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Fadi El Kalach is a PhD Candidate in Automotive Engineering at the Clemson Composites Center. His research focuses on explainable data-driven intelligent manufacturing by utilizing time series analytics and semantic web technologies. He has conducted research in smart manufacturing funded by NSF and SCRA, and collaborated with industrial partners such as Siemens and IBM. His work has been published in notable venues such as the Journal of Manufacturing Systems, Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, AAAI, and IJCAI.

Fadi's work is motivated by the critical need to translate emerging technology into practical, deployable, and explainable solutions for real-world industrial environments. As such, he has developed proof-of-concepts for different applications and information systems which increase the perception, interoperability, and decision-making capabilities of manufacturing systems. Fadi also has extensive experience leading research teams and establishing research labs through his work as the technical lead of the Future Factories Lab at the University of South Carolina for five years.

Graduating in May 2026 and currently open for full-time positions.

At A Glance

• Publications: 19 publications, including leading journals (Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing, Journal of Manufacturing Systems, Robotics and Computer Integrated Manufacturing, IEEE Intelligent Systems, Manufacturing Letters) and Conferences (AAAI, IJCAI, ICMLA, NAMRC).

• Workshops & Tutorials: Organizer and instructor for hands-on sessions at international venues (AAMAS 2025, NAMRC 2025).

• Peer Review: Reviewed papers for prestigious venues such as Manufacturing Letters, North American Manufacturing Research Conference (NAMRC), Association for the Advancement of AI (AAAI), Journal of Manufacturing Systems, Neurocomputing, and Journal of Grid Computing.

• Patent: Co-inventor of the Federated Information System in collaboration with Siemens Technology

• Grants: Managed and contributed to grants totaling in $5M+ from National Science Foundation and South Carolina Research Authority.

• Mentorship: Guided 8 graduate students, 19 undergraduate, and 2 high school students; mentees have transitioned into industry or advanced research roles.

• Industry Engagement: Research internship with Siemens, and continued collaboration with IBM, SMS, and Bosch.

News

Jan 9, 2026 - New paper accepted in the Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing titled "Digital Twin Enabled Collision Detection Using Time Series Forecasting".

Jan 6, 2026 - New paper accepted in the International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing titled "Utilizing Knowledge Graphs for Explainable AI in Manufacturing".

Oct 31, 2025 - Passed the Comprehensive Examination at Clemson University! Looking forward to my dissertation defense next semester.

Oct 13, 2025 - Excited to share our paper "CausalTrace: A Neurosymbolic Causal Analysis Agent for Smart Manufacturing" has been accepted to AAAI 2026 Innovative Applications of AI (IAAI) Conference. 

August 5, 2025 - Happy to announce that our work on Cognitive Manufacturing has been picked up by Forbes!

Jun 23, 2025 - Presented workshop at the North American Manufacturing Research Conference (NAMRC) titled “Testbed as a Service: Getting Started with Streaming Authentic Manufacturing Datasets