The Departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Computer Science and the Ken Kennedy Institute at Rice University’s George R. Brown School of Engineering and Computing hosted the inaugural Electromagnetics to Intelligence (EM2AI) industry workshop on Aug. 31 at the Ralph S. O’Connor Building for Engineering and Science.
The invitation-only workshop brought together more than 70 Rice faculty, students and industry leaders to explore how artificial intelligence can help design the next generation of smart sensors and devices for applications ranging from communications and digital health to cybersecurity.
The workshop was designed to connect Rice’s research strengths in electromagnets, electronic communications, sensing, imaging and AI research with industry needs and identify opportunities for collaboration.
"Our primary goal in organizing EM2AI was to accelerate the path from fundamental discovery to real-world applications,” said Rahman Doost-Mohammady, associate research professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and member of the Ken Kennedy Institute. “We hope by helping our faculty closely align their research with industry needs, academic breakthroughs can be turned into tangible, scalable technologies with immediate impact.”
The program featured seven talks from invited speakers representing Intel, Qualcomm, TI, Samsung and other technology companies, offering perspectives on emerging trends and research priorities. A panel discussion, “What areas in wireless need the big breakthroughs?” brought industry and Rice experts together to explore opportunities for future research.
Representatives from nine participating companies also toured four Rice research labs, meeting with faculty and students to get a closer look at work underway across the department. The day concluded with a poster session that sparked further conversations between industry guests and the Rice community.
"The enthusiastic response we received for our very first EM2AI workshop exceeded our expectations and is very encouraging,” said Ashutosh Sabharwal, Ernest Dell Butcher Professor in Rice’s electrical and computer engineering department and one of the faculty organizers. “We received overwhelmingly positive feedback from all the invited industry leaders. They were blown away by the scope of our faculty's research and the quality of our students' work. Best of all, several conversations initiated at the workshop are now turning into collaborations."