Eirik Andreassen is the coordinator for Nemonoor, a EU/Norwegian funded consortium consisting of Digital Norway, NTNU, SINTEF, IFE, NORA/UiO, ÅKP, Smart Innovation Norway and Norway Health Tech. The aim of Nemonoor is to help Norwegian SMEs build their digital skills and capabilities enabling them to adopt data, digital technologies and AI as part of their operations. 

In Digital Norway, Eirik is responsible for service development, sales and partnership development in DigitalNorway, a company that aims to grow Norwegian enterprises by sharing insight from those that has succeeded with a digital transformation, to those that are eager to get started but uncertain about how to go about it.  We do this by providing services that specifically aim to develop knowledge and skills of SMEs within digitization, rolling out a national collaboration space, and by coordinating industry wide transformation projects.

By education, Eirik is a naval architect from NUST/MIT, and before joining DigitalNorway, he enjoyed more than 20 years of broad international experience as a leader of international companies and multi-national business networks.

Kerstin Bach is a professor of Artificial Intelligence at NTNU and the Research Director at NorwAI. She has a PhD from the University of Hildesheim and worked as a researcher at the German Research Center for AI (DFKI), where she developed decision support systems for various industries. She has experience in AI research and development and led research projects in healthcare, intelligent sensing, and knowledge management. Kerstin is involved in AI education and mentorship, promoting AI research and encouraging women in technology.

Former politician, and vice minister (state secretary) at the Ministry for Research and higher Education.

Terje Brasethvik is a department manager at Bouvet and an adjunct associate professor at the Department of Computer Science at NTNU, where he currently serves as the research director at NorwAI. Terje holds a PhD from NTNU on the topic of semantic representations and has a post doc in health informatics.
NorwAI is a center for research-driven innovation, with a focus on applied artificial intelligence, where the goal is to increase the use of artificial intelligence in Norwegian industry. The center therefore collaborates closely with industrial partners from three different sectors (media, finance and industry 4.0).

Simone Casolo is an expert in industrial data science and artificial intelligence, specializing in developing AI-driven solutions for the energy sector. With a solid foundation in research, Simone transitioned from academic research into industry roles, initially working on subsea oil and gas projects. Since joining Cognite in 2020, Simone has advanced through various positions, including Head of Production Optimization and Principal Data Scientist. In these roles, Simone led teams in creating and deploying scalable machine learning applications for predictive maintenance and production optimization, particularly in the oil and gas, manufacturing, and power sectors. Simone's work is characterized by a deep understanding of both the technical and strategic aspects of data science in industrial contexts and he is now leading the NorwAI work package DATA. 

Tor Grande is Rector at NTNU.

In the period 2021 to December 2023 he was Pro-Rector for Research and Dissemination at NTNU. 

He was previously Vice Dean for Research at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Head of Department of Department of Materials Science and Engineering. He is a professor in Materials Chemistry/Science at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, since 1997 and was associate professor at the Department of Inorganic Chemistry 1994-1997 (NTH/NTNU). He has been a visiting scientist at NIRIM(NIMS) in Japan and University of Rennes and been on sabbatical leave at Northwestern University and EPFL.

Gorm Grønnevet has 12 years of experience from Telenor Research and Innovation. Before that he held a post doc for the Norwegian School of Economics and has also worked for the Norwegian Competition Authority.

Jon Atle Gulla is director of the Norwegian Research Center for AI Innovation (NorwAI). This is a center for research-based innovation (SFI) that develops new technologies for successful and responsible exploitation of data-driven artificial intelligence in industrial innovations.  NorwAI is supported by the Research Center of Norway, three universities, two research institutes and 11 companies.

Jon Atle Gulla is a professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim.  He was the head of the Department of Computer and Information Science 2010—2012 and the deputy head 2009-2010 and 2012-2013.  Gulla has a MSc (1988) and a PhD (1993) in Computer Science from the Norwegian Institute of Technology. He has a MSc in Linguistics from the University of Trondheim (1995) and a MSc of Management (Sloan fellowship) from London Business School (2003).  He is a member of the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters.

Gulla’s research centers around Semantics and Natural Language Processing and its use in Recommender Systems, Information Retrieval, and Text Analytics.  He has a keen interest in Digitalization and AI-based Innovation and Entrepreneurship, facilitating AI adoption in industrial companies as well as exploring new business opportunities in startups.

Odd Erik Gundersen is the head of the AI department at Aneo where he leads the development of AI systems that are deployed throughout the renewable energy company. Odd Erik has a PhD in AI and is an associate professor at NTNU where he teaches, researches, and supervise master and PhD students.

Knut Eilif Halgunset is Head of Transformation and Strategic partners at SpareBank 1 SMN. His banking career includes CIO/CDO positions with experience from multiple areas; strategy, leadership, consulting, financial services, Telecom and various areas of business development & Innovation both national and internationally. 
As a high tech profile and his allround societal activities earned him the title "Community Builder of the year 2024 in the innovation ecosystem" given by a grateful start-up and business community in Mid-Norway. Describes himself as a pragmatic futurist and digital to his core. 
Knut Eilif Halgunset will moderate the panel debating AI Act/regulations - Implementation and Implications. 

Andreas Hafver has worked in DNV for 10 years, with focus on risk management in complex systems. He currently leads the Emerging Assurance Technologies research team, responsible for exploring new digital technologies that may impact DNV’s industries in the next decade. Additionally, he is involved in DNV’s development of a framework for assurance of AI enabled systems, and he leads the Trustworthy AI work package in NorwAI.
 

Jarle Roheim Håkonsen: Norwegian radio and TV-journalist for 20 years, author of food and travel-books, formerly political advisor to prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre.

Jon Espen Ingvaldsen is Chief Consultant at Kantega and Adjunct Associate Professor at NorwAI, NTN. 
At NorwAI he has played a key role in the successful NorLLM project bringing Norwegian large language models to life. 
Jon Espen Ingvaldsen has a Ph.D. and research experience in the analysis and monitoring of a wide range of data structures, from continuous data streams, to unstructured text, transaction logs and graph data.

As an entrepreneur, Jon Espen has helped build two companies, Businesscape and Mito.ai. Both companies originate from NTNU, and the latter is today a promising fintech company. 
As a chief consultant, Jon Espen has taken responsibility for architecture and implementation deliveries in projects with multiple large business clients.  
His keynote on Day 2 will bring news to the audience on his current pioneering work in health innovations.

Weronika Łajewska is a third year Ph.D. student at The Information Access and Artificial Intelligence Research Group at the University of Stavanger, supervised by Krisztian Balog. Her research interests lie in the intersection of information retrieval, natural language processing and human-computer interactions. She is particularly interested in explainable and transparent conversational search.

Till Christopher Lech started his career in the software industry, working on data-driven technologies such as semantic web, search technology and data/text mining. Before joining SINTEF, Till was employed as Special Advisor in the Research Council of Norway,  involved in the strategic planning and management of the national ICT research programmes, as well as Norway’s participation in the European Framework programmes. At SINTEF, is working as Research Manager for the Smart Data Group, overseeing a wide portfolio of national and international research and innovation projects in the field of data management, data market places and data spaces. Till is member of the Board of Directors of the European Big Data Value Association.

Dr. John Markus Lervik is the Chief Strategy & Development Officer and co-founder of Cognite, serving as CEO from the foundation to 2022. Throughout his career, Lervik has channelled his passion for liberating data and innovating with technology into companies that revolutionize the ways we work. After finalizing his PhD at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), he co-founded Fast Search & Transfer (FAST) in 1997 and served first as Chief Technology Officer and later as Chief Executive Officer until Microsoft acquired the company in 2008 for USD 1.3 billion. He then took the position of Vice President of Enterprise Search at Microsoft before leaving in 2009 to found the software company Cxense, which was listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange in 2014. In 2005 Lervik was recognized by Forbes as a member of the E-gang for his pioneering work in the technology sector.

Håkon Wium Lie created Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) while working with Tim Berners-Lee at CERN in 1994. He also published Norwegian Laws on CERN's servers that year. As CTO of Opera Software he ensured that CSS and the web could be used on all sorts of devices. He is the chairman of YesLogic, which makes the Prince CSS-to-PDF formatter. In 2015, Håkon sailed from Lima to Easter Island on a balsa raft, making sure the world-wide web is truly world-wide. He has planted an apple orchard in his native Norway, and also owns a pipe organ workshop there.  He holds a MS from the MIT Media Lab, and a PhD from the University of Oslo.

Halvor Lund studied physics at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), and he has a PhD in modelling of multi-phase flow for CO2 transport. He has worked at SINTEF Energy Research with Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) projects, and later as a software developer and data scientist in the transportation sector. Since 2023, he has employed at Statnett, where he tries to increase the capacity of transformers and power lines using sensors and machine learning.
 

Aslak Sira Myhre is a Norwegian commentator, author, cultural leader and politician. Since 2014 he is director of the National Library of Norway. He has been a leftwing politician, and was for a period leader of the former party Red Electoral Alliance (RV). He has previously been head of Raud Valallianse (now Raudt) and of Foreininga !les and Litteraturhuset in Oslo. His writing is about politics and football, among other things. For his work with !les and The House of Literature, Myhre in 2008 received "Eckbos legaters Kulturpris". He has published several books, and has published articles in The Guardian and The Washington Post in the aftermath of the 2011 Norway attacks.
 

Pål Nedregotten is an experienced media executive in Norway with expertise at the intersection of journalism and technology. Currently, he heads technology and product development at the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK). Previously, he served as EVP Data and Technology at Amedia, Norway’s largest publisher. He’s also been chair of the Norwegian Media Business Association. 

Nhien Nguyen is an Associate Professor at NTNU’s Faculty of Economics and Management, Department of Industrial Economics and Technology Management. She holds a PhD from NTNU and has been a visiting fellow at Stanford University and MIT Sloan School of Management. Her research interests include innovation management, digital strategy, responsible AI, and human-AI collaboration. Nhien leads the “Innovation Ecosystem” work package at NorwAI and heads the strategic research initiative “Leading Transitions: Co-creating a sustainable future” at her department. She has led and coordinated several EU projects which focusing on integrating Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) into regional and industrial strategies. Additionally, she has guest-edited special issues on organizational learning and unlearning, ambidextrous strategy.

Stine Helén Pettersen is an experienced entertainment lawyer and copyright law expert. She works with Norwegian and international clients in the media, culture, and entertainment industries, providing specialized legal support in areas such as music, film and TV, theater, and art. She has extensive experience working with the broader EU/EEA regulations that accompany the AI Act.

Olaug Råd is a special adviser at the Research Council of Norway. Currently she is the coordinator for the establishment of the new AI centers, and also of the strategic (thematic) ICT research- and innovation portfolio at the Research Council.

She has been coordinator and/or adviser for the strategic ICT research and innovation investments at RCN since 2006. S.a. VERDIKT, IKTPLUSS, The Lighthouse-projects, Nordic and bilateral calls outside Europe, case-officer for several Centers for Research-based Innovation, and more. As an adviser at RCN she is also involved in national strategies s.a. The National Strategy for AI.  Before that she was working at the National hospital (now Oslo University Hospital) as project manager for the digitalization of the Radiology department. After her Engineering Degree in physics and image processing, she has also worked at Kongsberg Spacetec in Tromsø for several years.

Roland Sauter has a background in modeling and data analysis in the life sciences. He leads a team specialized in timeseries analytics in KDI's digital twin.
Currently he works on the intersection of software engineering, simulation, and machine learning, building bridges between KDI's Digital Twin, simulators, and AI approaches.

Alexandra Schultz is a lawyer working at the Norwegian Resource Centre for Sharing and Use of Data. With a background that includes co-founding the medtech startup SiFi Labs and experience from the Data Protection Authority, she brings a broad perspective to AI regulation and practical implementations and applications of AI. She has followed the Artificial Intelligence act closely and is involved in its implementation in Norway.

Jorunn Thaulow: Research findings from her PhD work demonstrated significant variation in decision-making related to antibiotic use in primary healthcare, often influenced by pragmatic factors. Inspired by these insights, she explored the potential of innovative solutions based on generative AI to enhance the quality of healthcare services and better utilize healthcare expertise. She has since developed early versions of AI-based tools designed to improve decision-making and optimize healthcare outcomes.

Astrid Undheim has been executive director with responsibility for Technology and Development in SpareBank 1 SMN since 2020. She is part of the Board of Directors in BNBank and Eiendomsmegler 1 Midt-Norge, and member of the Council for Statistics Norway. She holds a phd from NTNU from 2009, and has more than 10 years of experience from Telenor Research where she headed the Analytics and AI team.

Jeriek Van den Abeele joined Telenor Research & Innovation as a research scientist in 2020, following a PhD in theoretical particle physics at the University of Oslo. He has worked on various AI topics, including reinforcement learning for network automation, anomaly detection in multivariate time series, and technical advisory regarding AI governance and the AI Act. He is currently leading Telenor’s efforts in the Horizon Europe project ENFIELD, focusing on green, human-centric, and trustworthy AI research directions.