OzenCon 2026 Agenda
| Time | Session | Description | Speaker |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8:00-9:00 AM | Breakfast & Registration | ||
| 9:00-9:05 AM | Introduction | Metin Ozen, Chief Technology Officer at SimuTech | |
| 9:05-9:30 AM | Keynote: Use of AI/ML in Intelligent Product Design | Industries such as automotive, aerospace, energy, industrials, high-tech, and healthcare are being transformed by Intelligent Systems that are silicon-designed, software-enabled, and AI-driven. This talk will describe a long-term technology strategy developed at Synopsys to design such Intelligent Systems by combining the power of Electronic Design Automation and Engineering Simulation. We will discuss technologies that are being developed at four layers, compute layer, engine layer, platform layer, and agentic AI based workflow layer. We will conclude the talk by looking at the future of engineering workflows with five levels of autonomy which we call “Reengineer Engineering.” | Prith Banerjee, Senior Vice President, Innovation at Synopsys |
| 9:30-9:45 AM | TBD | Jason Marks, CEO of TELO Trucks | |
| 9:45-10:30 AM | Panel Discussion: AI-Driven Hardware Strategies for Next-Gen Product Design | Explore what AI means for engineers building real-world products. This panel highlights how advanced computing resources (from GPUs to HPC clusters) and machine learning models are accelerating core simulations in FEA, CFD, and electromagnetics. Panelists share how AI-driven workflows deliver faster results, higher-fidelity models, and novel design solutions—all with an eye on real-world ROI. You’ll see case studies—from manufacturing to electronics—that underscore tangible benefits and lessons learned. If you’re looking to boost simulation speed, quality, and innovation without the hype, this session is for you. | Moderated by Prith Banerjee, Senior Vice President, Innovation at Synopsys 1. Dr. Robert Park, CEO of SwirlX |
| 10:30-11:00 AM | Break | ||
| 11:00-11:30 AM | A Successful AI Initiative | Most engineering organizations are investigating how AI fits into their engineering process. We will summarize the various ways in which AI, simulation, and Ansys intersect, and discuss some best practices in AI adoption. | MingYao Ding, SVP of Application Engineering at SimuTech Group |
| 11:30 AM-12:00 PM | Ansys 2026 R1: Powering What’s Next | Ansys 2026 R1 delivers a major step forward in system to silicon engineering design by unifying physics accuracy, providing intelligent acceleration, and delivering real-world performance insight. As products become more software-defined, densely integrated, and multidisciplinary, engineers need visibility across mechanical, electrical, thermal, and fluid domains. In this session, you will hear how Ansys 2026R1 release strengthens system-aware, multiphysics simulation to enable faster design cycles and reduced program risk. AI, HPC, and cloud technologies accelerate innovation, turning complexity into speed, scalability, and real-time design exploration. Finally, new capabilities in multiphysics digital twins provide a deeper understanding of how products behave in the field, allowing teams to optimize performance, reliability, and efficiency long before hardware exists. Together, these advancements help organizations move confidently from systems to silicon with greater agility and engineering insight. | Larry Williams, Engineer, Ansys, Part of Synopsys |
| 12:00-1:00 PM | Lunch | ||
| 1:00-1:45 PM | Panel Discussion: How AI Is Reshaping Simulation Workflows | Discover how leading engineering software is evolving with AI. In this session, Ansys and Synopsys simulation users reveal how they’re integrating AI algorithms into simulation workflows. Learn how Python automation (PyAnsys, custom APIs) is used to streamline analyses and augment design exploration beyond traditional DOE (Design of Experiments) methods. The panel will demystify how these AI features work under the hood, helping you understand when to leverage AI versus classical approaches. You’ll leave with concrete ideas to enhance your simulations and save engineering time. | Moderated by Rick James, Chief Innovation Officer at SimuTech Group 1. Gustavo Navarro, Founder of Divergence AI |
| 1:45-2:15 PM | Serious About Software: Kay’s Dictum in Practice | Alan Kay famously quipped that “people who are really serious about software should make their own hardware”. In 2019, we at Oxide Computer Company sought to bring Kay’s Dictum to cloud computing, designing a rack-scale machine purpose-built for on-premises elastic infrastructure. In this talk, we will chart Oxide’s journey, explaining why being really serious about the software of cloud computing necessitated making our own hardware. We will describe some of the hard lessons we learned along the way, how we brought some lessons of software to hardware design — and specifically how simulation allowed our outrageously small team to get confidence in designs before they had taped out. | Bryan Cantrill, CTO & Founder of Oxide Computer Company |
| 2:15-2:45 PM | Role of Modeling in Process Improvement & Tool Optimization | Swift Solar is advancing next-generation high-efficiency perovskite tandem solar technology, where modeling and simulation are central to accelerating process development and optimizing manufacturing tools. As Swift Solar scales deposition, lamination, and thermal processes from R&D toward production, multiphysics simulation is used to guide design decisions, reduce experimental iteration, and improve equipment performance. Using Ansys as the primary simulation platform—including CFD, structural, thermal, optimization, and multiphysics workflows—Swift Solar develops digital representations of critical processes and tools. These models support tool design, thermal-mechanical integrity assessment, process uniformity, and early digital-twin concepts, enabling faster development cycles and more informed engineering tradeoffs. Overall, modeling has become a key enabler for improving process robustness, optimizing tool performance, and accelerating the transition of Swift Solar’s tandem technology from laboratory innovation to scalable manufacturing. | Reza Nazari, Staff Mechanical Engineer at Swift Solar |
| 2:45-3:00 PM | Break | ||
| 3:00-3:05 PM | Optica and Industry | Jim Kafka, Immediate Past President of Optica | |
| 3:05-3:50 PM | Panel Discussion: AI in Optics R&D and Production | This panel will have an interactive discussion about the use of AI and machine learning in optical design. It will address the current status, what differentiates the emerging software tools, where the field is headed and how fast it is moving, and what it means for optical designers. The panel will take questions from a moderator and the audience. Please join what will be an interesting discussion on a current topic. | Moderated by Tom Hausken, Senior Science Advisor at Optica 1. Amir Atabaki, Co-Founder & CEO of Perceptra |
| 3:50-4:15 PM | Transforming Photonics: Fully Integrated Engines for AI, Quantum, and Beyond | Nexus is pioneering the development of fully integrated photonic engines that can be fabricated, tested, and singulated at wafer scale—redefining the paradigm of photonic integrated circuits. This approach enables a shift from traditional, high-cost, low-integration photonics to complex, chip-scale solutions embedding complete photonic front-ends for diverse systems. By overcoming the long-standing trade-offs between size, cost, and performance, this transformation has the potential to unlock new markets and applications. The talk will highlight recent technical breakthroughs and provide a commercialization outlook for these disruptive technologies. | Tin Komlijenovic, CEO & Co-Founder of Nexus Photonics |
| 4:15-4:40 PM | System-Aware Simulation Workflows for Co-Packaged Optical Architectures | Co-packaged optics is emerging as a key approach for scaling bandwidth and energy efficiency in data center and high-performance computing systems. While photonic devices may be optimized at the component level, accurate performance prediction requires simulation workflows that capture electrical, thermal, and packaging effects once components are integrated. This talk presents a system-aware simulation workflow for co-packaged optical architectures, with emphasis on fiber-to-chip coupling and thermal interactions. Cross-domain effects and workflow-driven trade-offs between bandwidth, power, thermal stability, and integration density are discussed. The focus is on how early, system-level simulation can reduce risk and guide robust CPO development. | Majid Heidari, Engineering Manager of Optics/Photonics at SimuTech Group |
| 4:40-5:05 PM | Computational Imaging for Microscopy, Photography, and Beyond | Computational imaging is the co-design of both optical hardware and image processing algorithms to push the capabilities of imaging systems beyond what’s possible in traditional systems. In the first part of this talk, I’ll discuss an academic project in hyperspectral microscopy where we use multiplexing of light and compressed sensing to recover high resolution snapshot spectral imaging. In the second part, I’ll show how computational imaging translates to industry. At GLASS Imaging, we’re using AI to extract the full image quality potential from smartphone cameras by reversing lens aberrations and sensor imperfections. | Neerja Aggarwal, Deep Optics Engineer at Glass Imaging |
| 5:05-5:15 PM | Raffle | ||