For the past nine years, DePaul’s Innovation Development (iD) Lab has hosted an annual conference called Optimizing Digital Innovation (ODI), where DePaul students and Technology and Executives gather for a day of learning, networking, and sharing best practices on the latest in technology innovation and how it is transforming the business world. ODI 2025 took place on October 24th at Mayer Brown’s Chicago office.
DePaul’s iD Lab provides students who are preparing to enter the fields of Software Engineering, Data Science, and UX/UI with a landscape to engage in solving real business problems as they work with large enterprises. The Lab partners with some of Chicago’s most iconic companies to help with innovative project work, providing students with hands-on experience, and enabling companies to advance their innovation initiatives.
Origin was proud to participate in this year’s event as a Gold Sponsor.
Some of the other sponsors included Abbott Labs, KPMG, Morningstar, Mayer Brown, UL Standards & Engagement, Omron, and Regal Rexnord.
The theme for this year’s event, “From Insights to Strategic Execution,” was particularly timely, reflecting the challenge many enterprises face in translating AI initiatives into production-ready solutions that deliver measurable business value.
Nate Hartauer, who is SVP of Alliances at Morningstar, and an ODI Board Member, MC’d the event this year.
The day kicked off with a fireside chat between Yele and Darcy Ross, DVP Content Marketing from Abbott, where we learned about how Abbott has transformed their marketing organization to be digital first and is now leaning into augmenting their team with AI for their next act.
The first full panel session of the day featured Paul Haisman, CIO at Rotary International, and Talvis Love, CIO at National Grid. The discussion was a true masterclass in driving AI adoption within well-established, legacy organizations. Both leaders shared practical insights from their transformation journeys, highlighting key themes such as:
- Strengthening security and AI readiness
- Demonstrating the art of the possible to the business and clarifying the value proposition
- Leading effective change management and adoption
In the following session, Origin CEO Jobin Ephrem moderated a dynamic panel featuring Don Ryerson, Chief Data Officer at Ryerson; Denice Young-Durant, Director of Data Science and Engineering at UL Standards & Engagement; Jennifer Wimberly, Director at Abbott Labs; and Philip Van Swol from CCC Intelligent Solutions.
Don shared practical strategies for aligning teams, fostering accountability and ownership, and measuring progress through well-defined success metrics. Denice offered an insightful look into how her team uses data to better understand consumer behavior and develop predictive models that help identify potential safety hazards before they become widespread.
Perhaps my favorite session – and I never would’ve guessed it would be going into the day – was ‘Legal Boundaries in a Digital World.’
Dale Davis, Chief IP Counsel and Deputy General Counsel from Cummins, Craig Bryson, DVP and Associate General Counsel from Abbott, Brandon Brooks Global Head of Privacy from Morningstar and Brad Peterson from Mayer Brown participated in the panel.
The discussion explored how Legal teams partner with their business counterparts to ensure innovation drives value while minimizing risk. The panelists shared how their teams navigate the complex legal and ethical considerations that come with emerging technologies, especially AI. It was a fascinating conversation that offered a rare glimpse into how legal strategy and innovation can work hand in hand.
A follow-on panel featured Joe Powell from Gallagher Bassett, Shuchita Singh from AbbVie, Tim Dickson from Regal Rexnord, and Rob McGillen from CBIZ. The discussion focused on how these executives are transforming ambitious AI strategies into tangible business outcomes. Each shared their organization’s journey toward operationalizing AI, breaking complex initiatives into manageable, measurable steps that steadily deliver real value.
The final session featured Thomas Zwick from Omron and Akbar Aidarov, an iD Lab alum, in a discussion moderated by Dwayne Prosko from KPMG. Omron, a global leader in industrial automation, sensing, and control technology, has been leveraging AI and data science to optimize operations, improve efficiency, and drive innovation across its business. Thomas and Akbar shared insights into the engineering and experimentation behind these efforts, highlighting how thoughtful application of data and AI is transforming real-world processes and delivering measurable value.
ODI 2025 was a great experience for all involved, and the Origin team is looking forward to participating again in 2026.
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