Dr. Thorsten Wuest in an Associate Professor at West Virginia University with a research focus on Smart Manufacturing and AI/ML and Hybrid Analytics in manufacturing. Dr. Wuest's research is funded by various agencies (incl. NSF, NIST, CESMII/DoE, TJF, DFG, EC, BMBF, etc.), and industry. He is currently PI/Co-PI on 6 funded projects, including a collaborative CESMII/DoE project with Dr. Rai. He is listed among the 20 most influential professors in smart manufacturing by SME and published three award-winning books and over 150 peer-reviewed articles gathering over 4,300 citations to-date. In addition to publishing his work in the premier academic outlets of his field, he was featured by IndustryWeek, Forbes, Futurism, the World Economic Forum, CBC Radio, and World Manufacturing Forum, etc. He serves as Vice-Chair Americas for IFIP WG 5.7, on the Editorial Board JMSY, Associate Editor for ASTM’s SSMS and IJMR, as well as on the Advisory Board for Maven Machines, Veepio, Sustainment, and WVU Industrial Extension.