Annual Meeting of the Council of Sponsoring Institutions
ORAU’s Annual Meeting addresses key issues facing higher education
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
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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.
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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
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Special Welcome and Keynote Speakers
Panel: Advancing R&D and Resiliency
Panel: Skilled Workforce Needs
Panel: Ethical, Legal, and Societal Implications
Past meeting archive
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Tuesday, March 10, 2020
Keynote Address
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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 recordingPanel 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 recordingPanel 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 recordingPanel 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
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Tuesday, March 6, 2019 - Pollard Technology Conference Center
Keynote Address
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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
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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
Contact us
To learn more about the ORAU Annual Meeting, contact the University Partnerships office:
Richard ValentineP.O. Box 117, MS 29
Oak Ridge, TN 37831-0117
Phone: 865.576.1898