Bright Minds College Experience
Students and Faculty! Join SME Membership for a full day of exploration, connection, and hands-on exposure to the future of manufacturing—at no cost to you.
Students and Faculty! Join SME Membership for a full day of exploration, connection, and hands-on exposure to the future of manufacturing—at no cost to you.
Highlights from MT Series SOUTHEAST 2025.
SOUTHEAST Session: This panel will discuss the importance of security in driving the ever-connected organization and supply chain. From the simple best practices of the small shop owner to the NIST and Cybersecurity Defense CMMC 2.0 requirements, this team has the history and experience to enlighten you on your journey. Join us for an engaging presentation and follow-up Q&A session that will leave you glad you took the time to hear best practices, mistakes to avoid, questions to ask, and how to position your shop to be safe well into the future. From the Top Floor to the Shop Floor - manufacturers cannot remain competitive without connectivity and transparency. Keeping you protected, connected, and systemized with process will lead to efficiency, consistency, and scalability. It is the system and service provider's job to keep you safe so you can produce good parts on time and make a profit - join us for some valuable dialog!
SOUTHEAST Session: The South Carolina APEX Accelerator, part of the national APEX Accelerators network administered by the U.S. Department of Defense Office of Small Business Programs, empowers businesses to compete in the government marketplace. This presentation provides an overview of how the SC APEX Accelerator supports companies through market research, bid-matching services, development of market materials, contract management and guidance on federal, state, and local certifications at no-cost to their clients. Attendees will learn how SC APEX Accelerator can assist them in navigating the government contracting marketplace while leveraging key programs and resources such as the Mentor-Protégé Program and Small Business Administration to expand their overall reach.
SOUTHEAST Session: Brought to you by SME
SOUTHEAST Session: In the era of Industry 4.0, Stefanini's Smart Manufacturing has been pioneering the integration of the connected worker and embedded Artificial Intelligence (AI) to revolutionize manufacturing operations. Are you trying to bridge the gap with the IT and OT shop floor for real-time data and collaboration? How is that gap affecting strategic decision processes- ultimately the bottom line? How are you looking to achieve a competitive advantage using AI-embedded tools? What is your strategy to upgrade/troubleshoot your PLC platforms? Join us for a discussion on how we have delivered real-time solutions for our customers that could be applied to your organization!
SOUTHEAST Session: Manufacturing is undergoing rapid digital transformation—driven by predictive maintenance, AI-driven insights, and smart factories. Yet IT/OT convergence is not achieved in strategy documents; it is lived daily through remote access, where people, vendors, and data cross into critical environments. This presentation explores the unique challenges CISOs and OT teams face—legacy patching debt, vendor access sprawl, ransomware pressure, and compliance demands—and why secure OT remote access is the essential bridge to efficiency, resilience, and productivity. Through industry case studies, we’ll examine how leaders are standardizing connectivity, reducing downtime costs, and enabling AI-driven operations—while ensuring security never falls behind transformation.
SOUTHEAST Session: As global manufacturing enters the next wave of industrial transformation, the convergence of digital threads and IoT is reshaping the way products are designed, built, and maintained. A digital thread creates a seamless flow of data across the product lifecycle — from design and engineering to production and aftermarket service. When paired with IoT-enabled smart factories, this integration unlocks unprecedented operational visibility, agility, and intelligence. This session explores how manufacturers are leveraging IoT to create connected ecosystems that power predictive maintenance, real-time quality control, autonomous operations, and closed-loop decision-making. We will discuss practical frameworks for implementing digital threads and highlight ROI-driven success stories from discrete and process manufacturing.
SOUTHEAST Session: Manufacturing leaders face unprecedented cybersecurity challenges as technology accelerates. This session provides a clear view of the current cybersecurity landscape, practical strategies to build visibility, strengthen IT reliability, and safeguard against emerging risks like Shadow AI. Cybersecurity expert Ryan Benson will cut through the myths of AI, highlight governance as a critical defense, and outline the key actions you should prioritize today to help you navigate cybersecurity.
SOUTHEAST Session: This demonstration showcases how agentic automation streamlines material replacement and inventory management using UiPath Maestro. The flow begins with an MTR (Material Test Report) being received, processed, and linked to its corresponding purchase order (PO). Upon identifying a defective material, the system transitions to a Maestro-driven workflow where an intelligent agent analyzes the issue, reviews inventory, and finds suitable substitute materials. The agent then recommends replacements based on availability and need. A human operator reviews and refines these recommendations—such as adjusting shipping quantities—and approves an automatically drafted email prepared by the remediation agent for the customer and requisition team. The demo concludes by highlighting how this automation fits into a larger source-to-pay and manufacturing management process, improving speed, accuracy, and end-to-end efficiency.