Future of AI in the Manufacturing sector

Barry Leahey MBE is President of Playdale who are the UK’s leading manufacturer of children’s playground equipment, and has distributers in over 50 countries. Playdale have won national Manufacturing and export awards, Barry personally receiving an MBE for services to International Trade in 2017.  In 2018 Barry was named IoD ‘Global Director of the Year’ and ‘Cumbria Business Person of the Year’, featuring in the ‘Telegraph’s Top 50 Most Ambitious Business Leaders’ and ‘The Manufacturer Top 100 people in Manufacturing’, he is currently Vice Chair of Make UK North West regional Advisory Board,  a Honorary Professor at Lancaster and Cumbria Universities and Non Exec Director for the Chamber of Commerce

Dr Alina Ivanova is a Chief Product Officer and co-founder of Turation, an Industrial AI startup based in Cambridge. Turation develops AI solutions for High-Mix Low-Volume manufacturers, focusing on small batch production and frequent changeovers. Their solutions help to reduce the cost of poor quality and shorten lead times in this sector.  

Previously Alina led the development of Arline Quantum, an AI project aimed at optimising resource utilisation in current-gen quantum computers, and Arline Benchmarks, the first open-source software platform for automated quantum compiler benchmarking, which was recognised as one of the top open-source projects by OpenUK. Other startups, where Alina held senior tech roles, were ViShare, a Hong Kong video streaming hardware company backed by Samsung, and Snowfall Systems, a New York fintech startup. Alina earned a PhD in Physics from the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics, where she focused on digital spectrometry for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER, Cadarache, France) and research in boron neutron capture therapy for cancer treatment. Additionally, Alina holds a second degree in Economics

Tim Powell has a background of physics-based modelling and software engineering, and is now leading the STFC Hartree Centre’s involvement in the Automotive industry with the aim of accelerating the adoption of High-Performance Computing (HPC), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Emerging Technologies (such as Quantum Computing) to solve the substantial challenges currently faced by the Automotive sector. Tim develops and delivers the Hartree Centre’s Technology Roadmap for the Automotive sector, including identifying key challenges and ensuring the Hartree Centre is positioned with the capabilities to deliver timely solutions. Prior to Tim’s posting as Automotive Specialist, he specialised in bringing the power of HPC to non-HPC experts through automated workflows and containerisation.

Chair: Nina Gryf is a Senior Policy Manager at Make UK. She works closely on Make UK’s delivering Unlocking Innovation campaign, which strongly focuses on the role of innovation and technology in increasing productivity and competitiveness. Her role cuts across all of Make UK’s core campaigns, with a recent focus on ED&I.

Nina is the lead author Make UK’s Innovation Monitor which tracks manufacturers’ progress on digital adoption. She has spoken on the importance of accelerating digital adoption to manufacturers and policymakers alike and has spoken publicly on the need for Government to ensure the industry has access to skills and finance to take full advantage of Industrial Digital Technologies. She strongly advocates the Made Smarter initiative and has continued to call her its roll-out. Nina’s recent publications are 4IR: An Enabler to Green Manufacturing, which focused on how digital technology can support the industry’s net zero ambitions and Digital Adoption: The Missing Link to productivity growth.

Before working in Make UK’s Policy team, Nina spent three years focusing on Make UK’s campaigning for what is next post-EU referendum, with a particular focus on trade. Prior to this, Nina worked for the Work Foundations as an External Affairs Manager.