Highlights from the Academic and Future Workforce Program at Realize LIVE Americas 2025
Building a day-one ready workforce doesn’t happen by chance.
At Realize LIVE Americas 2025, the Siemens Academic and Future Workforce Program brought together educators, industry leaders and students to explore how we can prepare future engineers for the rigors of today’s industrial environments.
It was a banner year for the program, with highlights for academics, students and industrial professionals featured below.
If you’re an educator interested in attending Realize LIVE Europe 2025, take advantage of our special academic rate — register here.
Expedite – Skills for Industry: A new microcredential from Siemens designed to help early-career engineers become day-one ready
One of the most exciting moments at Realize LIVE was the announcement of Expedite – Skills for Industry in a panel led by Dora Smith, senior director of the Academic and Future Workforce Program.
Expedite – Skills for Industry is a four-course microcredential designed for engineering students and early-career engineers.
It’s the first microcredential of its kind that bolsters both engineers’ digital skill set and digital mindset, allowing them to demonstrate their ability to succeed from day one on the job.
During the panel, led by Dora Smith, senior director of the Academic and Future Workforce Program, Associate Dean Craig Downing of Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology shared his experiences in the pilot program. He noted the enthusiasm and excitement from his students and the value he sees in validating marketable skills via this microcredential.
Furthermore, ABET CFO and COO Jessica Silwick discussed the growing demand for microcredentials and ABET’s recognition of another recent microcredential from Siemens, Design for the Circular Economy. This microcredential is the first industry credential to ever receive recognition from ABET, underlining Siemens’ leadership in engineering credentialing.
Exciting sessions on the future of work, industry 5.0 and stories of industrial-academic collaboration
Across a variety of sessions from the Academic and Future Workforce Program, speakers from around the world came to share valuable perspectives, stories and insights on the engineering skills gap and industrial-academic alignment.
Several sessions from the Academic and Future Workforce Program are now available to watch on-demand.
Educators from esteemed institutions including Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Florida International University and the University of California Irvine shared how they are bringing industry to the classroom and adapting their curricula to meet the needs of today’s students.
Session topics included everything from case studies of academic-industrial collaborations, integration of industrial software in engineering curricula and student panels on career readiness to high-level, strategic analyses of the factors driving the engineering skills gap.
Wayne State University team triumphed in the Student Sustainability Design Hack created by Sony
As part of the Global Academic and Future Workforce Program, students put their skills to the test with a real-world sustainability challenge — with a local team from Detroit’s own Wayne State University winning first place.
In this 48-hour engineering design competition created by Sony and sponsored by Microsoft with teams supported by ABET, students were challenged to rethink sustainability in consumer electronics. With guidance from Sony, they used Siemens NX and immersive design tools to develop innovative solutions that balanced performance, manufacturability and environmental impact.
Be part of the future
If you missed this year’s Realize LIVE, be sure to join the Academic and Future Workforce Program at Realize LIVE Americas 2026 in Detroit, Michigan.
If you’re an educator in Europe, there’s still time to register for Realize LIVE Europe 2025 and take advantage of our special academic rate.
