Manuel Greisinger

Title of the Keynote

"Staying ahead of the innovation curve: Google insights"

Manuel works with the world's most influential companies to drive innovation and transform industries by partnering with Google Cloud and the broader Google / Alphabet organization.

He has a history of establishing trusted C-level relationships, building, enabling and scaling high-performing teams and channels to drive strategic partnerships and accelerate time-to-value for customers.

Before joining Google, Manuel was the Head of Enterprise Sales for Travel, Transportation and Logistics at Amazon Web Services in Germany. He was also an executive and investor at IHSE group, a global leader for secure, mission-critical collaboration, resource and access management solutions. Before that time, Manuel held various EMEA sales leadership positions at Intel’s Programmable Solutions Group (formerly: Altera) from 2012-2017. He also spent 3 years in San Francisco from 2009-2012, working with B2C and B2B seed and early-stage startups for i/o ventures, together with Silicon Valley luminaries. Manuel started his career at Agilent Technologies (spin-off from Hewlett-Packard) as a Technical Sales Engineer in Boeblingen, Germany.

He received a Dipl.-Ing. (FH) degree in Microsystems / Semiconductor Engineering from the University of Applied Sciences in Regensburg, Germany.

Roland Bent

Title of the Keynote

All Electric Society

Roland Bent, born 1958, studied Electrical Engineering with a focus on Telecommunication Engineering at the Ostwestfalen-Lippe University of Applied Sciences in Lemgo. He has been with Phoenix Contact in Blomberg since 1984. From 2001, he was a member of the management board and responsible for marketing and product development as well as innovation and technology management. At the beginning of 2017, his function as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) additionally combined technology and process responsibility for production and equipment manufacturing. Since his retirement from active management of the company in March 2021, Roland Bent has remained active at Phoenix Contact as Chief Representative International Standardization.

Through his memberships on the board of the Automation Association of the ZVEI (German Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers' Association) and in various steering committees for crucial future technologies, such as the German government's 'National Platform for the Future of Mobility' or the 'Industry 4.0' platform, he has been and continues to be politically and socially active in shaping technological development. As President of the DKE (German Commission for Electrical, Electronic & Information Technologies at DIN and VDE) and as President of the National Committee of the IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission), he will continue to be responsible for German Electrotechnical Standardization until the end of 2022. In addition to other supervisory and advisory board activities, Roland Bent also serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of the “Institute Industrial IT (InIT) at the Ostwestfalen-Lippe University of Applied Sciences.

Mikael Gidlund

Title of the Keynote

First 5G and now 6G - What will industrial automation benefit from it and what are the key challenges?

Mikael Gidlund received the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Mid Sweden University, Sundsvall, Sweden, in 2000 and 2005, respectively. In 2005, he was a Visiting Researcher with the Department of Informatics, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway. From 2006 to 2007, he was a Research Engineer and a Project Manager with Acreo AB, Kista, Sweden, where he was responsible for wireless broadband communication. From 2007 to 2008, he was a Senior Specialist and a Project Manager with Nera Networks AS, Bergen, where he was responsible for next-generation IP-based radio solutions. From 2008 to 2013, he was a Senior Principal Scientist and a Global Research Area Coordinator of wireless technologies with ABB Corporate Research, Västerås, Sweden, where he was responsible for technology and strategy plans, standardization, and innovation in the wireless automation area. He has pioneered the area of industrial wireless sensor network. Since 2014, he has been a Full Professor of computer engineering with Mid Sweden University and he is currently an adjunt professor at Beijing Jiaotong University, China. He has authored or co-authored close to 200 scientific publications in refereed journals and conferences. He holds over 20 patents (granted and pending applications) in the area of wireless communications. His current research interests include wireless communication and networks, wireless sensor networks, medium access protocols, and security.

Jie Wang

Title of the Keynote

Including Humans in Decision Making through Computational Learning and Knowledge Integration

Dr. Jie Wang is a Adjunct Professor at Stanford University focusing on interdisciplinary research in adaptive computational learning and reasoning for complex physical and social systems, information and knowledge management for sustainable development and innovation, decision making frameworks for sustainable strategy and business governance, information analytics and knowledge acquisition for new business and industry development, cross-culture and cross-disciplinary knowledge systems, enterprise modeling, enterprise IT infrastructure management, smart infrastructures, smart city and smart society, smart manufacture, computational learning and big data for social computing and service innovation, and engineering and environmental informatics. He has conducted researches at Stanford, worked at several startups in Silicon Valley, and consulted for multi-international companies including Disney, UBS, First Union Bank (now Wells Fargo Bank), HP, Xerox, NCR, China Bank of Communications, and for government agencies. He also serviced as senior advisors to Sequoia Capital backed Silicon Valley startups. Currently, he is the Executive Director of the Stanford Center for Sustainable Development and Global Competitiveness.