Digitalization of a complex plant can be overwhelming. If your organization is just getting started on digitalization, this session will provide the essentials, including basic terminology for digitalization, a commonly used roadmap, and best practices that could help you avoid pitfalls. The session will include presentations on case studies and an overview of technology approaches that could help you progress each step of the way.

• Brian Fitch Barr Engineering Co
  Brian Fitch

  Title: Digital Transformation and Analytics Center of Excellence Leader
  Company: Barr Engineering Co

  Brian Fitch, Ph.D., leads Barr Engineering’s Digital Transformation and Analytics Center of Excellence. This group provides clients digital transformation, Industrial IoT (IIoT), data management, GIS, 3D visualization, and data science, services. Brian has worked in Information Technology for 20 years, focusing on analytics and information design. He has a Ph.D. in Human Factors from the University of Minnesota, concentrating on how automation and information design influence users’ understanding of complex systems.

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  Laying the Ground Work for Digital Transformation
  Enabling data-driven decision-making that spans organizational value chains is a complex and potentially overwhelming undertaking. Success requires the right people, technologies, and data architecture. This session is for anyone working towards improving operations and decision-making through digital transformation, including IT professionals, executives, engineers, and operations professionals. We will walk through how Barr Engineering has approached our digital transformation journey and show multiple examples of how we have helped our clients across various industries through various stages of their journeys. We will discuss how Barr is working to develop the skillsets, culture, expertise, and architecture to enable data-driven decision-making, the business drivers behind our investment, and the learnings and challenges we have experienced along the way.

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• Sarah Kline Hanara Software
  Sarah Kline

  Title: General Manager
  Company: Hanara Software

  Sarah Kline was the first hire for HanAra in the U.S., joining the company in 2016. As the General Manager, she leads the daily operations of the organization and coordinates engineering and technical support, planning, and sales and marketing. She is focused on developing new markets, increasing the market share in the U.S., and maintaining a competitive position in the industry. Her goal and the rest of the team is to help organizations break through the limitations. Sarah brings significant international business and manufacturing expertise to HanAra. Before joining the company, she served as a technology assessment researcher for the Global Commercialization Group/IC2 Institute at The University of Texas at Austin, a post that led directly to her joining HanAra. Adding to her international experience, Sarah also served as a policy research team member at the LBJ School of Public Affairs where she assisted on the Manufacturing Trends in Texas and Mexico project. Sarah holds dual degrees from Texas Christian University — a Bachelor of Science in Economics, and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science — graduating Summa Cum Laude. She also earned her Master of Global Policy Studies from The University of Texas, LBJ School of Public Affairs.

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  Focusing on Business Intelligence with a Data Historian
  How do you define the value of equipment data? By the business and operational results it provides. Before results are possible, you must have the necessary structure to collect, archive, and manage the vast amount of equipment data a site creates every minute of the day. Organizations rely on their data historians to provide this, but the data historian of the past is different from the data historian of today or the future. By combining the reliability and accuracy of data historians with improved analysis and visualization tools, an organization can increase the business intelligence created by evaluating and analyzing equipment data. To do this, an organization must ensure it has a solution and process set up five key activities: collect, archive, visualize, analyze, and collaborate. Using these key activities, an organization can manage and evaluate the current intelligence provided by its data historian and identify areas of improvement. Using examples from real-world applications, we will discuss common pitfalls and opportunities when transforming data into meaningful business intelligence. During this session, the audience will understand: • The technological requirements of the architecture and solutions to ensure safe and secure data usage, • The change management requirements of an organization to ensure reliable data-informed decision-making, and • The necessary future planning of the industry to reduce resource obstacles and to improve collaboration. Keywords: Data Historian, Business Intelligence, Data Analytics, Data Management

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• Benjamin Skal Cognite
  Benjamin Skal

  Title: Director of Product Marketing
  Company: Cognite

  Ben is the Senior Director of Product Marketing at Congite. He has spent 12+ years working in process and power industries. He started his career gaining hands-on experience as a process engineer in a chemical processing facility, followed by project managing automation solutions for process industries. He has first-hand experienced the challenges working with and understanding industrial data, and is committed to solving the industrial data problem needed to truly transform operations.

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  Intro to Digital Twins
  

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• David DeBari ExxonMobil Corporation
  David DeBari

  Title: Process Control Engineer
  Company: ExxonMobil Corporation

  David DeBari is an Innovator and a Process Control Engineer for the ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company. He has many years of automation experience in both continuous and batch processes and has built, migrated, or replaced many control systems on numerous projects. David is the Lead Engineer and one of the original members of ExxonMobil’s Open Process Automation Program Team. He has provided technical leadership for the proof of concept and pilot unit prototype projects, and leads the current Test Bed and Field Trial activities for the ExxonMobil Program.

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  Introduction into Open Architecture
  

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• Preston Johnson CB Technologies, Inc.
  Preston Johnson

  Title: Senior Solutions Manager
  Company: CB Technologies, Inc.

  Preston Johnson is the Solutions Manager for Industrial IoT at CBT, with a technical focus on Predictive Maintenance solutions and systems. Preston builds on 28 years in industrial instrumentation and machine condition monitoring systems at National Instruments, and 4 years at Allied Reliability building predictive maintenance programs with digital technologies. Preston draws from his broad functional background in people and project management, technical and domain expertise in asset monitoring applications, and business development to create and implement comprehensive business strategies for new product development, market introduction, and growth. At CBT, he works with the business development and operations teams to deploy condition monitoring systems and services, reliability solutions, training, and hardware/software systems that improve machinery uptime, reliability, and ultimately, production capacity. Prior to joining the CBT team, Preston held roles in Applications Engineering, Field Sales, Sales Management, Product Management, and Business Development.

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  Digital Worker Overview
  

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The old adage “hindsight is 20-20” is especially relevant to technology adoption. Don’t rush your digitalization transformation without considering lessons learned. Join us for an open discussion from industry leaders who started their journey years ago, and who will share what they wish they could have known before they started. This session will help you avoid common pitfalls in your journey of technology adoption.

• Randy Jones Southern Company
  Randy Jones

  Title: Manager - CBM & Analytics
  Company: Southern Company

  Randy has been focused on leading Asset Management and Reliability improvements at the plant and corporate level for over 35 years. He is the Manager of Condition Based Maintenance, Machinery Diagnostics, Data Analytics, and the Operations Monitoring & Diagnostic Center for Southern Company Generation and Power Delivery. These groups help inform approximately $1 Billion in annual spend. Randy is a registered Professional Engineer and a Certified Maintenance & Reliability Professional.

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• Dr. Yves Gorat Stommel Evonik Digital
  Yves Gorat Stommel

  Title: Deputy Head Function Evonik Digital
  Company: Evonik Digital

  Yves Gorat Stommel is currently working as the head of the Cognitive Solutions team, with a strong focus on setting-up and implementing a comprehensive, company-wide Artificial Intelligence and data analysis strategy. In his current function, Yves’ motivation stems from bringing together people, technology and positive change. By continuously questioning, improving and re-imagining operational and business processes – amongst others by looking at the company through the new “lens” of enabling and disruptive Artificial Intelligence – value is created for both the company and its employees. This does not only require identifying, benchmarking and implementing best practices, but more importantly targeted communication, linking knowledge and an emphasis on global instead of local mindsets and approaches.

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  Why Digital Transformation and Corporate Organizational Structures Don’t Necessarily Mesh Well
  For most companies the point in time came somewhere in the 2010s: digitalization or even digital transformation became a priority to bring the organization into the future. CDOs and CIOs took up the challenge – as did various individuals and teams throughout the respective companies. Evonik, a global specialty chemical company, was no exception. As we quickly learned though, driving digitalization / digital transformation could not be truly successful if perceived as the responsibility of a few dedicated employees only. Digitalization involves a number of broadly applicable enabling technologies and methodologies, whose application and use can differ quite strongly across the company. Discover how Evonik learned to organize digital transformation and the necessary buy-in and accountability.

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Digital transformation can deliver significant returns on investment (ROI) for companies across the manufacturing and connected plant value chain. Advances in artificial intelligence, the industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), and augmented reality make it possible to improve decision making, drive autonomous operations, track assets, and monitor processes in real time to ensure safe conditions. A private 5G/LTE network solution as a managed service can help plants transform their businesses and accelerate their Industry 4.0 journey. This session will highlight the advantages of private 4G/5G wireless networks, explain why now is the time for implementation, and feature relevant use cases, including and an overview of the DXC pLTE and 5G managed service.

• Mario Giacchino Nokia
  Mario Giacchino

  Title: North America GSI Sales Leader
  Company: Nokia

  Mario Giacchino is responsible for Nokia’s Enterprise Private Wireless go-to-market and sales through global integration partners in North America. Mario has over 28 years of experience in the industry focused on aligning solutions and business models required to solve complex operational challenges for his customers and partners.

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• Joe Mancino DXC Technology
  Joe Mancino

  Title: Senior Principal - Industry Sales
  Company: DXC Technology

  Joe is a proven senior solutions sales and business development executive with extensive experience in identifying profitable new markets, launching products, developing new clients, and selling complex technology solutions to Fortune 1000 companies, state and local governments, and the enterprise market. He has represented many of the largest OEMs and Integrators in the industry including Ericsson, Verizon, EDS, Lucent, NTT DATA, and DXC Technologies

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Have you heard the saying “data is the new oil”, and previously “oil is the new gold”? At Albemarle, we have found that to be true. The 4th industrial revolution has already started and Albemarle plans on positioning itself as a leader in the industry when it comes to utilizing our chemical manufacturing data. To capture the value from our data, using economies of scale, we created a global digital transformation initiative called – Project AI, recently awarded the Manufacturing Leadership Award for AI and Machine Learning. This global transformation anchors its foundation on the AVEVA PI System as not only a data infrastructure, but also an analytics engine, alongside our existing partners, Northwest Analytics & Sartorius SIMCA, fueling massive growth and productivity in our manufacturing plants. As the “AI” suggests, plenty of artificial intelligence is involved. But to us, AI means Albemarle Intelligence. Though catchy, the moniker has a deeper purpose: reminding us that all of the ingredients for digital transformation already exist. By enabling and empowering our people with the right technology, we can truly unlock the value of information.

• Jonathan Alexander ALBEMARLE
  Jonathan Alexander

  Title: Manufacturing AI & Advanced Analytics Manager | Albemarle Intelligence
  Company: ALBEMARLE

  Jonathan Alexander is the Manufacturing AI & Advanced Analytics Manager within Albemarle’s global Manufacturing Excellence team. He has held a variety of roles within Manufacturing, including working within both Maintenance & Operations for both the Hydroprocessing Catalyst Plant in Bayport, TX and the Aluminum Alkyl plants in Pasadena, TX, along with leading a site’s Technology Implementation for Competitive Advantage (TICA) program. In his current global role, he has been focused on powering the potential of people by scaling AI (Albemarle Intelligence) and changing Albemarle’s culture around Manufacturing Data Analytics, an integral part of their journey towards Digital Transformation. Mr. Alexander holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Louisiana State University and a Masters in Business Administration from The University of Houston in Clear Lake.

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Achieving extraordinary results with digital tools at power generation and chemical process facilities requires extraordinary people. The editors of POWER and Chemical Engineering magazines' are proud to recognize the achievements of individuals or teams who are "Game Changer" champions. The winners of this award are fast risers in the field who, through insight and experience, have contributed to innovation, solved problems, or made extraordinary improvements using digitalization solutions. Join us in celebrating their achievements.

Join us in the Digital Arena for fresh smoothies & light bites as we welcome you to New Orleans. With the energy in the room at an all-time high, you’ll be charged up to connect with like-minded individuals in your industry!

The Connected Plant Conference Digital Arena is where attendees, speakers and vendors meet to network and explore the latest innovations in digitalization.

• Scott Jenkins Chemical Engineering Magazine
  Scott Jenkins

  Title: Senior editor
  Company: Chemical Engineering Magazine

  

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• Sonal Patel POWER magazine
  Sonal Patel

  Title: Senior Associate Editor
  Company: POWER magazine

  A national award–winning multimedia journalist, Sonal Patel has covered a wide range of technology, business, and policy issues affecting the power industry worldwide for POWER and its sister publications since 2008. Along with keeping her eye on national and international matters for POWER magazine’s monthly department Global Monitor, she contributes in-depth analysis and spot news pieces for POWER and POWERnews. She also surveys, crunches, and visualizes power generation data and trends from around the world for POWER’s web and print infographics and other multimedia. She is a graduate of the University of Houston.

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• Amogh Bhonde Siemens Energy, Inc.
  Amogh Bhonde

  Title: Vice President Digital Solutions Business
  Company: Siemens Energy, Inc.

  Amogh Bhonde is the Vice President of Digital Solutions business at Siemens Energy – a partner and driver of energy transition. He leads a global organization that develops software solutions for cybersecurity, asset management, and performance optimization. Most recently, Amogh served as the Vice President of Controls & Digitalization for the Asia Pacific Region, helping customers successfully navigate in their digital transformations. Amogh has been in the energy industry for over 20 years with previous senior leadership positions in manufacturing, operations, and engineering.

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Digitalization, driven by big data, the industrial internet of things (IIOT), and even artificial intelligence (AI), has made its mark on the energy, chemical process, and other process-heavy industries. The transformation of analog or manual processes into digital ones has shown big gains in enabling greater transparency into process-intensive operations and helped to ramp up efficiency, reliability, and profitability.
But as industry complexities evolve, so too must their ability to solve intricate problems. Quantum computing, a form of computing that uses the principles of quantum mechanics to perform certain types of calculations much faster than classical computers, may provide a solution. While commercial quantum computers are only just emerging, quantum computing is showing promise in several fields like materials science, finance, cryptography, logistics, and energy systems. In the IIOT landscape, quantum computing could play a potentially significant role in enabling faster and more efficient data processing, simulation, optimization, and machine learning.
Join us for this series of keynote addresses, during which we will hear more about the future potential of fully quantum computers, as well as the current capabilities of quantum-inspired computing. Our group of experienced speakers will provide an understanding of what quantum computers are and how they might be used in the future, while also explaining how quantum-inspired computing could help solve difficult problems at CPI and power plants right now.

• Alan Ho Engineer and Entrepreneur
  Alan Ho

  Title: Former - Product Management Lead - Google Quantum AI
  Company: Engineer and Entrepreneur

  

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• Christian Gogolin Covestro
  Christian Gogolin

  Title: Quantum Computing Expert @Covestro R&D | Quantum Information Scientist and Software Developer | Founder Quantum Journal
  Company: Covestro

  

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• Masoud Mosheni Hewlett Packard Enterprises
  Masoud Mosheni

  Title: Distinguished Technologist
  Company: Hewlett Packard Enterprises

  

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Digital twins vary in functionality and understanding their different approaches, applicability, and challenges may help you hone in on a solution or process that best fits your organization. Experts at this session will discuss the different types of digital twins and their many different applications across many industries to solve maintenance operations and field work initiatives. This includes utilizing digital twins to create advisories and workflow opportunities.

• Ajo Thomas Celanese Corporation
  Ajo Thomas

  Title: Global Program Execution Leader for Digital Manufacturing
  Company: Celanese Corporation

  I am driven by my passion to create value and positive change. This has permeated every role in my corporate career and supporting start-ups, small and medium businesses, and enterprises as an advisor, consultant, and partner in value creation. My passion continues to be reflected in my no-nonsense approach to consulting and keeps me driven to continuously deliver value and bottom-line results. My high-performance leadership, drive for technical excellence, and strategic & innovative mindset have continuously underpinned my success including: - Deep technical understanding and innovative mindset to continuously deliver 10% - 20% improvements on production, cost, and processes across every role - Project management and leadership skills supporting value optimization projects in major capital projects and delivery of digital products - High-Performance leadership, strategic & agile mindset, and Lean Six Sigma capability supporting the design and execution of a Digital Transformation program delivering 15x business value and 10x technology performance

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  Understanding the Digital Twin
  Outlining what digital twins can be and what's next

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• Piya Dey Celanese Corporation
  Piya Dey

  Title: Director, Digital Manufacturing Transformation
  Company: Celanese Corporation

  Piya Dey is leading the Digital Manufacturing organization at Celanese Corporation (NYSE: CE), a global chemical and specialty materials company, with an annual net sales greater than $9 billion. Celanese is on an accelerated digitalization journey to develop Manufacturing ‘Plants of the Future’ that will pave the way to a digital business. In her current capacity she is instrumental in driving the successful implementation of the Digital Twin program at Celanese. Prior to joining Celanese, Piya held various leadership roles at Eastman Chemicals, KeyBank and Progressive Casualty Insurance. Piya holds an MBA with a major in Asset and Wealth Management from both Carnegie Mellon University, USA and The University of Lausanne, Switzerland. She also holds a Master’s in computer application from OU, India. Piya resides in Dallas, TX. Piya is deeply passionate about emerging digital innovations and driving large scale digital transformations. Outside of work, Piya enjoys dance, music and volunteering for multiple organizations and local schools.

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  Understanding the Digital Twin
  Outlining what digital twins can be and what's next

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• Samir Khanna bp
  Samir Khanna

  Title: Sr. Manager & Advisor
  Company: bp

  Technology professional with a strong track record of building cutting-edge modeling, simulation, and digital capabilities, and applying them to a wide variety of industrial applications - oil & gas production, refining & petrochemicals, optical-fiber and flat-panel display manufacturing, and recently the energy transition. A strong underpinning in scientific rigor and practical engineering judgement, with high sensitivity to business needs and macro trends.

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  How BP is Transitioning their product offerings using Digital Twins
  Using Simulations to solve complex math problems to take BP to the future

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• Marcus Abdullah Twinify Technologies, LLC
  Marcus Abdullah

  Title: Enterprise Account Executive
  Company: Twinify Technologies, LLC

  Marcus is a customer-oriented leader the digital transformation industry where he has helped various enterprise companies evaluate and improve their design solutions. Marcus has specialized skillset with a history of helping transform business operations utilizing the technologies of the future, like cloud computing, robotic process automation, digital twin and more. Marcus has 10+ years of experience working closely with operations of all sizes, across several industries. He provides a unique approach to understanding client’s needs and providing an articulated solution for any use case. His previous work experience includes his time with an Oracle Platinum Partner where he focused on digital transformation and intelligent automation. Marcus earned his BA in Marketing from Wayne State University.

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  How Digital Twins Can Cultivate Opportunities and Shore Up Risks for Asset Mgt
  Full Title: Cultivating Opportunities and Shoring Up Risks: How Digital Twins Can Power Adaptive and Agile O&M, Performance, and Sustainability Missions Given increasing pressures to reduce operational costs and environmental footprints, facility owners and operators are searching for ways to optimize operations and capital investment decisions. With the decision landscape becoming increasingly complex due to market, sustainability, and introduction of new technologies, owner/operators are seeking to unleash the power of the cloud and cloud-based analytics to monitor and manage energy production/distribution assets . This paper will discuss and illustrate, with actual customer experiences, how digital twins can provide critical capabilities to: • Serve as a unified data hub and content engine that can be leveraged within both targeted applications as well as within enterprise EAM/CMMS, capital planning, sustainability tracking, and financial systems. • Coalesce data from various sources, add critical domain-driven content via 1st principles models, infuse power AI/ML to identify patterns, and classify sources of issues, criticality, and assess value of actions/remedies. • Tailor application of analytics and visuals to address specific situations and audiences, combining data and insights from various sources, as required. • Power application of digital standards and guidelines tied directly to live data and analytics, to promote best practices, education/training, and examination of alternative strategies. Examples will include: • Examination of complex asset performance and underlying conditions/capabilities in a forward market context, considering the vagaries of asset health, ambient conditions, and demand. • Population-driven analytics and insights to manage operations and maintenance of large, distributed renewable asset portfolios.

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• William Hendricks Cognite
  William Hendricks

  Title: VP, Manufacturing, Americas Sales
  Company: Cognite

  Bill has over 30 years experience in pharmaceutical manufacturing and technology consulting and sales. He spent 10 years at Eli Lilly and Company and 20+ years at AspenTech in various engineering, sales and leadership roles. He is currently the vice president of manufacturing at Cognite, responsible for scaling the adoption of Cognite Data Fusion in North America at process and discreet manufacturers. Cognite Data Fusion enables employees at these companies to have faster insights and scale innovation across their enterprise by delivering diverse IT/OT and Engineering data contextualized with machine learning algorithms and utilizing a flexible data model.

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  Generative AI Powered Digital Twins
  Digital twins need data to provide value. This data lives in many sources with varied formats and serves many purposes across operations, engineering and IT. Providing simple access to complex industrial data is key to implementing digital twins at scale and providing enterprise wide value. Generative AI and LLMs can provide a step change in the ease and speed that individuals can interact with the right data at the right time, but only if this data is accurate and relevant to the problem. In this session we will discuss how to make Generative AI valuable to industrial companies by providing deterministic answers and insights to natural language prompts.

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• David Peabody Unity Energy
  David Peabody

  Title: Senior Producer and Project Manager
  Company: Unity Energy

  

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  Impact of Digital Twins in the Energy Sector
  

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Roundtable: Description and Rules

The Connected Plant Conference advisory committee and staff strive to provide the best opportunity for you to learn and brainstorm solutions to your challenges around digitalization. With that in mind, our advisory committee has put together the following discussion groups for your participation.

You must sign up (email Karellano@accessintel.com) for the discussion group in advance and send a challenge you would like to brainstorm on during the assigned times in advance, this will allow for an efficient and informative roundtable discussion.

• Cybersecurity
  • NERC/CIP Rules
  • To Use the Cloud or Not
  • Security in advanced process control system
  • Remote Maintenance Strategies
• Data – know before you get too far into the weeds.
  • Moving OT environment to the cloud and how to protect your data.
  • Lessons learned along the way.
• Digital Worker
  • Creating a Human-Centric Digital Workforce
  • Developing your digital workforce
  • Training on AR/VR
  • Employee Adoption
• Using Technology to Mitigate Large-Scale Systems
  • Industry 5.0 – Better for people and the planet
  • Digital Tools Used to Gage ESG Solutions.
• Electrification Discussion
  • How technology is playing a role in personalizing energy choices
  • What does the future of energy look like?

• Dr. Yves Gorat Stommel Evonik Digital
  Yves Gorat Stommel

  Title: Deputy Head Function Evonik Digital
  Company: Evonik Digital

  Yves Gorat Stommel is currently working as the head of the Cognitive Solutions team, with a strong focus on setting-up and implementing a comprehensive, company-wide Artificial Intelligence and data analysis strategy. In his current function, Yves’ motivation stems from bringing together people, technology and positive change. By continuously questioning, improving and re-imagining operational and business processes – amongst others by looking at the company through the new “lens” of enabling and disruptive Artificial Intelligence – value is created for both the company and its employees. This does not only require identifying, benchmarking and implementing best practices, but more importantly targeted communication, linking knowledge and an emphasis on global instead of local mindsets and approaches.

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  Data Roundtable
  

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• Preston Johnson CB Technologies, Inc.
  Preston Johnson

  Title: Senior Solutions Manager
  Company: CB Technologies, Inc.

  Preston Johnson is the Solutions Manager for Industrial IoT at CBT, with a technical focus on Predictive Maintenance solutions and systems. Preston builds on 28 years in industrial instrumentation and machine condition monitoring systems at National Instruments, and 4 years at Allied Reliability building predictive maintenance programs with digital technologies. Preston draws from his broad functional background in people and project management, technical and domain expertise in asset monitoring applications, and business development to create and implement comprehensive business strategies for new product development, market introduction, and growth. At CBT, he works with the business development and operations teams to deploy condition monitoring systems and services, reliability solutions, training, and hardware/software systems that improve machinery uptime, reliability, and ultimately, production capacity. Prior to joining the CBT team, Preston held roles in Applications Engineering, Field Sales, Sales Management, Product Management, and Business Development.

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  Digital Worker Roundtable
  

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• Galen George Siemens Energy, Inc.
  Galen George

  Title: Director of Business Development & Marketing
  Company: Siemens Energy, Inc.

  

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  Cybersecurity Roundtable
  

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• Jane Arnold Momenta
  Jane Arnold

  Title: Venture Partner
  Company: Momenta

  Jane Arnold is a seasoned industry executive with over three decades of experience in chemical, discrete, and additive manufacturing. As a digital leader in Industry 4.0, she is dedicated to enhancing the impact of manufacturing through the adoption of cutting-edge technologies. Throughout her career, Jane has held executive positions at Stanley Black and Decker and Covestro, where she was responsible for spearheading digital transformations. Most recently Jane joined Momenta as a Venture Partner. Momenta is the leading digital industry venture capital +growth firm accelerating deep tech innovators across energy, manufacturing, smart spaces, and supply chain.

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  sing Technology to Mitigate Large Scale Systems Roundtable
  

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• Ben Skal Cognite
  Ben Skal

  Title: Product Marketing Manager
  Company: Cognite

  

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This session will include several case studies showing how artificial intelligence (AI) is already being used at operational power and chemical plants. Studies will explore how data may be analyzed and categorized from the data historian, and how AI is being used for remote monitoring and automation to reduce the burden on control-room managers.

• Dr. Yves Gorat Stommel Evonik Digital
  Yves Gorat Stommel

  Title: Deputy Head Function Evonik Digital
  Company: Evonik Digital

  Yves Gorat Stommel is currently working as the head of the Cognitive Solutions team, with a strong focus on setting-up and implementing a comprehensive, company-wide Artificial Intelligence and data analysis strategy. In his current function, Yves’ motivation stems from bringing together people, technology and positive change. By continuously questioning, improving and re-imagining operational and business processes – amongst others by looking at the company through the new “lens” of enabling and disruptive Artificial Intelligence – value is created for both the company and its employees. This does not only require identifying, benchmarking and implementing best practices, but more importantly targeted communication, linking knowledge and an emphasis on global instead of local mindsets and approaches.

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• Berk Birand, Ph.D. Fero Labs
  Berk Birand, Ph.D.

  Title: CEO
  Company: Fero Labs

  Berk holds a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from Columbia University. His academic research focused on optimizing wireless and optical networks with efficient cross-layer algorithms. He developed scheduling algorithms for LTE-A and fiber-optic networks. He holds a patent in IoT systems for resilient fiber-optic networks.

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• Javier Garcia Sedano OPTIMITIVE Group
  Javier Garcia Sedano

  Title: Founder Group Director
  Company: OPTIMITIVE Group

  Javier García Sedano has a degree in Physics and received executive education in IE and IESE Business Schools. With more than 30 years of experience in Artificial Intelligence applications in Industry, he is the Founder of OPTIMITIVE (2008), with a large track of successful innovative AI applications, and most remarkably the optimization in real time of Power Generation, Cement, Chemicals, Metal processing, Automotive and more. He worked previously in companies like IBERDROLA Engineering, ORMAZABAL Group and TECNALIA Research Corporation, having carried out R&D Management and Technology Transfer responsibilities. His technical areas of expertise include: Industrial Artificial Intelligence; Machine Learning and Optimization Algorithms; Advanced Process Control; Energy and Resource Efficiency in Industrial Processes; Advanced Industrial Datamining and Data Analytics. As a founder, he participated in the SURGE Accelerator program in Houston-Texas and has won several prizes and recognitions to entrepreneurship and innovation.

  Operating a continuous plant comes with a number of (sometimes conflicting) objectives. For example, is the plant to be run at highest capacity, a specific quality, or at a minimal specific cost point? And when deciding on a specific objective (or a combination thereof), what are influencing parameters? For example, constantly changing prices, e.g., for energy and raw materials, make cost-optimal operations of a chemical plant a very complex task. Moreover, objectives may change periodically, even on a daily basis, depending on market demands. To address these challenges, Machine Learning approaches have been deployed at Evonik in a internally, custom-made application called Operator Assistant Tool (OAT) that combines several multivariate prediction models and an optimization routine to suggest optimal set points. Although results have been positive, instead of developing an in-house OAT for every new plant, the mid-term goal is to source a commercial software that speeds up the process, is scalable, and comes with all the perks of a managed product (security, patch-management, etc.). For an initial pilot, Evonik has partnered with Optimitive, the supplier of an OAT-type solution called Optibat.

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• Seth Arpan Evonik Corporation
  Seth Arpan

  Title: Data Science | Process Technology & Engineering North America | Technology & Infrastructure
  Company: Evonik Corporation

  Arpan Seth is a data scientist with a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University. With a passion for data-driven problem solving, he started as a Data Engineer at Evonik Corporation, designing ETL pipelines and analytics web-apps for chemical plants. Now a Data Scientist at Evonik, Arpan has improved cash flow forecasting accuracy, developed a predictive maintenance solution, and scaled data science solutions across the organization. His technical areas of expertise include: Optimization theory, Network Optimization, Machine Learning, Timeseries Analytics, and Process Control.

  Operating a continuous plant comes with a number of (sometimes conflicting) objectives. For example, is the plant to be run at highest capacity, a specific quality, or at a minimal specific cost point? And when deciding on a specific objective (or a combination thereof), what are influencing parameters? For example, constantly changing prices, e.g., for energy and raw materials, make cost-optimal operations of a chemical plant a very complex task. Moreover, objectives may change periodically, even on a daily basis, depending on market demands. To address these challenges, Machine Learning approaches have been deployed at Evonik in a internally, custom-made application called Operator Assistant Tool (OAT) that combines several multivariate prediction models and an optimization routine to suggest optimal set points. Although results have been positive, instead of developing an in-house OAT for every new plant, the mid-term goal is to source a commercial software that speeds up the process, is scalable, and comes with all the perks of a managed product (security, patch-management, etc.). For an initial pilot, Evonik has partnered with Optimitive, the supplier of an OAT-type solution called Optibat.

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• Sandra Fabiano Yokogawa Corporation of America
  Sandra Fabiano

  Title: Engineering Manager
  Company: Yokogawa Corporation of America

  Sandra Fabiano is an Engineering Manager with Yokogawa at the US Technology Center in Carrollton, Texas. Her focus is on robotic technology and related hardware and AI for process industries. She helps guide development efforts for Proof-of-Concepts and innovative technologies related to robotics. Sandra holds a Computer Engineering Degree from Concordia University in Montreal and an MBA from the University of Texas at Dallas.

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  Operator Rounds and Inspections Performed by Robots
  Robots have been used for decades in discrete manufacturing and warehousing; can they be used just as effectively for power and process industries? Technology has advanced in recent years to allow robots (and drones) to move autonomously and collect data. Several robotic companies have developed such robots with various mobility capabilities and sensor options. Sensors include those that most humans inherently possess in addition to superhuman ones, such as thermal imaging and gas sensors. With the addition of AI, the data collected from the sensors can be used to evaluate anomalies and trends, thus allowing for predictive maintenance and preventing equipment failure and accidents. Today’s workforce has changed. It is becoming increasingly difficult to attract people to do inspection rounds in plants, and those currently in such job functions are retiring. Fixed cameras and transmitters play essential roles in gathering asset data without the need for physical presence. However, where these cannot be easily installed or where they become too expensive to do so, robots and drones can be used to fill this gap. Robots perform tasks repeatedly without distraction and human-error thereby ensuring consistency, reliability and safety. Lastly, they can also be used for dangerous work, thus removing humans from potential threats. If a robot gets “hurt” or stops functioning, a repair or part replacement is much more favorable than causing physical impairment or, even worse, a fatality. Robots and drones will last years in the right environment, will never tire, get sick or bored and make costly mistakes or quit at a moment’s notice. They can do these dull, dirty and dangerous jobs and allow people to work safely from a control room, monitoring the data collected by robots. The workers can be upskilled and use their time and talents more effectively. Robots cannot replace humans at full-scale, however, they are ready to be deployed to do operator rounds and via tele-operation, perform on-demand inspections today.

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• Alan Karr Siemens Energy, Inc.
  Alan Karr

  Title: Head Of Digitalization CD North America
  Company: Siemens Energy, Inc.

  Alan Karr is the Head Of Digitalization for CD North America at Siemens Energy and is located in Alpharetta, Georgia. He started working for Siemens in 2009 and has more than 30 years of experience in power generation with increasing responsibilities in program management, project management, process controls, power plant O&M, and technical sales. In his most recent role as an Engineering Manager for Systems & Digitalization (2019-2022), Mr. Karr oversaw an engineering team that used data-driven digital solutions to deliver measurable results to solve a business need. Mr. Karr holds a master’s degree in business administration and an undergraduate degree in Engineering Management from the Michael W. Louis School of Management. Mr. Karr is also certified as a Project Management Professional (PMI), Scrum Product Owner and a Scrum Master.

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  Eliminating Operator Rounds to Achieve Reliable, Safe, and Profitable Operations
  In markets that are increasingly driven by availability and cost requirements, the ability to respond with flexibility is the key for profitability. In digitalization we recognized that we must fundamentally transform how we operate to deliver cutomer value. This extends out from the business model to a cultural change that requires the organization to reimagine the status quo as digitalization is ultimately a human endeavor. This short presentation will quickly review the need for minimizing and/or eliminating operator rounds to achieve reliable, safe, and profitable operations via image analytics. In this journey to increase availability image analytics has assumed a significant role in innovative plant automation solutions by allowing stranded or non-instrumented plant assets to be monitored using Machine Learning (ML) & AI (Artificial Intelligence) to observe, train and predict anomalies well before an actual failure.

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The rapid advancements in technology bring many opportunities and benefits to individuals and organizations, but they also come with challenges. This session will present three separate topics that address technology challenges that affect us all and may need to be aware of for the future. Staying informed and understanding how these challenges are affecting us today and tomorrow is the key to better practices and security for the future.

• Mike Greene Nova Scotia Power
  Mike Greene

  Title: Operational Technology Lead (Recently retired)
  Company: Nova Scotia Power

  Mike has over 30 years of experience with Databases, Information Systems and Plant Automation. He retired in May as the Operational Technology Lead for the Enterprise Asset Management Office of Nova Scotia Power, the utility for the province of Nova Scotia. The Enterprise Asset Management Office of NSP is an industry leader in its use of technology not only in the Utilities sector but in North American heavy industry. Mike was responsible for the successful integration of NSPs many Operational Technology systems into a platform that provides end users asset and people centric Operational intelligence across the NSP organization. He is currently an independent consultant specializing in complex system integration.

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  ChatGPT for operations? AI for prognosis on complex issues in power generation
  SMEs are the gold standard for solving complex reliability and process issues. While most companies have SMEs, and small enterprises often use consultants, one thing is common - there aren't enough of them. At Nova Scotia Power, this is a key challenge as many experts are close to retirement. In this session, we discuss using AI-based virtual expert to address this knowledge transition. The aim is to empower operations with tools that mimic SMEs in detecting problems faster with less up front effort by Operations and Engineering staff. AI is the ability to mimic human skills like learning and problem-solving. So, on paper, it seems like AI should mimic SMEs easily. Nova Scotia Power has a sophisticated set of machine learning tools ranging from advanced analytics and pattern recognition to performance monitoring. However, alerts on more complex systems and structures are challenging. Finding the cause and learning from it is often done by experts. To be truly useful, AI must not only find the problem but also determine with reasonable certainty what the root cause of the problem is. We present the key concepts that are essential for a true AI-based application 1) using system models to connect the dots across functions and equipment to identify the cause, 2) built-in expertise framework for diagnosis, 3) getting smarter with usage using self-learning workflows like a real SME Finally, we will discuss the effort and timeline for our deployment. Resources used for the same. How quickly can we generate value, scale, and sustain this without an army of data scientists? What is the efficacy of such a solution? AI applications may not be a complete replacement for an SME. Still, they can offer a significant improvement in the speed of solving reliability and process issues with little effort.

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• Jason Krupp Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
  Jason Krupp

  Title: Senior Project Manager for Valley Grid Modernization
  Company: Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)

  Jason Krupp is a senior project manager at Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). He holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Tennessee and an MBA from the University of Phoenix. He has been with TVA since 2001 and during that time he’s held various roles in the company. He’s provided engineering support at TVA’s gas generation sites, helped Local Power Company (LPC) customers better understand how to use electricity more effectively, run TVA’s industrial energy efficiency and electrification programs, and managed the central business support team for TVA’s customer relationship team. Currently, he is leading the Regional Grid Transformation initiative, one of TVA’s Transformative Innovation Initiatives, which is designed to advance modernization of the electric grid through collaborative visioning, research, and technology demonstrations with LPCs.

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  Preparing for the challenges technology solutions offer
  

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• Jared Kolwyck DTE Energy
  Jared Kolwyck

  Title: Plant Manager
  Company: DTE Energy

  

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  Hybrid Data Analytics Collected by Drones
  

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• Sam Bainbridge SKF USA Inc
  Sam Bainbridge

  Title: Director, Technology Delivery
  Company: SKF USA Inc

  As a technology thought leader with a proven track record in designing and implementing performance-driven initiatives, Sam Bainbridge brings an innovative perspective to his role as SKF’s Director of Technology Delivery North America, Sam has over 12 years of technology experience, driving advanced predictive maintenance strategy with a focus on digitalization and machine learning to create value for maintenance and reliability teams.

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  Combining condition monitoring technology, workforce, and resources to optimize asset reliability and achieve performance goals
  Reliability teams face unprecedented challenges today: escalating costs, limited budgets, supply chain disruption, changing workforce, safety regulations, data security, and technology shortcomings. Do vibration data collection routes take valuable time away from addressing these challenges in your operation? Are traditional online systems too expensive and/or complex to implement? What if you could detect machine anomalies on a wider range of assets to improve reliability and safety, and reduce unplanned downtime? Learn how new wireless sensor technology, many of which have C1D2 certification, saves time while providing insights to optimize asset reliability and achieve your performance goals.

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• Scott Affelt Expert Microsystems
  Scott Affelt

  Title: VP
  Company: Expert Microsystems

  Scott Affelt leads the implementation and training at Expert Microsystems. Expert Microsystem provides leading-edge, advanced predictive analytics solutions through it SureSense solution. Mr. Affelt has over 30 years of experience in the energy industry including: natural gas, coal, electricity, power generation, biomass, emissions, pollution control, petro-chemical, steel, oil & gas, clean tech, risk management, control systems, digitalization, predictive analytics, diagnostics and optimization. Mr. Affelt holds a BS degree in Petroleum Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines and an MBA from the University of Southern California.

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  Automated Machine Learning and AI Diagnostic & Decision Support Application
  Our nation’s investment in our legacy power plants is extensive and valuable. However, high O&M costs, relative to renewable technologies, threaten the economic viability of our existing fleet. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) can automate on-line monitoring (OLM) and planning to help optimize decision making and substantially lower operating costs. This presentation outlines the Phase I results of a DOE-funded project which utilizes ML, AI and a “virtual expert” for the OLM of critical equipment. The virtual expert never sleeps and monitors and detects any abnormal changes in the operation of the equipment. When abnormal changes occur, the virtual expert automatically determines the most likely cause for the problem, based on the symptoms detected, and proposes the best corrective action to resolve the problem with the lowest risk and cost. Additionally, the virtual expert will continuously estimate the remaining time available before the problem must be corrected to prevent the equipment from reaching an operating or maintenance limit, shutting down or failing. Phase I demonstrates feasibility of a Virtual Subject Matter Expert for the main steam turbine at Ameren. The presentation will include a case study demonstrating three key project elements: 1) integration of a hybrid (heat balance + advanced pattern recognition) digital twin models for predicting the expected performance of the equipment, 2) automated diagnostic decision models for evaluating any abnormal behavior and suggesting the best corrective action, and 3) prognostic models for accurately predicting the amount of time available to take a corrective action. These integrated models combine multiple ML and AI algorithms to replicate the analysis methods used by human subject matter experts. Ultimately, the solution will entail a comprehensive library of reusable virtual experts that are tailored for a wide range of equipment and plant types.

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As we adopt more technology, the goal is to find the right installation of the right technology to provide assistance around difficult assets. Utilizing sensors and technology software, a strong case can be made for the use of remote monitoring on stranded assets or difficult to reach assets.

In this session, you will learn about different technologies and common uses that make remote monitoring a great solution, along with case studies that will show the value behind remote monitoring.

Topics Covered:

• Different technologies for remote monitoring
• Common uses for remote monitoring
• Case studies of the value of remote monitoring

By attending this session, you will learn about the different technologies and common uses that make remote monitoring a great solution, along with case studies that will show the value behind remote monitoring. You will also be able to identify the benefits of remote monitoring for your organization and how to implement it.

• Jane Arnold Momenta
  Jane Arnold

  Title: Venture Partner
  Company: Momenta

  Jane Arnold is a seasoned industry executive with over three decades of experience in chemical, discrete, and additive manufacturing. As a digital leader in Industry 4.0, she is dedicated to enhancing the impact of manufacturing through the adoption of cutting-edge technologies. Throughout her career, Jane has held executive positions at Stanley Black and Decker and Covestro, where she was responsible for spearheading digital transformations. Most recently Jane joined Momenta as a Venture Partner. Momenta is the leading digital industry venture capital +growth firm accelerating deep tech innovators across energy, manufacturing, smart spaces, and supply chain.

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• Daniel Quant Multi-Tech Systems Inc
  Daniel Quant

  Title: Vice President of Strategic Development
  Company: Multi-Tech Systems Inc

  Daniel Quant is Vice President of Strategic Development responsible for developing corporate strategies that establish new revenues and grow market share within Industrial market segments. Identifying wireless IoT innovation and new business models that accelerate adoption and scalability. Establishing technology alliances and partner ecosystems that transform new channels to market. He works closely with key international customers, represents MultiTech at standardization organizations and presents at many global events. Daniel has more than 25 years of wireless and telecom experience, including twenty leading global product teams.

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• Micheal Mayer Aloxy
  Micheal Mayer

  Title: Managing Director
  Company: Aloxy

  “Michael Mayer is the Managing Director for Aloxy, covering both North and South American markets. Aloxy is an industry leading company specializing in leveraging LPWAN technology and industrial sensors for industrial applications. They provide innovative solutions that enable businesses to optimize operations, improve efficiency, and make data-driven decisions in real-time. With a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Iowa State University, he has spent over 15 years in various engineering and leadership roles primarily in the Upstream Oil and Gas sector. Michael's passion lies in emerging technologies and building successful companies around them. His expertise and strategic mindset have made him a trusted industry expert, driving innovation and growth in the field.”

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• Kleber Facchini SolarEdge Technologies Inc.
  Kleber Facchini

  Title: Director of Technical Marketing, Commercial & Utility
  Company: SolarEdge Technologies Inc.

  Kleber has over 15 years in electrical engineering, applications and product management in the renewables and utility equipment industry. As Director of Technical Marketing, Commercial & Utility, he is responsible for conceiving, defining, and launching all related products across the continent. He also oversees the applications engineering team, who work directly with SolarEdge’s installer partners. Kleber is a champion of processes that leverage his team’s strengths, cultivate collaboration, and result in positive impact on the customer. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering, and a Master’s Degree in Power Conversion from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

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  The Role of Remote Monitoring in Improving the Commercial Viability of Solar
  According to a recent report by The American Clean Power Association, U.S. corporations purchased more clean energy in 2022 than in any previous year, with solar projects now outpacing wind as the preferred choice for corporate buyers . This is expected to increase as companies with large-scale industrial operations increasingly invest in solar as a way to reduce energy costs, meet regulatory requirements and their own ESG goals. However, as solar is not their core business, operating these systems efficiently and effectively, without taking time or resources away from companies’ main business functions, is essential. To maximize generation revenue while controlling O&M expenses, it’s important to detect any underperformance quickly, minimize site visits, and ensure problems can be resolved rapidly. To achieve this, the asset manager must have a clear overview of the problem – what is it, where is it located, and how much energy production is being lost as a result? This enables a quick decision on whether the issue can wait, and what needs to be done to resolve it, empowering site managers to make the most cost-effective choice. While all forms of maintenance strategies – reactive, proactive and predictive – offer advantages and disadvantages, in the majority of cases, predictive maintenance yields the best results. However, successfully implementing a predictive maintenance strategy for solar installations relies on having complete visibility of the entire plant in real time. The key to unlocking this opportunity lies in introducing enhanced remote monitoring that can provide real-time, highly-granular and robust performance data at panel level, to give asset managers complete visibility on system performance and health. In this presentation, Kleber Facchini, Director of Technical Marketing, Commercial & Utility, SolarEdge, will explore the role that remote monitoring plays in allowing plant managers to efficiently manage and maintain large-scale solar installations. Following a brief introduction into the reasons commercial operators are investing in solar, Kleber will take a deep dive into why remote monitoring is essential to keep solar plants performing at their optimum level while also minimizing O&M costs. The presentation will be exemplified by several real-world use cases to further demonstrate the impact of remote monitoring.

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The Connected Plant Conference Digital Arena is where attendees, speakers and vendors meet to network and explore the latest innovations in digitalization.

Open architecture refers to technology infrastructure with non-proprietary specifications that enables interoperability. This session will cover developments in industrywide efforts to realize lifecycle benefits through the development of open, standards-based, interoperable process automation architecture and related business processes.

• David DeBari ExxonMobil Corporation
  David DeBari

  Title: Process Control Engineer
  Company: ExxonMobil Corporation

  David DeBari is an Innovator and a Process Control Engineer for the ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company. He has many years of automation experience in both continuous and batch processes and has built, migrated, or replaced many control systems on numerous projects. David is the Lead Engineer and one of the original members of ExxonMobil’s Open Process Automation Program Team. He has provided technical leadership for the proof of concept and pilot unit prototype projects, and leads the current Test Bed and Field Trial activities for the ExxonMobil Program.

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• Michael Clark OPC Foundation
  Michael Clark

  Title: Director, North America
  Company: OPC Foundation

  

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Industrial organizations struggle with maximizing the value and gaining meaningful insights from large amounts of data created by many disparate systems, sensors, and assets. Join this session to uncover how you can increase productivity, optimize processes and reduced unplanned equipment downtime with AWS machine learning solutions. We will show through demonstrations and use cases how the integration of tools like Seeq Workbench and AWS Lookout for Equipment abstracts the complexity of ML models and puts the analysis in the hands of those who are more versed in day-to-day operations.

• Stuart Gillen Amazon Web Services, Inc.
  Stuart Gillen

  Title: Sr. Product Manager
  Company: Amazon Web Services, Inc.

  Stuart has held a variety of roles in engineering management, business development, product management, and consulting. Most of his career has been focused on industrial applications specifically in reliability practices, maintenance systems, and manufacturing. Stuart is the Product Manager for Amazon Lookout for Equipment at AWS where he utilizes his industrial and AI background in applications focusing on Predictive Maintenance and Condition Monitoring.

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• Emilio Conde Amazon Web Services, Inc.
  Emilio Conde

  Title: Senior Analytics Engineer
  Company: Amazon Web Services, Inc.

  Emilio is passionate about process optimization and enabling others to succeed. He has direct process engineering experience in the oil/gas/polymers and pulp & paper industries at ExxonMobil and Georgia Pacific respectively. At these positions, advanced data analytics helped transform his method of troubleshooting and taking preventative actions. Emilio holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. In his free time, he enjoys being outdoors, traveling, & spending time with his family.

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During this fireside chat our esteemed panelists will discuss the challenges around integrating operational technologies while focusing on IT security. Topics from creating form function tooling and finding ways to implementing technology without impacting operations to the challenges around training, attracting, and retaining a knowledgeable workforce. These industry leaders we'll share ideas around a cybersecurity apprenticeship model, modernizing and utilizing outdated technology, and to learning about additional resources to meeting your cybersecurity needs.

• Jonathan Tubb, PE Siemens Energy, Inc.
  Jonathan Tubb

  Title: Director Industrial Cyber Security North America
  Company: Siemens Energy, Inc.

  Jonathan Tubb is a cyber security expert with extensive expertise and experience with developing solutions to our client’s biggest security challenges. He specializes in identifying, mitigating and remediating threats in critical infrastructure environments. Jonathan holds a B.S. in Computer Engineering from Ohio State University and maintains a Professional Engineer (P.E.) license in Computer Engineering. He brings over 10 years of hands-on experience to his current role, as Senior Technical Lead for NERC CIP Compliance, Industrial Cyber and Digital Security at Siemens Energy, Inc.

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• James Goosby Southern Company
  James Goosby

  Title: Director, Office of Business Technology Planning and Strategic Initiatives
  Company: Southern Company

  James Goosby is Business Technology Planning & Strategic Initiatives Director, responsible for ensuring that initiatives that require technology follow a framework that enables predictable outcomes. He serves as chair the Operations Technology Leadership Team that facilitates business technology planning and implementation while ensuring alignment to business priorities. He has served for more than 26 years at Southern Company, most recently in the role of Assistant to the Executive Vice President of Operations, where he helped advance work in Moving to Equity and co-led a project to strategically align Operations-wide cyber and NERC-CIP program management. James earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Auburn University and served our country in the U.S. Marines.

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• Dwayne Edwards Tenable
  Dwayne Edwards

  Title: Senior Security Engineer
  Company: Tenable

  Dwayne Edwards is a Senior Security Engineer at Tenable. He works at the intersection of business and technology between operational and information security. With a deep background in manufacturing, data acquisition, security and networking, Dwayne has architected, written and built applications and global internetworks in the polymer industry and consumer goods manufacturing arena. Dwayne previously was employed at Rockwell Automation and spent 20+ years at Cisco System in a variety of technical leadership positions. Prior to that in-house and consulting work in manufacturing typifies his experience.

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Today’s digitalization tools can empower your staff to consistently make the best possible decisions in their day-to-day roles. This session will cover worker-focused solutions, with applications spanning operator rounds, lockout-tagout, and asset/event/work management. Solutions for digitizing forms and making data entry more efficient will be discussed.

• Bob Hooper Hexagon ALI
  Bob Hooper

  Title: Senior Industry Consultant
  Company: Hexagon ALI

  Bob has over 30 years successful experience in the development and implementation of corporate operational excellence, maintenance, integrity, turnaround and reliability programs within the oil and gas, electric power, consumer products, and specialty chemicals industries. Significant bottom-line success in safety, compliance, cost reductions and manufacturing capability improvements and ERP and APM implementations. Bob is adept at strategic program management, budget development, P&L responsibility, change management, leadership development and coaching, and staff organization/development. Bob has an Electrical Engineering Degree from West Coast University and The Pennsylvania State University and is a veteran of the U.S. Navy Submarine service.

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  What is connected worker and how does it differ from the digital worker?
  What exactly is the connected worker and how does it differ from the digital worker? Connected Worker is a class of technologies that brings together plant operators, maintenance teams, and other workers with the critical information and applications they need to do their jobs more efficiently and productively. They enhance training, capture knowledge, increase efficiency and improve safety across their operations. The digital worker is sometimes used synonymously with connected worker but in fact is not the same. The digital worker is often used to describe software tools that actually take the place of a human. Chat bots are one example of a digital worker. With the large growth in the Connected worker market size employers have invested in more digital ways of working, but there’s little evidence these technology solutions are moving the needle on workforce productivity. In order to harvest the aforementioned results, it requires redesigning the virtual and hybrid workplace with humans at the center. Only then can organizations improve the worker experience and deliver real business results. Transforming discrete data into useful decision-making information as well as near real time access to accurate data in the workers hands is foundational to digital transformation and the Connected Worker. Senior Industry Consultant Bob Hooper from Hexagon’s Asset Lifecycle Intelligence division shares some of the common challenges industrial professionals face before, during and after digital transformation and answers how facilities can benefit from digitalization implemented via change management programs from the C-Suite to the shop floor.

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• Matt Johnston Evonik Corporation
  Matt Johnston

  Title: Digital Solutions Manager|Digitalization & Processes| Technology & Infrastructure
  Company: Evonik Corporation

  

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  Creating Workflow In the Field
  In the past different production tasks were handled by different people in different systems and on paper. Data that could be accumulated and analyzed was left untapped sitting in dusty files or in someone’s personal excel file. We are now beginning to offer a integrated approach in which tasks are assigned in SAP, workers in the field are notified on their devices, data is automatically fed from checklists back to SAP or the data historians, and work orders are created in the field by the person who first detects the deficiency. The digital workflow ensures no data is left in an isolated system.

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• Preston Johnson CB Technologies, Inc.
  Preston Johnson

  Title: Senior Solutions Manager
  Company: CB Technologies, Inc.

  Preston Johnson is the Solutions Manager for Industrial IoT at CBT, with a technical focus on Predictive Maintenance solutions and systems. Preston builds on 28 years in industrial instrumentation and machine condition monitoring systems at National Instruments, and 4 years at Allied Reliability building predictive maintenance programs with digital technologies. Preston draws from his broad functional background in people and project management, technical and domain expertise in asset monitoring applications, and business development to create and implement comprehensive business strategies for new product development, market introduction, and growth. At CBT, he works with the business development and operations teams to deploy condition monitoring systems and services, reliability solutions, training, and hardware/software systems that improve machinery uptime, reliability, and ultimately, production capacity. Prior to joining the CBT team, Preston held roles in Applications Engineering, Field Sales, Sales Management, Product Management, and Business Development.

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  Digital Workers: Augmented Reality, Training and Failure Prevention
  People are the most important asset plants have. People define and refine their operations and maintenance strategies, they operate plant assets, they identify and execute adjustments and corrective work. Plant personnel on the front line in the plants, greatly benefit from a digital environment as mondain tasks are automated, needed data and information is readily available, and observations and tasks are logged digitally, keeping activity records immediately up to date. Take a quick tour of popular use cases of the digital environment(s) available to plant personnel today. Use cases include training, digital work and inspection procedures, and augmented reality.

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• Veit Hora Eschbach North America Inc.
  Veit Hora

  Title: COO
  Company: Eschbach North America Inc.

  Veit Hora is the Chief Operations Officer at eschbach. He leads the operational business at eschbach throughout the value chain to drive the Industry 5.0 transformation together with our team and customers. Veit has led multiple digital asset utilization projects for global process manufacturers. With a background in business, innovation, and user experience design, he drives eschbach’s industrial performance solution roadmap.

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  How AI Transforms Plant Process Management
  As plants digitize operations, they naturally create a vast organizational knowledge bank that can drive efficiency and performance improvement. Organizational knowledge, and harder-to-find tribal knowledge — that is knowledge not written down like a best practice that an operator may use — can be transformed into job-specific knowledge and insights. With the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI), this data can be processed quickly and becomes a huge advantage for workers. Applications that offer intelligent features using Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Machine Learning (ML) are the next step in building people-centered Plant Process Management systems. In the past, tribal knowledge transfer was often person-to-person and informal; long-time employees knew the history and typical behavior of the equipment they operated or maintained, and information between shifts was passed through informal conversations, logbooks, and standup morning meetings. Today, more plants are digitizing operations and knowledge transfer. Plant Performance Management (PPM) solutions act as a centralized digital database, collecting all information pertinent to operations, maintenance, and plant performance in one place.

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Roundtable: Description and Rules The Connected Plant Conference advisory committee and staff strive to provide the best opportunity for you to learn and brainstorm solutions to your challenges around digitalization. With that in mind, our advisory committee has put together the following discussion groups for your participation. You must sign up during registration or (email Karellano@accessintel.com) for the discussion group in advance and send a challenge you would like to brainstorm on during the assigned times in advance, this will allow for an efficient and informative roundtable discussion. Cybersecurity • NERC/CIP Rules • To Use the Cloud or Not • Security in advanced process control system • Remote Maintenance Strategies Data – know before you get too far into the weeds. • Moving OT environment to the cloud and how to protect your data. • Lessons learned along the way. Digital Worker • Creating a Human-Centric Digital Workforce • Developing your digital workforce • Training on AR/VR • Employee Adoption Using Technology to Mitigate Large-Scale Systems • Industry 5.0 – Better for people and the planet • Digital Tools Used to Gage ESG Solutions. Electrification Discussion • How technology is playing a role in personalizing energy choices • What does the future of energy look like?

The large volume of data available from modern monitoring instruments is only useful if the information collected is of high quality. This session will include case studies about data quality principles. It will also cover lessons learned from a recent uptick in the adoption of cloud computing, the importance of data integrity and governance, and the shift toward a plant-based data perspective.

• Thierry Cartage PlastiWin Capital
  Thierry Cartage

  Title: Digital Transformation Advisor
  Company: PlastiWin Capital

  Graduated in Mechanical Engineering completed by a PhD in Applied Sciences, Thierry has gained experience in Innovation, Communication, Research & Development and Technology in the process industry sector. He spent more than 30 years at Solvay, holding several positions related to the Group's industrial activities and for the last 5 years, he was in charge, as Senior Vice President, of Process Performance and Digital Transformation. He brings his industrial expertise and his strategic vision to guide companies in the technological evaluation of their investments, to support them in digital transformation & Industry 4.0 implementation, to help them meet their challenges in terms of performance, sustainability, growth and human commitment. Today, he oversees consultancy assignments in these areas and acts as an expert to support Belgian Walloon Chemical, Rubber and Plastic Processing companies transition to Digitalization.

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  Why trust in data is a pre-requisite for digital transformation
  The digital transformation holds a tremendous potential for companies, however very few have already achieved massive gains at scale. Solvay is one of the chemical companies leading by example with their transformation. Thierry Cartage (Director Process Performance @Solvay) will share his learnings from the Solvay transformation. What worked well, where to pay extra attention, best practices… One key takeaway – it all starts with the data.

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• Bert Baeck Timeseer.ai
  Bert Baeck

  Title: CEO & Co-Founder
  Company: Timeseer.ai

  Bert is co-founder and CEO of "Timeseer.AI". Before, he worked as a partner in a technology Venture Capital firm for three years (Smartfin Capita- $400M AUM). Bert is also one of the founders of Trendminer, acquired by Software AG in 2018, where he became CEO in 2014. Bert started his career (2004) in the chemical industry, working as a data expert for Covestro. Bert holds a master's in computer science with a major in AI. He currently holds Board positions at several technology companies such as Versasense, Locatee, and Rombit. Bert is also visiting Professor Data Management and Analytics of the University of Leuven.

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  The road to operational data excellence
  Achieving operational data excellence in industrial manufacturing requires reliable data, achieved through DataOps and strong data governance. This involves processes and technologies for data collection, management and analysis, driving continuous improvement with insights. The ultimate goal is a data-rich environment for informed decision-making, optimized operations, and improved competitiveness. Embracing operational data excellence, including DataOps and effective governance, unleashes the potential of AI and analytics to meet desired outcomes.

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• Rooha Khan BASF Corporation
  Rooha Khan

  Title: Production Engineer, BASF Geismar
  Company: BASF Corporation

  Rooha graduated from The University of Texas at Austin in 2016 with a BA in Chemical Engineering. She started with BASF in 2016 in a rotational program, and upon completion has held a production role in multiple units. She has worked in multiple technologies at Geismar including batch and continuous units. She has used Trendminer in those units and has continues to find valuable ways to use it in her every day activities at the plant. In her free time, Rooha enjoys spending time with her pets, Alfred and Eleanor, and anything that can get her outside in the fresh air. Experience: Production Engineer (present) – Ethylene Oxide & Fuel Additives, Geismar, LA Production Engineer (2020) – Acetylene, Geismar, LA Technology Engineer (2018) – Carboxy, Geismar, LA PDP Engineer (2016) – Production engineering (Geismar, LA), Packaging consulting (Florham Park, NJ), Technology engineering (Freeport, TX)

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  How BASF is Growing Analytics Maturity in Operations to Meet Today's Business Challenges
  BASF has started their digitalization journey a few years back to enable all operational experts to make data-driven decisions and contribute to the evolving company goals. With their growing organizational analytics maturity, they did see a diversification at personal levels. Not every operational expert is a data scientist; while more machine learning models need to find their way to the shop floor for meeting today's business challenges. To make next steps in their journey further alignment between technology, people and processes is needed. In this presentation, Rooha Khan, Production Engineer at BASF Geismar, will outline her journey in which TrendMiner as a versatile Industrial Analytics solution is pivotal for her success. Rooha will discuss practical use cases that show that operational experts at each analytics maturity level, from trend viewing to prescriptive analytics, can contribute to the organizational goals. This includes utilizing TrendMiner to monitor critical plant parameters, thus freeing up time to pursue other projects. She also has found TrendMiner can provide quick ways to review plant performance to find optimization opportunities quickly.

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• Karl Abbott ELEMENT
  Karl Abbott

  Title: Product Manager
  Company: ELEMENT

  Karl is a customer-centric open source professional with over 16 years of experience. He started out working in technical support roles, tackling front line support and then the management of large, strategic customers as a Principal Technical Account Manager at Red Hat. Karl can apply his programming skills to help automate repetitive tasks for departments and greatly improve efficiencies. He has mentored fellow associates and helped hire a number of people who went on to be wildly successful in their careers. After working in support, he moved into the world of open source product management, first tackling the needs of performance in Red Hat Enterprise Linux and then moving on to Element, to improve the experience for on-premise customers with Element's Enterprise Server Suite platform. Karl finds the intersection of open source and business/customer needs to be an exciting and rewarding place to work!

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  Data Sovereignty: How owning your communications reduces the number of attack surfaces for your most sensitive data.
  Utilities providers are under constant attack and need the ability to protect their data as securely as possible. Communications data is particularly sensitive as employee conversation is typically detailed and candid. Third party providers - from MS Teams to WhatsApp - store communications data on their vendor owned and managed servers. Third party breaches can lead to serious data leakage. On-premise communications systems allow you to have complete control over your data. Element’s platform can even be deployed in an isolated/air-gapped environment. End-to-end encryption - absent from traditional enterprise solutions such as MS Teams and Slack - is critical as it ensures only those participating in the conversation are able to decrypt content. In a mission critical space such as utilities, data sovereignty and end-to-end encryption improve data security considerably; and can ensure real time communications to support incident response, from coping with natural disasters to managing a cyberattack. Embracing an open standard for communication means that the benefit of secure communication can be felt across your entire supply chain.

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• Renner Burkle Casne Engineering
  Renner Burkle

  Title: Technical Program Manager
  Company: Casne Engineering

  Renner designs implements, and maintains complex process data systems, leveraging cutting-edge enterprise software and custom-developed solutions. He wields technical expertise in distributed IoT, biopharmaceutical, chemical, and data center spaces.

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  Supercharging Data Historians for Sharing and Advanced Analytics
  Enabling centralization of PI System data across multiple sites. Integrating ML tools for analytics Sharing data with internal and external stakeholders. Future-proofing PI System by integrating open source technologies.

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• Sean Ely TDengine
  Sean Ely

  Title: Head of Product
  Company: TDengine

  Sean is focused on making TDengine the best time-series database for Industrial IoT. He has spent over a decade working with time-series data, starting as an integrator working on industrial controls and later establishing himself as a subject matter expert in emerging technology, innovation, and data science for the energy industry.

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  Supercharging Data Historians for Sharing and Advanced Analytics
  Enabling centralization of PI System data across multiple sites. Integrating ML tools for analytics Sharing data with internal and external stakeholders. Future-proofing PI System by integrating open source technologies.

  Close