AI, Ethics and Manufacturing
Joint event with Mersey and West Cheshire Local Network
About
Artificial Intelligence is reshaping the manufacturing landscape in areas such as predictive maintenance, quality control & inspection, supply chain management and production planning. This webinar will explore ethical implications in the deployment of AI in manufacturing environments and will address the challenges and opportunities that exist.
Speakers:
Steve Brewer is an educator and researcher working at the intersection of culture, technology, and education. With experience at the University of Lincoln, the University of Southampton, and through Infoculture, Steve explores how digital innovation transforms cultural engagement, knowledge exchange, and creative practice.
Dr Princy Johnson, SMIEEE, SFHEA, Registered PRINCE2® practitioner
Reader in Sensors and Data, Programme leader for MSc in Sensors, Data and Management
Chair IEEE UK&I Women in Engineering Affinity GroupSchool of Engineering, Liverpoll John Moores University
Sharan Kaur, Cognitive Robotics and Automation Lead
The University of Sheffield AMRC Cymru
1
Continuing Professional Development
This event can contribute towards your Continuing Professional Development (CPD) hours as part of the IET's CPD monitoring scheme.
27 Jan 2026
12:30pm - 2:00pm
Reasons to attend
CPD
Industry and academic expert speakers
Programme
Dr Princy Johnson
Ethics and AI
AI systems have brought a sea of change in the way organisations could meet their customers’ need and expectations. The level of skilled work that can be carried out by an AI system is scary. However, we are also aware that AI systems could fall short, especially in the areas of their ability to provide a fair and equitable service. As our understanding of biases caused at various stages of the AI development has been growing, It is time that we agreed on a definitive framework to evaluate the fairness of the system while it is being developed. In this talk, we will explore five simple questions we could ask the AI system to make it fair; and explore couple of examples to point out the complexity of the problem.
Sharan Kaur
What will the manufacturing workplace look like in future, and how will it impact the people working there?
As automation and AI becomes widely adopted, the nature of a manufacturing job is changing. Without clear ethical guidance, we risk failing on social sustainability.
This presentation discusses the need for human centred design in manufacturing.
We will discuss the importance of designing jobs alongside the technology itself. We will explore how methods like Explainable AI can keep humans involved in decision making to prevent skill erosion. The goal is to understand how we can create 'healthy jobs' ensuring that the manufacturing sector is socially sustainable.