DeCoDE Lab
MIT

From Data to Design: Challenges and Opportunities

ASME IDETC 2026 Workshop, Location:  Hilton Americas, Houston, Texas, USA

Sunday, August 23, 2026

Prof. Faez Ahmed1, Prof. Wei "Wayne" Chen2, Prof. Namwoo Kang3, Dr. Dule Shu4

1MIT, 2TAMU, 3Narnia Labs, 4TRI

The Basics

This full‑day workshop convenes researchers and practitioners to explore the next wave of data‑driven engineering design. Speakers will highlight emerging datasets, benchmarks, representations, machine‑learning methods, and human‑AI workflows that shape tomorrow’s products. A curated panel will broaden the conversation with perspectives from industry, academia, and national laboratories, while a hands‑on benchmarking session and an interactive brainstorming activity invite attendees to co‑create visions for the future of “AI for Design”.

Participants

We welcome faculty, graduate and undergraduate students, and engineers from industry who are passionate about design, data, and AI. No prior ML background is required—curiosity and enthusiasm are the only prerequisites.

Workshop Agenda

The day is split into two parts:

Time Session Speaker(s)
Part 1: Morning Session (9:00 AM – 12:00 PM)
9:00 AM Welcome and Overview All organizers
9:15 AM NSF EDSE Introduction Harrison Kim (NSF)
9:30 AM Design Datasets and Benchmarking Zhen Wei & Mohamed Elrefaie (MIT)
9:45 AM Design Representation & Synthesis with Generative AI Saketh Sridhar (UMass Amherst)
Short Break & Buffer — 10:00 AM (15 min)
10:15 AM Learning Physics at Industry Scale Using AI/ML: Altair Perspective Shreya Agrawal (Siemens)
10:30 AM Data‑Driven Design in CAD: Challenges and Opportunities Ferdous Alam (Georgia Tech)
10:45 AM Challenges and Opportunities in Data‑Driven Design for Additive Manufacturing Francis Ogoke (CMU)
11:00 AM AI in Topology Optimization Hongrui Chen (MIT)
11:15 AM Keynote: AI in Design and Manufacturing: Trends and Opportunities Thomas von Tschammer (Neural Concept)
Lunch Break — 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM
Part 2: Afternoon Session (1:30 PM – 5:00 PM)
1:30 PM Hands‑on Benchmarking for Engineering Design Mark Fuge (ETH Zurich)
3:00 PM Panel Discussion
5‑minute perspectives from each panelist, followed by a 30‑minute moderated discussion
Ram Telikicherla (GE Vernova), Carolyn Seepersad (Georgia Tech), Christina Wang (ABS), and Matthew Jones (MIT Lincoln Laboratory)
Moderator: Lyle Regenwetter (UIUC)
4:00 PM Brainstorming: Tomorrow’s AI for Design All organizers
4:45 PM Wrap‑up All organizers