INFORMATION FOR
The 12th Annual New Jersey Big Data Alliance (NJBDA) Symposium, New Jersey’s premier conference for big data and AI, will be held at William Paterson University in Wayne on Friday, May 16, 2025. This annual symposium is expected to attract more than 200 attendees from industry, government, and academia.
This year’s theme is “Empowered by AI: Innovation and the Rise of the Augmented Workforce.” The symposium will focus on the transformative power of AI, showcasing how it empowers workers to unlock unprecedented levels of creativity, innovation, and impact. The event provides opportunities for information sharing, networking, research, and discovery of how intelligent technologies are transforming the workplace.
“Harnessing the power of AI for good is the triple-helix task of this consequential technological moment,” says Joshua Powers, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at William Paterson University. “We are excited to be a sponsor and host of this year’s Big Data Alliance Symposium to engage its workforce applications.”
"We are so excited for the 12th Annual NJBDA symposium," says Matt Hale, president of NJBDA. "Since our founding, the NJBDA has brought together academic, government, and industry leaders to discuss the ways we can work together to make New Jersey the place to be for data science and AI. This year's symposium is a great chance for students at all of New Jersey’s colleges, universities, and community colleges to meet with leading academics and business leaders about 'what’s next.'"
The event will feature a morning keynote address at 9:45 a.m. by Rajeeve Kaul, corporate vice president-global pricing officer, McDonald's, titled “From Models to Mindsets: Building the Augmented Enterprise in the Age of AI.” Kaul draws on a rich cross-industry journey spanning finance, retail, healthcare, and global operations to explore how AI and advanced analytics have evolved from behind-the-scenes modeling to front-line augmentation, and offers an honest, insightful look at what it really takes to lead in the age of AI.
Lawrence Lee, senior director, strategic development, for SRI International, will give the afternoon keynote address at 1 p.m. titled “Human-Machine Collaboration and the Future of Work.” Lee will discuss SRI’s role as a pioneer in AI including developing the original Siri, and its research into human-machine collaboration.
The daylong symposium will also include academic research sessions with presentations, an industry panel on AI impacts across sectors, a hands-on student workshop, a workforce development panel on AI and the future of work, poster presentations, networking, and exhibits.
The NJBDA, founded in 2013, is a consortium of 36 higher education institutions and NJ Edge, as well as industry and government members, that builds and leverages collaborations to increase competitiveness, generate a highly skilled workforce, drive innovation and catalyze data-driven economic growth for New Jersey.
The event runs from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the University Commons/John Victor Machuga Student Center at William Paterson University, located at 300 Pompton Road in Wayne. Parking is available in Lot 5, accessed through Entry 4 from Pompton Road/County Road 504. To register, or for additional information, click here.
