Featured Speakers and Panels
SAMPE 2026 Featured Speakers and Panels bring together the leaders shaping the future of advanced materials and manufacturing. These high-impact sessions deliver timely insight, real-world perspective, and forward-looking conversations that connect innovation to impact.
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Featured Panels and Sessions are part of the Conference program and are included with Premium Conference, Full Conference and Student Badges.
​Thermoplastic Composites: The Connector Material Across Industries
Julieta Barroeta Robles, Joseph Heil, Jason Gabriel, Mike Buck, Gourab Ghosh
Thermoplastic composites have a wide range of performance and processing advantages. This panel will explore how these attributes benefit multiple industries and applications including aerospace, sporting goods, industrial, and automotive. Join experts from the various industries to learn about the latest developments and applications of thermoplastic composites.
From Lab to Line: Developing a Workforce to Take Applied Research to Successful Manufactured Composite Products
Andrew Pokelwaldt, IACMI - The Composites Institute
In the composites industry the transition from research to successful manufacturing is challenging. The people really do matter. Personnel hiring, training, and successful onboarding to work with product researchers is critical to a company. The panel will discuss ways to select manufacturing personnel for critical roles. Insights into the many technical and soft skills needed to make manufacturing processes successful. The panel will discuss critical roles, skills and how the team can be scaled while successfully transferring knowledge and building an effective manufacturing process.
Next-Gen Automotive: Materials, Manufacturing & Intelligence
Gourab Ghosh, Hexagon
Explore how advanced materials, innovative manufacturing, simulation, and AI-driven design are shaping the future of vehicles. Topics include multi-functional composites, additive manufacturing, digital twins, process optimization, and AI-enabled predictive modeling. Gain insights into integrating materials, manufacturing, and computational technologies for high-performance, sustainable, and intelligent vehicles.
Artificial Intelligence
Anoush Poursartip, Navid Zobeiry
Join us in a discussion on how AI is reshaping the composites landscape—from accelerating materials discovery to optimizing manufacturing and design —as diverse experts debate the opportunities, risks, and regulatory future of the use of AI in the composites industry.
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We hear that AI represents the next great leap in the digital transformation of the composites industry. While the potential for accelerating materials design, streamlining product development, and optimizing manufacturing is undeniable, the path forward is complex. This panel moves beyond the buzzwords to debate the practical realities of deploying AI in high-stakes environments.