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 2023 Annual Meeting of the Council of Sponsoring Institutions will be held March 6-7, 2023 and is focused on “Climate Security and Environmental Justice: Pathways to Achieving the 2050 Carbon Net-Zero Goal.” Experts and leaders from academia, federal agencies, and national organizations will share their views on technology innovation and transformation; future workforce development needs; and science-based models for an environmentally equitable society.

Meeting information

• Registration

  Registration information for the 2023 Annual Meeting will be announced in late 2022.

• Agenda

  Stay tuned for the 2023 Annual Meeting agenda.

• Speakers

  Stay tuned for 2023 Annual Meeting speaker information.

Past meeting archive

• 2022: Public Health Security and Innovation: Lessons Learned from COVID-19

  Monday, March 7

  Session 1: 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Eastern

  Opening Remarks

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

  Special Welcome Address

  • Debra Reinhart, Outgoing Council Chair
  • Bruce Gnade, ORAU Board of Directors

  Opening Keynote Address

  • Georges Benjamin, Executive Director, American Public Health Association [View presentation]

  Session 2: 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. Eastern

  Panel: Preparedness: Detection, Prevention, Response and Control

  • Charles C. Branas, Gelman Endowed Professor of Epidemiology and Chair, Department of Epidemiology, Columbia University; and Member, Committee on Applied Research Topics for Hazard Mitigation and Resilience, National Academy of Sciences Report, “Enhancing Community Resilience through Social Capital and Social Connectedness: Stronger Together!”
  • John Drake, Director, Center for the Ecology of Infectious Diseases, and Director, Global Infectious Disease Intelligence Consortium, Coronavirus Working Group, University of Georgia [View presentation]
  • James Hodge, Director, Center for Public Health Law and Policy, Arizona State University

  Session 3: 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm Eastern

  Panel: Bio-Economy: Supply Chain Resiliency and Workforce Needs

  • Diane DiEuliis, Assistant Director and Senior Fellow, National Defense University; Member, National Academy of Sciences Report, “Safeguarding the Bio-Economy;” and Former Deputy Director for Policy, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, DHHS [View presentation]
  • Rachel Lipson, Director, Project on Workforce, Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy, Harvard University; and Committee Member, National Academy of Sciences Meeting Regional STEMM Workforce Needs in the Wake of COVID-19
  • Eleftherior “Lefteris” Iakovou, Professor, Engineering Technology and Industrial Distribution, Texas A&M University

  Tuesday, March 8

  Session 4: 10:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. Eastern

  Council of Sponsoring Institutions Engagement

  This time will be set aside for council business and announcements. [View presentation]

  Session 5: 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. Eastern

  Panel: Modeling and Forecasting: Predictive Analytics

  • Mitra Basu, Program Director, Predictive intelligence for Pandemic Prevention, National Science Foundation
  • Katelyn Jetelina, Assistant Professor, Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
  • Jade Mitchell, Associate Professor, Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, Michigan State University [View presentation]

  Session 6: 1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. Eastern

  Closing Keynote Address

  • Hon. Keith Martin, Executive Director, Consortium of Universities for Global Health [View presentation]

  Special Closing Panel: Global Action Summit – Adaptive Solutions for Abundant Food, Health and Prosperity in a COVID-Disrupted World

  • Rob Dongoski, Partner, Food and Agribusiness Lead, Ernst & Young
  • Luis Gabriel Cuervo, Senior Advisor, Research for Health, Pan American Health Organization
  • Scott Miller, President and CEO, Circles USA

  Closing Remarks

  • Ken Tobin, Vice President and Senior Research Officer, Research and University Partnerships Office, ORAU
  • Andy Page, President and CEO, ORAU
• 2021: Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

  Monday, March 8, 2021

  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, OUSD (R&E)

  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

  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

  Council Engagement Session
  

  Wednesday, March 10, 2021

  Keynote Address

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

  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
  • Brian Bataille, Chief Data Officer, Defense Intelligence Agency

  Closing Remarks

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

  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

  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

  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
  • Erik Johnston, Co-Director, Center for Smart Cities and Regions; and Professor, School for the Future of Innovation in Society, Arizona State University