Featured Speakers
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Dr. Tilman Buchner is Partner & Director at BCG and the global leader of BCG’s 11 Innovation Center for Operations (ICO) with responsibility across Europe, the Americas, and Asia. He operates at the intersection of technology, software, and large-scale transformation, with deep expertise in industrial software and platform ecosystems. He is a recognized thought leader in software-defined automation and Physical AI and holds multiple software patents. With more than a decade of experience working with C-level executives at multinational corporations, Tilman has a deep understanding of what it takes to lead complex organizations through transformation in the digital era.
Tilman is a frequent keynote speaker and author on the impact of emerging technologies. He has built and led strategic partnerships with leading technology companies such as AWS, NVIDIA, and Siemens, as well as with academic institutions. In addition, he serves as advisor and coach to several corporate ventures and has acted as interim CEO/CTO for multiple Digital BCG ventures. His experience spans the full spectrum from consumer-facing digital products to complex industrial systems.
Prior to joining BCG, Tilman held several senior technology and product leadership roles. These include Director of Engineering at BCG Digital Ventures, where he built the global engineering organization; Chief Mobile Officer at ProSiebenSat.1; Chief Technology & Innovation Officer at Seven Ventures; and Head of Center for Mobile Products & Services at Scout24.
Tilman holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from RWTH Aachen University and a Master’s degree in Business Administration. His academic experience includes studies at Seoul National University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Tao Zhang holds a Ph.D. in Engineering and is a tenured professor and doctoral supervisor at Tsinghua University. He serves as Head of the Department of Automation, Dean of the Institute for Embodied Intelligence and Robotics, and Vice Dean of the School of Information Science and Technology. He is also a member of the Electronic Information Science and Technology Committee of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
He is a Fellow of IEEE, IET, and AAIA; a Fellow and Council Member of the Chinese Association of Automation; an Executive Council Member of the China Simulation Federation; and a member of the Technical Committee on Robotics of the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC). He is also a chief scientist under China’s National Key R&D Program and a recipient of the State Council Special Government Allowance.
His research has long focused on intelligent robotics, artificial intelligence technologies, and control theory. He has led or participated in projects supported by China’s National High-Tech Research and Development Program (863 Program), National Basic Research Program (973 Program), National Key R&D Program, and National Natural Science Foundation of China. He has received two second prizes in the National Teaching Achievement Awards and five first prizes in provincial- and ministerial-level science and technology awards, including the Beijing Science and Technology Progress Award.
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Abhinav Valada is a Full Professor at the University of Freiburg, where he directs the Robot Learning Lab. He is affiliated with the Department of Computer Science, the BrainLinks-BrainTools center, and a founding faculty of the ELLIS Unit Freiburg. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Freiburg and his M.S. in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University.
Abhinav’s research lies at the intersection of robotics, machine learning, and computer vision, addressing fundamental problems in perception, state estimation, and decision making to enable robots to operate reliably in complex and diverse open-world settings.
For his research, he received the IEEE RAS Early Career Award in Robotics and Automation, IROS Toshio Fukuda Young Professional Award, NVIDIA Research Award, and IROS Best Paper on Cognitive Robotics, among others. Abhinav is a DFG Emmy Noether AI Fellow, Scholar of the ELLIS Society, IEEE Senior Member, and Co-Chair of the IEEE RAS Technical Committee on Robot Learning. He is a Senior Editor for IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters and a Senior Area Chair for multiple conferences and journals.
Many aspects of his research have been prominently featured in wider media such as the Discovery Channel, NBC News, Business Times, and The Economic Times.
As the lead developer of Tencent Cloud’s Agent Development Platform (ADP), Wu Yongjian has spearheaded the platform’s comprehensive iterations and large-scale deployment, driving ADP to become a leading AgentOps (agent development and operations management) platform in China. The platform has been successfully implemented across more than 30 industries, including media, government, education, and retail, while maintaining its market leadership.
Since joining Tencent in 2008, Wu Yongjian has dedicated himself to AI research and development and team management, overseeing full-stack technology development in computer vision, large language models, and intelligent agents. His achievements have been widely applied across Tencent’s core products, including WeChat, QQ, QQ Browser, Tencent Meeting, Yuanbao, and IMA. Through Tencent Cloud, he has also continued to deliver enterprise-grade AI services, supporting the intelligent transformation and upgrading of businesses across a wide range of industries.
In terms of scientific research and innovation, Wu Yongjian has led his teams to achieve numerous significant breakthroughs. His work has received several prestigious industry, provincial, and ministerial-level awards, including the Second Prize of the 2025 Outstanding Scientific Research Achievements Award of the Ministry of Education, the 2024 World Internet Conference Leading Scientific and Technological Achievement Award, the Special Prize of the 2020 Shanghai Science and Technology Progress Award, and the First Prize of the Fujian Provincial Science and Technology Progress Award.
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Former Vice President, Public Utilities Business Group, Huawei; Head of EE Systems, Huawei UK; and Deputy CEO, Huawei Saudi Arabia. With 26 years of industry experience, including 21 years with deep expertise in global business and strategic account management, his career spans key markets across Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East. He led the signing of Europe’s first commercial 5G contract in the UK, drove breakthroughs in both scale and profitability for Deutsche Telekom’s wireless business — elevating its profitability ranking from the bottom to the top within Huawei’s global system — and delivered multiple landmark international projects including Saudi Arabia’s national digital infrastructure. He brings comprehensive commercial leadership spanning market development, major project operations, and cross-cultural team building.
In recent years, he has focused on the commercialization of AI and embodied intelligence, driving the widespread roll-out of “AI + Education” and embodied-intelligence practical curricula across dozens of universities. He is committed to translating cutting-edge technology into measurable business value, and advancing the large-scale deployment and ecosystem development of intelligent robots in the Asia Pacific market.
Hou Dawei is a co-founder of Microintelligence (微億智造), a senior technology expert and entrepreneur in the fields of Industrial AI and intelligent manufacturing. Combining an academic background at top-tier universities with hands-on experience at world-class institutions, he has long been dedicated to natural language processing, machine learning, and industrial AI visual inspection, continuously advancing the intelligent transformation and digital upgrade of the manufacturing industry with artificial intelligence technologies.
Hou Dawei earned his master’s degree in Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Computational Linguistics from the University of Washington (Seattle), where he built a solid theoretical foundation in artificial intelligence and language technologies. During his graduate studies, he also served as a Machine Learning Algorithm Researcher at the Information School of the University of Washington (Seattle), engaging deeply in the research and application of frontier machine learning algorithms.
Hou Dawei previously served as an AI Algorithm Researcher at the Technology Innovation Research Center of PwC (Silicon Valley), where he focused on the research, development, and practical application of AI algorithms within the innovation technology team of a globally leading professional services firm, accumulating rich experience in technology commercialization and industrial deployment.
Hou Dawei has been active at the frontier of academic and industrial research. He has published academic papers at ACM and related top-tier international conferences. He also authored the first dedicated article on industrial AI inspection to be published in China, in the journal Artificial Intelligence under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), filling a gap in industrial AI inspection within authoritative domestic journals and playing a significant role in advancing the academic dissemination and industry adoption of related technologies.
Hou Dawei possesses deep technical expertise in industrial AI visual inspection and related fields, holding 86 invention patents and 35 utility model patents in total. His technical outcomes have been widely applied in scenarios such as industrial visual inspection, providing solid intellectual property support for the practical implementation of intelligent manufacturing.
Backed by his professional influence in Industrial AI and the digital economy, Hou Dawei has been appointed to a number of important advisory and specially appointed positions:
- Advisor to the Expert Group on Strategic Consulting for the Intelligent Transformation and Digital Upgrade of Jiangsu Province’s Manufacturing Industry
- Advisor to the Shenzhen Digital Economy Expert Group
- Specially Appointed Expert of JD Technology in Industrial AI and Intelligent Manufacturing
These appointments reflect the high recognition of his professional expertise in Industrial AI and intelligent manufacturing by government authorities and leading industry enterprises.
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Kristine Mo serves as the VP of Global Market and Ecosystem at AI² Robotics, focusing on connecting China’s most advanced general-purpose intelligent robotics with global industrial needs, building ecosystems, driving innovation, and fostering international cooperation.
Kristine has deep expertise in building technology ecosystems and international cooperation. Previously, she served as the Program Director at the Future Science Prize Foundation (commonly known as the “Nobel Prize of China”), leading the establishment of the Young Scientist Innovation Alliance. This initiative connected over 120 top young Chinese scientists from home and abroad, promoting in-depth industry-academia-research collaboration and resource sharing.
In 2021, she initiated and organized 20+ professors and AI experts to co-author the book AI Ethics and Governance: A Future Perspective. In 2023, she launched the Asian Young Scientist Fellowship, which supported 36 young scientists from countries including China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and India in conducting cutting-edge research across life sciences, physical sciences, and computer science, advancing Asian scientific innovation and international academic dialogue. Kristine graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Hong Kong.
Zeng Hui, Vice President of Galbot. Member of the China Democratic National Construction Association, Member of the Haidian Youth Federation, Deputy Director of the Embodied Intelligence Industry Committee of the Beijing Federation of Industry and Commerce, Expert of the Guangdong Embodied Intelligence Training Base, Director of Guangxi Embodied Intelligence Pilot Test Technology Co., Ltd., and Liaison of the Embodied Intelligence Group under the Artificial Intelligence Standardization Technical Committee of MIIT. With over 10 years of working experience in the internet, cutting-edge technology and AI sectors, he previously served as Director of Policy and Strategy at Meituan Autonomous Delivery Department, Senior Specialist of Strategic Investment at Meituan, Senior Researcher at the Artificial Intelligence Department of WeBank, and Director of Technology Development at the China Academy of Urban Planning & Design – Alibaba Future City Lab. He is a Council Member of the School of Public Management Chapter of Tsinghua Alumni Association, External Mentor of The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Industry Mentor for International Business MSc at Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Member of the Special Committee on Frontier Technology and Industrial Innovation Governance of the Chinese Society of Science of Science and Science & Technology Policy, and Executive Member of the Computational Law Committee of China Computer Federation (CCF). He has been selected for the Caixin Think Tank ESG 30 Young Scholars Program, Outstanding Scholar of Alibaba Research Institute Oasis Program, and Participant of the 9th Alibaba CIO Academy. He has participated in the formulation of embodied intelligence and digital economy policies for multiple regions. He holds a Master of Public Administration from Tsinghua University and an EMBA from City University of Hong Kong.