Sunnyvale, California, U.S. / Renningen, Germany – Dr. Liu Ren, senior vice president and AI fellow at Bosch Research and Bosch Center for Artificial Intelligence (BCAI), has been named a recipient of the 2026 Executive of the Year Award by the Asian American Engineer of the Year (AAEOY) Award Executive Committee.
Recognized for translating visionary AI research into business impact
The AAEOY Awards honor outstanding Asian American professionals in science, technology and engineering. The Executive of the Year Award recognizes senior leaders who have shaped major technology products and services over the course of their careers. In this category, the AAEOY Award honors Liu Ren for his “visionary leadership in industrial AI research for mobility and manufacturing, driving award-winning innovations into new products and services with transformative business impact.” The award highlights not only the scientific depth of his work but also his exceptional leadership ability to translate advanced AI research into reliable, scalable technologies that create tangible value across Bosch’s portfolio.
“Liu Ren is an exceptional tech leader who pairs a visionary, market-oriented research strategy with the commanding technical depth to dissect complex technical challenges, provide decisive guidance, and work with his teams to help ensure execution to the highest standards,” said Michael Kessler, executive vice president Corporate Sector Research and Advanced Engineering, Robert Bosch GmbH. “This award is a well-deserved recognition of his personal achievements and of the contributions his teams are making to Bosch worldwide.”
Advancing AI from research to real-world application
As the Bosch Research AI fellow, Liu Ren helps shape the company’s AI research strategy across multiple industrial domains. His work has fueled core innovations in key AI areas such as foundation and large language models, computer vision, big data visual analytics and explainable AI.
What distinguishes Liu Ren is his ability to translate advanced AI research into large-scale, real-world impact. Under his leadership, he and his teams have developed key innovations addressing critical challenges in automated driving, manufacturing, car infotainment, robotics and consumer products — fields where Artificial Intelligence must operate with industrial-grade reliability, efficiency and scale.
“AI creates value when it is connected to real-world domains, strong engineering expertise, and the discipline to bring research into application,” said Liu Ren. “This award is also a recognition of the global teams at Bosch Research and in the Bosch business divisions. Together, we are working to make AI more reliable, scalable and useful for industrial applications, from automated driving to manufacturing.”
AI for mobility, manufacturing and beyond
Based at Bosch Research North America’s Silicon Valley location, Liu Ren is responsible for core AI for Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems (ADAS). His cross-divisional automated driving teams unite experts from research and Bosch product organizations worldwide. A further key aspect of his role is to shape future research in robotics.
Liu Ren’s research has also driven AI applications beyond automated driving. He and his teams have helped to enhance the efficiency of several hundred Bosch manufacturing lines through the development of advanced AI innovations in foundation models, large-scale visual and audio analytics, and time series models. This effort has contributed to power applications such as troubleshooting, worker training, bottleneck detection and automated part inspection. He and his teams have also contributed to developing AI-native toolchains to improve the efficiency of mobility engineering processes.
With over 70 top-tier AI publications and more than 70 Bosch patents Liu Ren has constantly pushed the boundary of scientific AI research. He has received several best paper awards and honorable mentions and, alongside his teams, has contributed to award-winning innovations in big data visual analytics, AI model validation, audio AI, cloud robotics, sensor gloves and human-machine collaboration.
Liu Ren holds a master's degree and a Ph.D. in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University and a bachelor's degree in computer science from Zhejiang University in China.
About the Asian American Engineer of the Year Award
The Asian American Engineer of the Year (AAEOY) Award, presented in the U.S., is an annual national event that recognizes and honors the most distinguished professionals of Asian heritage. As part of the National Engineers Week (DiscoverE) Program, the AAEOY ceremony is hosted by CIE-USA, a national professional organization established in 1917. Since its inception in 2002, AAEOY has grown into a respected platform for industry, academia, and government bodies involved with STEM education fields. It serves to celebrate outstanding Asian American professionals for their leadership, technical accomplishments, and remarkable public service.
Since 2002, hundreds of Asian American professionals from leading U.S. technology corporations and prestigious research institutions have been honored with the esteemed AAEOY Award. Past recipients include Nobel Laureates, academics, key corporate executives and astronauts.
The complete list of 2025-2026 awardees can be found at: AAEOY Announces 2025-2026 Awardees – AAEOY
