ORAU's Annual Meeting of the Council of Sponsoring Institutions is held to explore relevant topics in higher education. The meeting not only provides presentations by nationally recognized experts, but also gives our university consortium members the opportunity to partake in valuable discussions with council representatives and ORAU staff in conjunction with the meeting's yearly theme.

ORAU’s 76th Annual Meeting of the Council of Sponsoring Institutions will be held March 8-10, 2021 and is focused on “Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.” The meeting will provide an opportunity for attendees to discuss key technology, economic and policy challenges and opportunities. Experts and leaders from academia, federal agencies, and national organizations will share their views on AI and machine learning, as well as transitioning innovative research to practice.

Meeting information

• Registration

  Registration for the 76th Annual Meeting of the Council of Sponsoring Institutions will open on October 1, 2020. This in an invitation-only meeting and is not open to the media.
  

• Agenda

  To be announced.

• Speakers

  To be announced.

• Meeting location

  To be announced.

• Hotel reservations

  To be announced.

• Badging and attire
  Badges: You MUST register to receive your required attendee badge. If you do not have your badge, you will not be able to attend the meeting.

  Attire: Dress should be in standard business attire.

• Area information
  Knoxville and the surrounding area offer a variety of cultural and recreational activities for every age and topic of interest. For more specific information about these opportunities, visit one of the links below.

  • Knoxville Tourism and Sports Corporation
  • Knoxville: Museums
  • Knoxville: Clarence Brown Theater
  • Knoxville: Tennessee Theater
  • Knoxville Opera Company
  • Zoo Knoxville
  • University of Tennessee sports
  • University of Tennessee Lady Vols sports
  • Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce
  • Oak Ridge: American Museum of Science and Energy
  • Oak Ridge: Children’s Museum
  • Oak Ridge Playhouse

Past meeting archive

• 2020: Smart Cities and Communities

  Tuesday, March 10, 2020

  Keynote Address

  • Civic Research + Innovation: Partnerships, Federal Activity, and Policy Ideas, Ben Levine, Executive Director, MetroLab Network

  Panel Session 1: Critical Infrastructure Systems and Resiliency
  Watch the Panel Session 1 recording

  Panel Speakers

  • Rouzbeh Ross Nazari, Co-Director, Sustainable Smart Cities Research Center, University of Alabama at Birmingham
  • Our Critical Infrastructure - Is it Really Ours? Sam Visner, Director, National Cybersecurity FFRDC, MITRE Corporation
  • Our Critical Infrastructure - Is it Really Ours? Hannah Hess, Cyber Security Software Engineer, MITRE Corporation
  • Resiliency at Multiple Scales - Connected Interdependent Infrastructures, Jibonananda Sanyal, Group Leader, Computational Urban Sciences Group, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

  Panel Session 2: Transitioning Innovative Research to Practice
  Watch the Panel Session 2 recording

  Panel Speakers

  • Operationalizing University/City Smart Cities Partnerships: Portland State University's Digital Cities Testbed Center, Jonathan Fink, Director, Digital City Testbed Center, Portland State University, and Kevin Martin, Manager, Smart City PDX, Portland, Oregon
  • Smart and Connected Communities: Technology and Social Science Working Together for a Better Society, David Corman, Program Director, National Science Foundation

  Wednesday, March 11, 2020

  Keynote Address

  • Diana Furchtgott-Roth, Deputy Assistance Secretary for Research and Technology, Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, U.S. Department of Transportation – Advanced Transportation Systems

  Panel Session 3: Social and Economic Impact
  Watch the Panel Session 3 recording

  Panel Speakers

  • The 2020 Readiness Challenge: The Social and Economic Impact of Smart Cities, Jason Nelson, Executive Director, Partner Engagement; Smart Cities Council
  • The Chattanooga Smart Community Collaborative, Reinhold Mann, Deputy Vice Chancellor for Research & Chief Scientist, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (See CUIP MLK Smart Corridor Testbed flyer)
  • Erik Johnston, Co-Director, Center for Smart Cities and Regions; and Professor, School for the Future of Innovation in Society, Arizona State University
• 2019: Ensuring a Robust U.S. Energy Future

  Tuesday, March 6, 2019 - Pollard Technology Conference Center

  Keynote Address

  • Clean Energy: Technology, Policy and Finance, Dan Reicher, Executive Director, Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance, Stanford University

  Panel Session 1: CO₂ Capture

  Panel Speakers

  • An Overview of DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy Carbon Capture Program, Lynn Brickett, Manager, Carbon Capture and Carbon Use and Reuse R&D Technology, National Energy Technology Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy
  • Air Capture and the Need for Negative Emissions, Klaus Lackner, Director, Center for Negative Carbon Emissions, Arizona State University
  • Deployment of Subsurface Carbon Sequestration with and without EOR: Challenges and Lessons Learned, Brian McPherson, Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Utah; and Science Director, DOE Southwest Regional Partnership on Carbon Sequestration

  Panel Session 2: Environmental Impacts

  Panel Speakers

  • Understanding the Health, Environmental, and Climate Change Consequences of Different Energy Technology Strategies in the United States, Inês M.L. Azevedo, Professor, Engineering and Public Policy; and Co-Director, Center for Climate and Energy Decision Making, Carnegie Mellon University
  • Research Priorities for Understanding Potential Population-Level Exposures to Unconventional Oil and Natural Gas Development, George M. Hornberger, Distinguished Professor and Director, Institute for Energy and Environment, Vanderbilt University
  • Chemical Looping Combustion, Gasification and Reforming Technology and CO₂ Capture, Liang-Shih Fan, Distinguished University Professor, Ohio State University

  Wednesday, March 7, 2019

  Keynote Address

  • Using Coal as a Precursor for Value-Added Products, Edgar Lara-Curzio, Distinguished Scientist and Leader, Mechanical Properties and Mechanics Group, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

  Panel Session 3: Future of Fossil Fuels

  Panel Speakers

  • Getting to Near-Zero Emissions Coal Generation, Angelos Kokkinos, Associate Deputy Assistant Secretary Clean Coal and Carbon Management, Office of Fossil Energy, U.S. Department of Energy
  • U.S. National Fossil Fuel-CO₂ Emissions Determined from Measurements of Carbon Dioxide and Its Radiocarbon Content, John B. Miller, Chief, Carbon Cycle Greenhouse Gases Group, Earth System Research Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
  • The Future Directions of Food-Energy-Water Nexus Research, Brandi Schottel, Associate Program Director, Environmental Engineering and Sustainability Cluster, National Science Foundation
• 2018: Public Health Security and Biological Threats

  Wednesday, March 7, 2018 - Pollard Technology Conference Center

  Keynote Address

  Pandemics, Bioterrorism, and Global Health Security: From Anthrax to Zika and Beyond, Col. (Ret.) David R. Franz, U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command; Former Commander, U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases; Chair, ‘Bio’ Sub-Panel, National Academy of Sciences Committee on International Security and Arms Control

  Panel Session 1: Bioinformatics

  Panel Speakers

  • A Framework for Real-Time Zika Assessment in the U.S., Lauren Ancel Meyers, Professor of Integrative Biology and Statistics and Data Science, University of Texas at Austin; and Lauren Castro, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Texas at Austin
  • Food Safety Bioinformatics, Hendrik den Bakker, Assistant Professor, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Center for Food Safety, University of Georgia

  Panel Session 2: Cyber Biosecurity

  Panel Speakers

  • The Digitization of Biology: Defining A New Risk Landscape, Diane DiEuliis, Senior Research Fellow, National Defense University
  • Synthetic Biology: Safety, Security, and Promise, Gigi Kwik Gronvall, Associate Professor, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; Senior Scholar, Center for Health Security, Johns Hopkins University; and Member, Synthetic Biology Study Committee, National Academy of Sciences

  Thursday, March 8, 2018

  Panel Session 3: Technological Innovations

  Panel Speakers

  • Biodefense Readiness - Today's Challenges, Rachel Levinson, Executive Director, National Research Initiatives, Arizona State University
  • Medical Diagnostic S&T Investments to Strengthen Medical Biodefense Capabilities, Lt. Col. (Ret.) Richard Schoske, Chief, Diagnostic Detection and Threat Surveillance Division, Chemical and Biological Technologies Department, Defense Threat Reduction Agency
  • Critical Science Gaps in the Cleanup of a Wide-Area Release of Biological Agents, Gregory Sayles, Director, National Homeland Security Research Center, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency