Fuchs joins World Economic Forum meeting in Davos
CMU’s Erica Fuchs returns to the World Economic Forum annual meeting to participate in and moderate sessions alongside global tech, business, and government leaders.
Carnegie Mellon University’s Erica Fuchs will join leaders from across government, technology, business, and academia to participate in the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland from January 19-23, 2026.
Every year, the Forum hosts forward-looking forums and panels to address widespread global challenges from economic stability to digital trust to climate resilience. This year’s theme, A Spirit of Dialogue, aims to serve as an impartial platform to exchange ideas, broaden perspectives, and support problem-solving during a period of significant geopolitical and societal change.
Fuchs, director of CMU’s Critical Technology Initiative and professor of engineering and public policy, researches how emerging technologies are developed, commercialized, and manufactured, and the policies governments need to support national competitiveness in those areas. Throughout the week in Davos, she will participate in sessions aligning with her expertise on topics such as intelligent infrastructure, workforce development for advanced manufacturing, industrial policy, and the future of research.
Fuchs will also moderate two sessions. The first, titled “How can governments innovate?,” explores how public institutions can adopt more adaptive and experimental approaches to policymaking. By adapting the approach of product designers, the panelists will consider the use of frontier tools, iterative methods, and future-focused perspectives to create bold and adaptive systems that are ready for tomorrow's challenges.
The second session, “AI for Curricular Value Chains,” examines how artificial intelligence can improve material design, efficiency, transparency, and reuse across global production systems, while at the same time enhancing economic competitiveness and supply chain resiliency. Fuchs will oversee discussion on the applications of AI in chemicals, textiles, and electronics, and considerations of the data standards, infrastructure, and cross-industry collaboration necessary to scale circular manufacturing processes.
Her participation builds on two decades of involvement in national and international discussions on technology policy, including at previous WEF meetings and on WEF committees. In 2012, Fuchs was selected as a World Economic Forum Young Scientist and has been an invited speaker at past WEF events, including the Annual Meeting of the New Champions.