Since William Henry Merrill Jr. helped confront the emerging hazards of electricity at Chicago’s 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition and founded UL the following year, UL’s enduring role has been to apply science so society can adopt transformative technologies with confidence.
Today, as software-defined products, artificial intelligence, digital twins, modeling, simulation and hardware-in-the-loop testing reshape critical infrastructure, conformity assessment must evolve from a point-in-time evaluation into a trusted, lifecycle-based system that integrates physical evidence with validated digital evidence.
This talk, as part of the RISE AI in Action series, explores how that evolution can accelerate innovation without compromising safety, security or compliance—and why digital trust ultimately remains a human responsibility: people must define the values and unacceptable outcomes, make assumptions and uncertainty visible, exercise informed judgment, preserve meaningful oversight and remain accountable for decisions even as systems become increasingly autonomous.
Speaker Bio:
Robert Slone is Chief Scientist and Innovation Officer at UL Solutions, where he is responsible for leading problem solving and innovation in safety, security and sustainability. Slone’s group includes UL Solutions Research & Development, Science Governance and the incubator teams for Artificial Intelligence and Modeling & Simulation.
With deep ties to the global scientific research community, he also serves as Executive Board Member of the International Science Reserve, a Venture Partner at Silicon Foundry, and is a board member of the Market Strategy Board of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). Slone has been appointed as Affiliated Professor with the University of Notre Dame’s Lucy Family Institute for Data & Society.
Previously, Slone served as vice president and chief technology officer at Honeywell Advanced Materials, vice president and chief technology officer at Honeywell UOP and chief technology and sustainability officer at Stepan Company, along with several other roles in leadership, technology and research. Along the way, he lived and worked in Shanghai for two years with his wife and family.
Slone holds a Bachelor’s in Chemistry with Honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, an MBA with High Honors from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business (Wallman Scholar Award) and a Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from Northwestern University (NSF Fellow). He holds 23 patents and was recognized as the Safer Choice Partner of the Year by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The Data, AI, and Computing Initiative’s RISE AI in Action series seeks to deepen conversations around the guiding principles of responsible, inclusive, safe and empowering (RISE) AI as these constructs translate to real-world applications. The RISE AI in Action series is made possible by a gift from UL Solutions.
For more information about the series, please visit the RISE AI in Action webpage.