National Manufacturing Day at Northwestern University
Speakers & Panelists
Leadership Remarks 9:30 - 10:30
Moderated by Provost Erik Luijten
Northwestern University
Northwestern University President Mung Chiang
Lisa Strama, President and CEO, National Center for Manufacturing Sciences
NCMS is a national organization focused on advancing innovation and growing the manufacturing sector in the US. At NCMS Lisa brings extensive and expansive leadership experience spanning functional roles responsible for product delivery, sales, systems design, and infrastructure improvements. Lisa has also served as senior director of Aerospace and Defense business development for digital enterprise software at a Fortune Global 100 ranked company, where she represented the global Aerospace and Defense industry and was responsible for providing integrated product and application lifecycle management solutions, strategy, and executive leadership. Prior to this, Lisa was a senior director for a Fortune 500 global security company where she provided leadership and strategic direction and execution for an affordable, enterprise-wide, integrated and common engineering environment. She also served as a senior director for manufacturing operations, where she grew and led a portfolio of more than $1 billion in manufacturing sales for highly technical and complex products. Lisa serves on the Industry Advisory Board of the Tauber Institute for Global Operations at the University of Michigan. She also serves on the Industries of the Blind Board of Directors for the North Carolina based manufacturing and logistics organization. Lisa was also the recipient of SME’s International Manufacturing Management award.
Corporate Panel 9:30 - 10:30
Moderated by Prof. Jian Cao
Northwestern University Mechanical Engineering
Stan Rendon, VP R&D, 3M Corporate Research Process Laboratory
Stan Rendon is the R&D Vice President for 3M’s Corporate Research Process Laboratory. Stan leads a global team focused on applying science and engineering to create differentiated, world-class process technology solutions aligned to 3M Division and Business Group opportunities that ultimately solve customer and end-user focused needs. Stan began his career at 3M when he joined 3M’s Corporate Research Laboratory (CRL) where he worked on broadening the reach of precision molding, film and microreplication technologies into key market spaces such as Drug Delivery, Occupational Health and Personal Safety, and LED Illumination. Over the course of his 20-year career, Stan has held a range of leadership roles of increasing responsibility in CRL, Divisional R&D, Application Engineering and at 3M’s Business Group Level. Stan has been recognized as one of 3M’s top innovation leaders with four business-level Circle of Technical Excellence & Innovation awards and one at 3M’s corporate-level. He was part of the NAE Frontiers of Engineering class of 2008 as a sole 3M-invitee. He is currently an active member of Northwestern University’s Chemical and Biological Engineering Industrial Advisory Board, AIChE Corporate Council and newly minted board member of the GEM Consortium. Stan holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota and master’s and PhD degrees in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern University.
Yu Cao, Chief AI Officer, Applied Materials
Dr. Yu Cao (CalTech’PhD ’MS, USTC’BS) is the Chief AI Officer at Applied Materials, where he oversees the AI strategy and execution across the company, since January 2026. Previously, Yu was a Senior Vice President and Head of AI Program and Strategy at ASML where he shaped the strategy to connect ASML's global innovations to AI technologies. Prior to that, Yu was CEO of HMI, ASML's e-beam business unit. Under Yu's leadership, HMI delivered the industry's first multibeam inspection tools and achieved substantial business growth. During that period, he also served as President and Country Manager of ASML US. Yu co-founded Brion Technologies in 2002 and championed the successful application of deep learning in computational lithography. Brion was acquired by ASML in 2007. Yu was also the co-founder and chief product officer at Founton Technologies, a computational advertising startup which was acquired by Alibaba in 2014. Yu holds over 50 US patents.
Amey Deosthali, Head of Robotics, Industrial & Healthcare (Physical AI) AMD
Amey Deosthali is head of Robotics, Industrial, and Healthcare business at AMD, where he leads business strategy and ecosystem development for intelligent edge and Physical AI. He works with customers and technology partners to translate advances in AI and embedded computing into deployable solutions that address real-world challenges across industrial automation, manufacturing, robotics, and healthcare. Amey has spent more than two decades working across engineering, product strategy, business development, and marketing. Before his current role, Amey held a series of leadership positions at AMD spanning embedded computing, automotive, and industrial markets. Prior to AMD, Amey spent more than a decade at Texas Instruments, where he held engineering, product, and business leadership roles across the company’s OMAP and embedded processing businesses. He holds an MBA from the University of California, Irvine, and an M.S. in Engineering from University of Texas at Austin.
Northwestern Faculty Panel 10:45 - 11:45
Moderated by Dean Chris Schuh
McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Jian Cao, Director of NIMSI
Jian Cao (MIT’95, 92, SJTU’89) is an Associate Vice President for Research, the Cardiss Collins Professor of Mechanical Engineering and (by courtesy) Civil and Environmental Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering and Director, Northwestern Initiative for Manufacturing Science and Innovation (NIMSI), at Northwestern University. Cao's major research interests include innovative manufacturing processes and systems, particularly in the areas of deformation-based processes, laser additive, and hybrid processes. Her research has developed analytical and numerical simulation methods, sensors, and control methods, and has integrated machine learning to achieve co-design of geometry, materials and processes and to advance manufacturing. Her work has direct impacts on energy-efficient manufacturing and point-of-need manufacturing. She is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Prof. Cao serves on the Board of Directors of SME, and Board of mHUB – accelerator for hardtech innovation and manufacturing in Chicago.
Ed Colgate, Director of HAND
Mark Hersam, Director of MRC
Mark C. Hersam (Cambridge ‘97, UIUC’00,’96) is the Walter P. Murphy Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Director of the Materials Research Center, and Chair of the Materials Science and Engineering Department at Northwestern University. He also holds faculty appointments in the Departments of Chemistry, Applied Physics, Medicine, and Electrical Engineering. His research interests include nanoelectronic materials, additive manufacturing, scanning probe microscopy, renewable energy, sensors, neuromorphic computing, and quantum information science. Dr. Hersam has received several honors including the TMS John Bardeen Award, ACS Award in Surface Chemistry, MRS Mid-Career Researcher Award, AVS Medard Welch Award, U.S. Science Envoy, MacArthur Fellowship, and nine Teacher of the Year Awards. Dr. Hersam has been repeatedly named a Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researcher with over 750 peer-reviewed publications that have been cited ~90,000 times. An elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and National Academy of Inventors with over 170 issued and pending patents, Dr. Hersam has founded two companies, NanoIntegris and Volexion, which are suppliers of nanoelectronic and battery materials, respectively. Dr. Hersam is a Fellow of MRS, ACS, ECS, AVS, APS, AAAS, SPIE, and IEEE, and also serves as an Executive Editor of ACS Nano.
John Rogers, Director of QSIB & Director of QSI-TEAMS
From 1995 to 1997, Rogers was a Junior Fellow in the Harvard University Society of Fellows. He joined Bell Laboratories as a Member of Technical Staff in the Condensed Matter Physics Research Department in 1997, and served as Director of this department from the end of 2000 to 2002. He then spent thirteen years on the faculty at University of Illinois, most recently as the Swanlund Chair Professor and Director of the Seitz Materials Research Laboratory. In the Fall of 2016, he joined Northwestern University as the Louis Simpson and Kimberly Querrey Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Biomedical Engineering and Medicine, with affiliate appointments in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering and Chemistry, where he is also Director of the recently endowed Querrey Simpson Institute for Bioelectronics. He has published more than 700 papers, is a co-inventor on more than 100 patents and he has co-founded several successful technology companies. His research has been recognized by many awards, including a MacArthur Fellowship (2009), the Lemelson-MIT Prize (2011), the Smithsonian Award for American Ingenuity in the Physical Sciences (2013), the MRS Medal (2018) and most recently the Benjamin Franklin Medal from the Franklin Institute (2019). He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Inventors and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Founders/SME Panel 12:30 - 13:30
Moderated by Mr. Curtis Maas
Chairman & CEO, The RDI Group
Jason Sebastian, Executive VP, QuesTek Innovation
As EVP of QuesTek Innovations LLC, Jason T. Sebastian, Ph.D., is focused on overall company growth and management, on the development and marketing of QuesTek’s ICMD® materials modeling and design software platform, and on the entire spectrum of commercial- and government-sponsored alloy modeling, development and deployment activities. Since Jason joined QuesTek in 2006, his technical activities have focused on the development of high strength steels for structural and power transmission applications; precipitation-strengthened cobalt-based alloys; alloys for additive manufacturing; non-toxic, high-strength/low-friction copper-based alloys to replace lead-containing bronzes; a low-cost, castable titanium alloy; a highly-processable nickel-based superalloy; advanced soft magnetic alloys; and other computationally-designed alloys.
Demeng Che, co-Founder & CEO, Converge Lab
Demeng Che is an entrepreneur and engineer at the intersection of AI and hardware. He is Co-Founder and CEO of Converge Lab, a Khosla Ventures–backed startup building the first agentic AI platform for hardware engineering. Converge Lab's product is in use at leading hardware organizations across AI infrastructure, semiconductors, networking, and automotive. Demeng holds a PhD from Northwestern University and an MBA from Stanford University.
Gino Domel, CEO, HiDeNN-AI
Gino is the Co-Founder and CEO of HIDENN-AI, where they are developing AI-powered engineering software that combines large language models, advanced physics simulation, and next-generation AI solvers to accelerate engineering analysis and design. He graduated first in his class in mechanical engineering from the University of Notre Dame and earned his master’s and PhD from Harvard University before completing a postdoctoral appointment at Northwestern University. His background spans mechanical engineering, artificial intelligence, soft robotics, and entrepreneurship, with a focus on translating cutting-edge technologies from the laboratory into real-world impact.
Joe Mullenbach, co-founder, Fluid Reality
Ecosystem Panel 13:30 - 14:30
Moderated by Prof. Sumit Dhar
Vice President for Research, Northwestern University
Tom Kurfess, CTO, NCMS & Executive Director of Mfg Institute, Georgia Tech
Thomas R. Kurfess is the CTO at the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences. He also serves as Chief Manufacturing Officer of the Georgia Institute of Technology, and the Executive Director of the Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute. At Georgia Tech he is the HUSCO/Ramirez Distinguished Chair in Fluid Power and Motion Control and Regents’ Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech. During 2019-2021 he also served as the Chief Manufacturing Officer, and the Founding Director for the Manufacturing Science Division at ORNL. During 2012-2013 served as the Assistant Director for Advanced Manufacturing at the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of the President of the US, where he was responsible for coordinating Federal advanced manufacturing R&D. He served as the President of the ASME in 2023-2024 and was President of the SME in 2018. He served on the Department of the Navy Science and Technology Board, and currently serves on the Department of Energy / National Nuclear Security Administration Advisory Committee on Nuclear Security. His research focuses on the design and development of advanced manufacturing systems targeting secure digital manufacturing, additive and subtractive processes, and large-scale production enterprises. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Engineering, is a past president of both ASME and SME, and is a Fellow of ASME, AAAS, and SME.
Berardino Baratta, CEO, MxD
Berardino Baratta is a recognized leader in advancing manufacturing technology. As the CEO of MxD, Berardino leads efforts to modernize and secure U.S. manufacturing, in partnership with the U.S. Department of War and a network of over 360 members from industry, government and academia. Berardino oversees MxD’s critical efforts to enhance digital readiness and cybersecurity across the manufacturing sector; prepare the workforce for the advanced manufacturing jobs of the future; and build resilient and secure supply chains. Prior to joining MxD, Berardino was CEO of Potentia Analytics, an AI healthcare startup, and held multiple positions at Freescale, including General Manager of Freescale Semiconductor’s Multimedia Applications Division. He began his career with Metrowerks Corporation, a leading provider of Software Development tools, where he led engineering through its growth from startup through acquisition by Motorola Corporation.
Allison Winstel, Chief of Staff, mHUB