Flex Technology Workshop 2027

The first program day examines the move from automated processes toward intelligent, connected systems capable of decision-making, optimization, and adaptive control. Sessions cover programmable cloud laboratory nodes for AI materials and manufacturing, Sandia’s Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Innovation, the Alabama Materials Institute, and an autonomous robotic metallurgist materials innovation platform. The program also connects self-driving and autonomous laboratory efforts associated with the Genesis Mission and Programmable Cloud Laboratories agendas to real-world applications, collaboration, and the future of autonomous manufacturing systems. An industry technology exhibition and demonstrations are included. The second program day explores Internet of Things for Manufacturing (IoTfM) use cases, implementation lessons, standards for connectivity and interoperability, and the future direction of IoTfM. Sessions address OPC UA, digital technologies and digital twins, factory-floor digital transformation, automation and additive manufacturing, manufacturing data, practical industrial IoT, and technologies shaping future factories. The program also includes advanced manufacturing pilot facility tour stations and demonstrations.

The technical program covers semiconductor and electronic-device technology, design, manufacturing, physics, and modeling, including CMOS transistor technology, advanced memory, displays, sensors, MEMS, quantum and nanoscale devices, optoelectronics, power and energy-harvesting devices, and emerging material systems. Featured technical themes include AI-driven semiconductor scaling and system integration; memory technologies and system co-optimization; IDM manufacturing trends; chiplets, heterogeneous integration, and 3D stacking; AI and machine learning in physics-based semiconductor modeling; advanced-packaging reliability; cryogenic electronics for quantum computing; and optical devices for co-packaged optics and optical I/O. Short-course subjects include AI-era logic scaling, atomic-layer processing, HBM, NAND, spintronics, and memory-centric computing.

The program brings together energy, industrial transformation, and advanced manufacturing, with cross-cutting themes of workforce development, standards, finance, AI and digital transformation, policy, and resilience planning. Roundtables, workshops, and demos are designed to address tradeoffs involving affordability, risk, standardization, and deployment speed. Program tracks include Powering Growth, with sample sessions on data-center power and cooling, new nuclear deployment, solar cost reduction, and scaling geothermal; Industry Reimagined, covering industrial heat electrification, next-generation steel, and EPC project-delivery costs and risks; Next-Gen Manufacturing, addressing hardware investment and bankability, additive manufacturing, and sustainability tradeoffs in product design; and Future Workforce, on nuclear workforce readiness, apprenticeships, and aligning training programs with real projects. Additional sessions are in development in areas including energy storage, fusion, industrial efficiency, critical minerals, and sustainability tradeoffs. The listed sessions are samples and subject to change.

The program covers medical-device design and development, next-generation technologies, regulatory compliance, cybersecurity, supply-chain resilience, quality, and manufacturing operations. Conference topics include market readiness and adoption of medical devices; scaling miniaturized devices from prototype to production; signal integrity and EMI for medical imaging and AI-driven devices; AI-based demand forecasting; changes to FDA inspections and the Quality Management System Regulation (QMSR); 3D printing of bioabsorbable implants; and robotics and AI in pharmaceutical manufacturing. Show-floor education also addresses digital transformation, AI adoption, workforce transformation, smart manufacturing, automation, packaging, additive manufacturing, and sustainable operations. Workshops address digital lean manufacturing using automation, AI, robotics, and data analytics; OT/IT integration and smart-manufacturing roadmaps; and sterilization technologies including supercritical carbon dioxide, vaporized hydrogen peroxide, chlorine dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, electron beam, and X-ray. Sterilization topics include validation, material compatibility, scalability, regulatory expectations, and lower-emission approaches. The leadership program covers mentorship, leadership credibility, difficult conversations, decision fatigue, and burnout.

The published 2027 track framework covers electronic design across chip, board, package, and system levels. Topics include signal and power integrity for die, chiplets, interposers, and packaging; chip I/O and power modeling; photonics and wireless integration; PCB, module, and package materials and processing; and memory/HBM, chiplet, multi-die, and 3DIC/SiP interfaces. Other tracks address system co-design and modeling; high-speed links; jitter, noise, and error-ratio measurement and simulation; signal processing, modulation, equalization, and forward error correction; power delivery; EMC/EMI; test and measurement; and interconnect modeling and optimization. The machine-learning and AI track includes electronics design automation, behavioral models, system analytics, and performance optimization. Advanced automotive electronics topics include EV and autonomous systems, sensing, in-vehicle communications, charging, battery technology, and automotive testing. The conference format includes technical sessions, panels, tutorials, and boot camps.

A four-day industrial automation and digital transformation event at the Thomas M. Menino Convention & Exhibition Center. The program combines keynotes, an expo with demonstrations, and general-access sessions featuring customer voices, industry viewpoints, partner solutions, and product introductions. Featured tracks cover executive insights; AI and edge-to-cloud operational data; process control; production logistics; OT security; and the future of industrial automation. Industry tracks include automotive and tire, food and beverage, life sciences, mining and metals, energy, OEMs and machine builders, and water and wastewater. Topics include rare-earth processing automation, critical metals and industrial energy systems, grid decarbonization through hydro and bioenergy, and data-driven oil and gas operations. Five curated summits address process automation and PlantPAx DCS; secure digital operations, industrial data, AI, MES, digital thread, and OT cybersecurity; OEM machine building, digital twins, and secure design; production logistics, autonomous material movement, robotics, and orchestration; and industrial safety. The safety program covers functional-safety and cybersecurity standards including IEC 61508, IEC 61511, ISO 13849, and IEC 62443, as well as robotics, AI, and autonomous operations. Process-summit sessions include copper-mine control systems, PlantPAx modernization, predictive control, and EtherNet/IP. Keynotes address leading through change and complexity, the future of industrial operations, and innovation through experimentation.

The forum brings together cleantech innovators, investors, corporates, and other ecosystem participants to address grid stability, water scarcity, waste-to-value, critical minerals, and geopolitical pressures on supply chains and energy security. The program includes a closed-door, peer-level executive roundtable and an opening plenary covering cleantech trends, capital flows, innovation, and the 2027 Global Cleantech 100. Agenda topics include nuclear fuel supply and nuclear supply chains; mineral processing, refining, recovery, and the post-mining supply chain; physical AI applications in grid construction, critical minerals, and dual-use; data-center power demand, grid capacity, water use, cooling, and wastewater resource recovery. Other sessions address heat resilience, energy efficiency for AI compute, geopolitical risk across energy and cleantech supply chains, and investor perspectives on cleantech funding. Innovation Showcases feature cleantech companies presenting technologies and business models.

A multidisciplinary materials research program covering electronics, optics and photonics; energy and sustainability; manufacturing; materials theory, computation and data science; nanomaterials; quantum materials, heterostructures and devices; soft materials and biomaterials; and structural and functional materials. Critical-minerals topics include advanced characterization, AI/ML and materials for enhanced critical minerals recovery and separation, and materials innovation for ultra-pure critical minerals from fundamental science to industrial scaling. Energy symposia address data-driven processing for scalable energy-storage materials manufacturing, earth-abundant active materials for Li-ion batteries, lithium-based battery characterization and computation, critical-material-free chemistries beyond Li-ion, solid-state battery interfaces and processing, solar-energy materials, space photovoltaics, and advanced nuclear fuel and cladding. Manufacturing topics include multiscale additive manufacturing, from nano-architected materials to macroscale structures; sustainable electronics; and processing and manufacturing pathways for emerging electrochemical energy storage. Other subjects include in situ and operando electron and X-ray microscopy, 4D-STEM and AI-enabled imaging; AI-ready materials research platforms; quantum sensing and superconducting materials; soft electronics, biohybrid materials and biosensing.

The program centers on “Trusted Sustainable Silicon Intelligence from Edge to Cloud,” with plenary papers and parallel technical presentations. Technical areas include analog circuits, data converters, digital circuits and architectures, image sensors and displays, medical circuits, memory, power management, RF and wireless systems, security, technology directions, and wireline. Tutorial topics include circuit design for autonomous vehicles, switched-capacitor power converters, adaptive clocking, time-domain ADCs, machine-learning accelerators, energy-harvesting sensors, mm-wave local-oscillator techniques, analog design automation, radar and sensing, and die-to-die interfaces. Six Advanced-Circuit-Design Forums address AI and HPC co-design; high-speed wireline data converters; electrical and optical connectivity; AI-optimized sensing; circuits for 6G communication, sensing, and edge AI; and silicon systems for quantum sensing and computing. Other program elements include “The Analog Renaissance: Can Unconventional Physical Computing and Optical Interconnects Define the Next Strategic Leap?”, a Student Research Preview with work-in-progress presentations and posters, an invited industry track on commercial chips and systems for AI training and inference, and demonstration sessions. The short course covers hardware security, including cryptographic architectures, hardware attacks and chip-level countermeasures, and hardware roots of trust. Plenary speakers include Marco Pieters, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at ASML, and Matt Murphy, Chairman and CEO of Marvell.