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 is now open for the 76th Annual Meeting of the ORAU Council of Sponsoring Institutions. The 2021 Annual Meeting will be held virtually over three days. Sessions will begin on Monday, March 8, and conclude on Wednesday, March 10. Advance registration is required before March 2, 2021. There is no registration fee to attend, and no limit on the number of university representatives wishing to attend. Students may attend as well.

  This year, university attendees are invited to schedule one-on-one sessions with the ORAU Research and University Partnerships Office to discuss ways to increase the value of your ORAU membership. Please indicate during your registration if you would like a meeting, and our staff will contact you to schedule it.

  To register, please visit https://www.orau.gov/rupo2021mtg.

• Agenda

  Download the PDF agenda
  

  Monday, March 8, 2021

  1:00 – 2:30 p.m. EST

  Opening Remarks

  • Ken Tobin, Vice President and Senior Research Officer, Research and University Partnerships Office, ORAU
  • Andy Page, President and CEO, ORAU

  Special Welcome

  The Honorable Sethuraman Panchanathan, Director, National Science Foundation

  Keynote Address

  Jill Crisman, Ph.D., SES, Principal Director for Artificial Intelligence, USD R&E

  3:00 – 3:30 p.m. EST

  Break

  3:30 – 5:00 p.m. EST

  Panel: Advancing R&D and Resiliency

  Speakers:

  • Bruce Draper, Program Manager, Information Innovation Office, DARPA
  • Roberto Gioiosa, Director, Center for Artificial Intelligence-Focused Architectures and Algorithms, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
  • Shane Shaneman, Strategic Director, National Security and Defense, Carnegie Mellon University

  Tuesday, March 9, 2021
  

  1:00 – 2:30 p.m. EST

  Welcome

  Ken Tobin, Vice President and Senior Research Officer, Research and University Partnerships Office, ORAU

  Panel: Skilled Workforce Needs

  Speakers:

  • Patricia Martinez, Fellow, AI and Technology Office, U.S. Department of Energy
  • Remco Zwetsloot, Research Fellow, Center for Security and Emerging Technology, Georgetown University
  • Sidney D’Mello, Associate Professor, Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Colorado Boulder

  2:30 – 3:00 p.m. EST

  Break

  3:00 – 5:00 p.m. EST

  Council Engagement Session (formerly Business Meeting)

  Wednesday, March 10, 2021

  1:00 - 2:30 p.m. EST

  Welcome

  Ken Tobin, Vice President and Senior Research Officer, Research and University Partnerships Office, ORAU

  Keynote Address

  Gil Alterovitz, Director, National Artificial Intelligence Institute, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
  

  3:30 – 5:00 p.m. EST

  Panel: Ethical, Legal, and Societal Implications

  Speakers:

  • Partha Bhattacharyya, Program Director, AI and Technology Centers for Aging Research, National Institute on Aging, NIH
  • Darrell West, Vice President and Director, Governance Studies, Brookings Institution

  Closing Remarks

  • Ken Tobin, Vice President and Senior Research Officer, Research and University Partnerships Office, ORAU
  • Andy Page, President and CEO, ORAU
• Speakers

  Special Welcome and Keynote Speakers

  

  The Honorable Sethuraman Panchanathan (bio)
  National Science Foundation 

  

  Jill Crisman (bio)
  U.S. Department of Defense

  

  Gil Alterovitz (bio)
  U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

  Panel: Advancing R&D and Resiliency

  

  Bruce Draper (bio)
  DARPA

  

  Robert Gioiosa (bio)
  Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

  

  Shane Shaneman (bio)
  Carnegie Mellon University

  Panel: Skilled Workforce Needs

  

  Patricia Martinez (bio)
  U.S. Department of Energy

  

  Remco Zwetsloot (bio)
  Georgetown University

  

  Sidney D'Mello (bio)
  University of Colorado Boulder

  Panel: Ethical, Legal, and Societal Implications

  

  Partha Bhattacharyya (bio)
  National Institutes of Health

  

  Darrell West (bio)
  Brookings Institution

  

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. Watch the Keynote Address recording.

  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.  Watch Diana Furchtgott-Roths' Keynote Address recording.

  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:  CO ₂ 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 CO ₂ 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-CO ₂ 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