Dr. Jay Lee is an internationally recognized leader in Industrial AI and smart manufacturing, serving as Clark Distinguished Chair Professor and Director of the Industrial AI Center at the University of Maryland. His work focuses on next-generation machine learning for industrial systems, including transfer learning, domain adaptation, similarity-based AI, Stream-of-X intelligence, and Industrial Large Knowledge Models (ILKM). He leads the Data Foundry—an extensive platform of 100+ real-world industrial datasets used to develop scalable AI solutions and train future engineering talent—and spearheads the AI Factory initiative to cultivate a new generation of industry-ready AI engineers.

Dr. Lee currently serves on World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council in Advanced Manufacturing and Value Chains, the Board of Governors of the Manufacturing Executive Leadership Council of the National Association of Manufacturers, the Board of Trustees of MTConnect, and as Senior Advisor to McKinsey.

Previously, Dr. Lee was Ohio Eminent Scholar and University Distinguished Professor at the University of Cincinnati and Founding Director of the NSF Center on Intelligent Maintenance Systems, a global consortium of 130+ companies recognized for its economic impact. He also served as Vice Chairman of Foxconn Technology Group, advising initiatives that earned multiple World Economic Forum Lighthouse Factory awards. Earlier leadership roles include positions at the National Science Foundation, United Technologies Research Center, and the U.S. Postal Service’s advanced technology team, where he contributed to the first handwritten ZIP-code dataset used in pioneering neural network research.

Dr. Lee is Editor-in-Chief of IOP Machine Learning: Engineering, a Fellow of ASME, SME, ISEAM, and the PHM Society, and a recipient of major honors including SME’s Eli Whitney Productivity Award and the S.M. Wu Research Implementation Award. He was selected as SME’s 30 Visionaries in Smart Manufacturing (2016) and 20 Most Influential Professors in Smart Manufacturing (2020). His book on Industrial AI was published by Springer in 2020. He is widely recognized as a global thought leader shaping the future of AI-driven manufacturing.