Rolf Schmitz is the Co-Founder & Co-CEO of CollectiveCrunch, a platform changing the world's understanding of forests by providing the most accurate, scalable, timely analytics globally and enabling sustainable forestry and bring transparency to carbon trading markets. Rolf is an Engineer by education and holds an MBA from Manchester Business School. He has deep experience in global Business Development and Sales, having built teams in Asia, USA and Europe. Could you share the genesis story behind CollectiveCrunch? We are steeped in handling large amounts of data and deriving insights from them.

Christian Noske joined NGP Capital in October 2021 as a Partner. He focuses on investments in the Intelligent Enterprise and Smart Mobility areas. Prior to NGP Capital, he was Partner at Target Global, the founding Managing Director of Alliance Ventures (Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi) and founding Partner at BMWi Ventures, where he focused on Enterprise Software, Industrial Tech and Automotive Tech. NGP Capital is a global venture capital firm with over $1.6 billion under management, investing in growth-stage technology companies within the Edge Cloud, Cyber Security, Digital Industry, and Digital Transformation. NGP Capital backs entrepreneurs building a responsible and inclusive world where the confluence of sensors, mobility, software, and cloud solutions will connect people and industries in new ways, transforming how we live and work.

Dr. Ronny Shalev is CEO and founder of Dyad Medical Inc. a company that develops FDA-cleared software which automatically analyzes the content of cardiac and cardiovascular images using artificial intelligence. He has spent much of the past 25 years in executive positions, including VP of Sales and Marketing at Orbotech (NASDAQ: ORBK), where he managed teams of more than 100 people worldwide and Director of the World-wide Program Management at Marvell Semiconductor (NASDAQ: MRVL). He has a significant amount of experience as an entrepreneur and is dedicated to using his skills to help physicians make accurate decisions to improve patient outcomes. He holds a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from Case Western Reserve University. What initially attracted you to computer science and machine learning?

Farshad Kheiri is the Head of AI and Data Science at Legion Technologies, an industry leader for AI-powered, machine-learning workforce management products. The company uses advanced technology to solve some of the biggest WFM business challenges while creating an employee experience that helps to attract and retain employees. What initially attracted you to computer science and engineering? I learned programming through online courses, as well as some on-campus classes. My background is in electrical engineering, but I have a minor in math, stochastic processes, and probability.

Andrew Watson is Vice President of AI and R & D at Healx. Prior to joining Healx he worked at the technology giant Dyson, where he was the founding member of the Machine Learning Research Department, leading the research and implementation of machine learning and artificial intelligence across a variety of global product categories. In his time as Director of Machine Learning at Dyson, Andrew also established a new research group, focused on the intersection between machine learning and cutting-edge biomedical research. Healx is an AI-powered, patient-inspired technology company, dedicated to helping rare disease patients around the world access life-improving therapies. There are 7,000 known rare diseases that affect 400 million people across the globe but only 5% of those conditions have approved treatments.

Farshad Kheir is the Head of AI and Data Science at Legion Technologies, an industry leader for AI-powered, machine-learning workforce management products. The company uses advanced technology to solve some of the biggest WFM business challenges while creating an employee experience that helps to attract and retain employees. What initially attracted you to computer science and engineering? I learned programming through online courses, as well as some on-campus classes. My background is in electrical engineering, but I have a minor in math, stochastic processes, and probability.

Lauren Fitzpatrick Shanks is the founder and CEO of KeepWOL and an award-winning engineer and tech leader, who spent fourteen years working at five Fortune 500 companies, holding various leadership roles in design, system testing, product creation, staffing, software program management, and operations. Lauren is the first Black woman to graduate from The University of Kansas' Aerospace Engineering Department and the first Black woman to win the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) international design competition. KeepWOL is a game-centric talent development platform that combines live multiplayer games, AI technology, and end-to-end learning integration to deeply understand how employees think and what influences their decisions. Could you discuss how you chose engineering as a career path, and even pursued a bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering, all while realizing that it was not the best match for you? I wouldn't say that engineering wasn't a perfect match for me. I have an uncanny ability to visualize processes and objects before they are even prototyped or in motion.

Hamish Ogilvy is the CEO and Co-founder of Search.io, They focus on increasing conversion and revenue of on-site search using machine learning. This is achieved using proprietary search technology. What initially attracted you to the field of machine learning? I started out in physics designing lasers, but I was also always pretty good at seeing patterns in data.

James Kaplan, is the CEO & Co-Founder of MeetKai an Artificial Intelligence, VR, and Conversational Search Company based in Los Angeles, California, currently leading the AI speech race with never-before-seen features. Its conversational AI can understand more complex speech and give personalized results in a natural conversation about many subjects, in different realities. MeetKai's technology is deployed globally through iOS, Google Play, and AppGallery. You had a passion for AI at the early age of 6, how did you first get introduced to this technology? My introduction to AI came from video games.

Andrea Vattani, is the Co-Founder & Chief Scientist at Spiketrap, a contextualization company powering audience intelligence and media performance for creators, platforms, and brands. What initially attracted you to computer science and AI? It was a combination of fortuitous circumstances, I showed up at the University of Rome to take the Statistics major admission test, and it turned out I was a day late! I was advised to apply for Computer Science instead and move back to the Statistics department a year later. I went to the Computer Science admission test (which was that day!) and passed it… never moved back to Statistics! My interest in AI really started with realizing how computers can help you automate things, and AI is the ultimate automation machinery.