 300 publications, including several books on Artificial Intelligence, and his work has received numerous best paper and most-cited paper awards. His honors include the NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award, the ASME Design Automation Award, multiple Lifetime Achievement Awards, and the IEEE Reliability Society Lifetime Achievement Award (2023).
He is a Fellow of ACM, IEEE (Life), AAAS, ASME, AIMBE, and several other professional societies, and currently serves as President-Elect of the Washington Academy of Sciences. Prof. Sriram has also held numerous national leadership roles, including chairing the IEEE Computer Society Fellow Evaluating Committee and serving on federal advisory and steering committees related to AI, software systems, and manufacturing.
Host: DaYuan Tan, James Baker, Weikan Tan, Rui Jin
