College Park, Maryland, United States
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 non-traditional 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 and Board Member of Foxconn Technology Group led the Foxconn Industrial Internet to advance its "Lights-out" manufacturing to be recognized by WEF Lighthouse Networks in 2019. 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. His early work in the 1990s pioneered the use of the CMAC-based computational framework for transforming continuous physical sensor streams into structured machine-understandable representations, a concept that parallels modern tokenization and embedding processes in LLM. 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 serves as chair of the newly established ASTM AI in Manufacturing Committee (F50).
Pioneering next-generation Industrial AI through the development of non-traditional machine learning paradigms—including transfer learning, domain adaptation, federated learning, similarity-driven learning, peer-to-peer intelligence, and Industrial Large Knowledge Models (ILKM)—to dramatically accelerate AI deployment at speed and scale across the full 4F ecosystem: factory, facility, field, and fleet. Architect of the Data Foundry, a premier industrial data infrastructure comprising more than 100 curated datasets spanning semiconductor manufacturing, wind energy systems, machine tools, EV batteries, rotating machinery (gearboxes, bearings, pumps, valves), and medical technologies—enabling benchmark research, validation, and real-world AI adoption. Founder and leader of the AI Factory Initiative, an open innovation laboratory designed to train industry-ready Industrial AI engineers through hands-on, production-scale environments that bridge academic research and operational deployment.
Predictronics is a technology spin-off from the NSF Intelligent Maintenance Systems (IMS) Center at the University of Cincinnati, launched through the NSF I-Corps program in 2012. The company received early strategic investment from ISID Japan and rapidly built a global customer base that includes industry leaders such as Coca-Cola, Whirlpool, Toyota, Nissan, Epson, Canon, Hitachi, Yanmar, and Makino, reflecting strong market adoption of its industrial AI and predictive analytics solutions.
Advise and Support McKinsey's Efforts in Engaging Clients for WEF Lighthouse Factory Transformation.
We work with WEF Team, global leaders, and partners to transform manufacturing and supply chains in ways that support responsible growth and long-term competitiveness. https://www.weforum.org/communities/gfc-on-advanced-manufacturing-and-value-chains/
Founding Director of the NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC) on Intelligent Maintenance Systems (IMS), a multi-campus consortium led by the University of Cincinnati with partners including the University of Michigan, the University of Texas at Austin, and Missouri University of Science & Technology, collaborating with more than 130 global companies from 2001–2019. Building on nearly two decades of IMS success, also founded the multi-university Industrial AI Center, advancing systematic methods for developing, validating, and deploying industrial AI algorithms, analytics, and applications. Author of the Springer book Industrial AI (2020). The IMS research team has earned five first-place finishes in PHM Data Challenge competitions since 2008. Honors include the NSF Alex Schwarzkopf Technological Innovation Award (2014) recognizing IMS as a catalyst for advances in prognostics and health management, industrial big data, and the industrial internet; selection among SME’s 30 Visionaries in Smart Manufacturing (2016) and 20 Most Influential Professors in Smart Manufacturing (2020); the SME Eli Whitney Productivity Award (2022); and the SME/NAMRC S.M. Wu Research Implementation Award (2022). Named Professor Emeritus in March 2023.