Singularity University Hosts Manufacturing Summit This May In Boston To Focus On 8 Disruptive Technologies Causing Exponential Change

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA – April 18, 2017 – Singularity University (SU), a global community with a mission to educate, inspire, and empower leaders to apply exponential technologies to address humanity's grand challenges today announced the second annual Exponential Manufacturing Summit taking place at the Westin Waterfront Hotel in Boston, May 17-19, 2017.

The event is expected to attract over 500 global executives, entrepreneurs, investors, government, and policy leaders. The conference will showcase and discuss disruptive advances in eight areas that are fundamentally changing manufacturing today, including: artificial intelligence and machine learning, bio manufacturing, energy, additive manufacturing, augmented reality, IoT, and advanced and collaborative robotics. These exponential technologies are rapidly changing how we make resource and maintenance decisions; design and develop customer-centric product lines; add flexibility and speed to our production processes; and improve our ability to store, pick, ship, and sell orders of all sizes to retailers and individual purchasers alike.

Exponential Manufacturing is one of three Exponential Summits each year devoted to a vertical industry with the other two dedicated to Exponential Finance and Exponential Medicine. SU also hosts an annual Global Summit and a growing number of International Summits. These Summits foster technology innovation and the real-world applications that drive global good. To date, the Summits have attracted over 4,000 attendees from 85 countries who network with each other and domain experts in exponential technologies and thinking. During these unique events, attendees gain actionable knowledge and skills along with a network of industry contacts to help them navigate how these disruptive technologies can be incorporated into and benefit their organizations.

Specific to this year's Exponential Manufacturing, the focus will be on:

• How new regulations and the new Administration will affect R&D, jobs, and trade
• How to increase workforce productivity with the use of AI and advanced robotics
• How machine learning is changing everything we know about decision making
• How digitization, autonomous factories, and virtual and augmented reality will change your entire retail supply chain
• How digital platforms and 3D printing help small companies go from art to part faster
• How large organizations can learn to pivot with the speed of a start-up

"This year we'll share SU's unique insight on recent advances in exponential and converging technologies, but we'll also go deeper than ever before into how these technologies are affecting specific manufacturing functions and the strategic decisions leaders will need to be prepared to make right now," said Will Weisman, Executive Director, Summits.

Among the topics and presenters addressing this year's Exponential Manufacturing Summit:

• Jay Timmons, President of the National Association of Manufacturers on the Trump Administration's policies and programs that impact manufacturing
• Dr. Ray Kurzweil, Co-Founder & Chancellor of SU and Director of Engineering at Google
• Megan Brewster, former Sr. Policy Advisor for Advanced Manufacturing in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
• Deborah Wince-Smith, President & CEO of the Council on Competitiveness on the global outlook for the industry
• Jay Rogers, Local Motors Co-Founder & CEO on the future of transportation
• Trisa Thompson, Dell's SVP & Chief Responsibility Officer on Impact Manufacturing
• Rodney Brooks, Rethink Robotics Founder, Chairman & CTO on partnering with robots
• Dyan Finkhousen, GE Director of Open Innovation and Advanced Manufacturing on crowdsourcing and open innovation
• Bill McInnis, Vice President of Reebok Future on process transformation and the liquid factory, and
• Erin Bradner, Autodesk Sr. Principal Research Scientist on generative design, to name a few.

There will also be a hands-on Innovation Lab for attendees to see demonstrations of the latest advanced manufacturing innovations.

Exponential Manufacturing is produced with generous support from Deloitte, Platinum Partner of Singularity University Summits, as well as from the following Exponential Manufacturing partners: GE Ventures, BD, and AutoDesk. Registration, full speaker lineup, and working agenda are available at https://su.org/summits/exponential-manufacturing/.

Press inquiries? Ask questions or register here: https://su.org/summits/exponential-manufacturing/.

ABOUT SINGULARITY UNIVERSITY (SU)

Singularity University (SU) is a global learning and innovation community using exponential technologies to tackle the world’s biggest challenges and build an abundant future for all. SU's collaborative platform empowers individuals and organizations across the globe to learn, connect, and innovate breakthrough solutions using accelerating technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics, and digital biology. A certified benefit corporation headquartered at NASA Research Park in Silicon Valley, SU was founded in 2008 by renowned innovators Ray Kurzweil and Dr. Peter H. Diamandis with program funding from leading organizations including Google, Deloitte, and UNICEF. To learn more, visit SU.org, join us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter @SingularityU.