AIEmpoweredEDU2026: Full Schedule

1:00pm PDT

Implementing AI for Everyday Tasks & Trades

Tuesday May 12, 2026 1:00pm - 2:00pm PDT

This proposed session examines artificial intelligence as a practical, enabling technology for trades, everyday work, and modern manufacturing environments. Rather than framing AI as a replacement for skilled labor, the session emphasizes its role as an automation layer for repetitive, time-intensive tasks that constrain human creativity and problem solving. Examples will span common workflows, from scheduling, inspection, and documentation to process monitoring, quality control, and adaptive optimization in manufacturing systems. Particular attention will be given to how AI can be integrated into shop-floor and industrial contexts to reduce cognitive overhead, increase consistency, and support safer, more efficient operations.

When AI is properly understood and thoughtfully implemented, it creates space for people to focus on activities where human judgment remains essential. These include innovation, design, interpretation of ambiguous information, and the synthesis of new ideas across disciplines. The session will highlight AI as a tool that augments human capability rather than displacing it, enabling a shift away from routine tasks toward creative and strategic work. Framed in this way, AI becomes a mechanism for elevating human contributions across trades and manufacturing, aligning technological progress with human ingenuity.

Speakers

Devin Roach

Assistant Professor | Tom & Carmen West Faculty Scholar, Oregon State University

Dr. Devin Roach is an Assistant Professor Oregon State University (OSU). He is the Principal Investigator and Director of the Versatile Additive Manufacturing lab at Oregon State (VAMOS) which focuses on developing AI-driven, multi-material additive manufacturing approaches to fabricate... Read More →

Kassandra Hernandez

PHD Student, Oregon State University

Kassandra Hernandez is a PhD student in Mechanical Engineering at Oregon State University in theVAMOS lab. Her research focuses on metal additive manufacturing, laser directed energy deposition(LDED), and the application of machine learning to manufacturing systems. She earned her... Read More →

Tuesday May 12, 2026 1:00pm - 2:00pm PDT
Shiley Hall 301 Shiley Hall, 5000 N Willamette Blvd, Portland, OR 97203, USA

Workforce Readiness & Durable Skills