Shaping the Digital Future of Smart Manufacturing

Robert Brennan enlisted in the U.S. Navy Submarine Force as a nuclear reactor operator. After serving seven years he honorably finished his service as a Quality Assurance Supervisor for the Naval Submarine Support Facility in Groton, Connecticut, where he was awarded his 2nd Navy Achievement medal for identifying detailed critical point inspections of Navy submarine periscopes. He then joined the semiconductor manufacturing industry as a Field Engineer supporting Tokyo Electron America where he installed, maintained, modified, and repaired various manufacturing machines and processes from reactive ion etching to atomic layer deposition. His diligence and leadership capabilities supported his promotion to Engineer-in-Charge and Project Manager for the Single Wafer Deposition department. While there he secured a $3M field service contract with an unprecedented 89% ROI ALD business unit by winning the trust and integrity of the customer through dedication to their production of quality semiconductor products. Robert is currently the Chief Engineer for the ALD Engineering Team at GLOBALFOUNDRIES Fab 8 in Malta, New York. He is an expert in structured problem solving and is often found coaching engineering and technical teams through troubleshooting complex equipment. His achievements at Fab 8 include: – Architect, designer, and program manager for the first corporate advanced technical training and certification program, covering 28+ fields of engineering and technology. – Fab 8 Site Incident Structured Problem Solving Captain. – Developed and lead the ALD Engineering Team through $2.5+M in savings, 35% increase in tool availability, and an additional 437 (35.5%) wafers to daily production output. Robert has a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and is pursuing a Master of Science in Nanoscale Engineering.

Ilya joined Grid Dynamics in 2009, and since then has been leading engagements with a number of major retail and technology companies, focusing primarily on Big Data, Machine Learning, and Economic Modeling. He is currently managing the Industrial AI consulting practice that helps clients to become successful AI adopters and deliver innovate AI solutions. Prior to joining Grid Dynamics, Ilya worked at Intel Research on emerging wireless communication technologies. He is the author of several scientific articles and international patents, and also authored a book, “Introduction to Algorithmic Marketing: Artificial Intelligence for Marketing Operations” (2017).