THIS IS A VIRTUAL EVENT

Registration is now CLOSED

The virtual Ecosystem for Research Networking (ERN) Summit 2025 will be held on April 23rd from noon until 5 PM ET. Our theme this year is Addressing Advanced Technologies, Quantum, AI, and Workforce Development. This free conference is open to both researchers and educators at R1 and non-R1 institutions, industry, and government leaders.

Our keynote speaker will be Dan Stanzione, Ph.D., Associate Vice President for Research, Executive Director, Texas Advanced Computer Center (TACC). This will be followed up by three panels discussing the impact of AI and Quantum on regional economic and workforce initiatives, industry-academic partnerships for preparing the workforce, and perspectives from non-R1 institutions. We welcome you to hear from industry, domain researchers, and CI professionals, and join the discussions on the impacts these advanced technologies are having in the research community.

Feel free to extend this invitation to your colleagues in academia, industry, government, and not-for-profit organizations who may benefit from the sessions.

We will be sending Zoom information to only those who register. Please make sure to register by Friday, April 18th.

Agenda

(All times are EDT)

12:00 – 12:15
Welcome

Summit 25 Co-Chairs – Forough Ghahramani, Ed.D., Vice President for Research & Innovation, NJedge

Maureen Dougherty, Ecosystem for Research Networking (consultant)

Opening Remarks                       
Barr von Oehsen, Ph.D., Director, Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center

12:15 – 1:15
Keynote Speaker

Dan Stanzione, Ph.D., Executive Director, Texas Advanced Computer Center (TACC),  Associate Vice President for Research, UT-Austin, 

“AI and HPC, or AI Ends HPC?”

1:15 – 2:15
Panel 1:
Regional Economic and Workforce Initiatives for AI and Quantum
Explore the interplay between advanced technologies and regional innovation ecosystems.

Moderator: Barr von Oehsen, Ph.D., Director Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center

Panelists:

• Craig B. Arnold, Ph.D., The Susan Dod Brown Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and Vice Dean for Innovation, Princeton University
• Michael Bennett, Ph.D., Director of Education and Workforce Development, Q-SEnSE Quantum Leap Challenge Institute, University of Colorado Boulder
• Robert J. Harrison, Ph.D., Executive Director of Empire AI; Professor of Applied Mathematics & Statistics, Founding Endowed Director of the Institute for Advanced Computational Science (IACS), Stony Brook University
• John Goodhue, Executive Director, Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing (MGHPCC)
• Barr von Oehsen, Ph.D., Director, Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center

2:15 – 3:15
Panel 2:
Industry-Academic Partnerships for Preparing the Workforce for Quantum   
Explore curricular innovations and partnerships that prepare the future quantum workforce.

Moderator: Florence Hudson, Executive Director, Northeast Big Data Innovation Hub Columbia University

Panelists:

• Douglas Jennewein, Executive Director, Research Technology Office, Arizona State University (Quantum Collaborative)
• David Liu, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Computer Science, Quantum Science and Engineering Institute, Purdue University
• Hanna Terletska, Ph.D., QSInitiative Leader, Associate Professor, Department of Physics & Astronomy, Middle Tennessee State University
• Monica VanDieren, Ph.D., Senior Technical Marketing Engineer for Quantum Computing and HPC, NVIDIA
• Benjamin Zwickl, Ph.D., Associate Professor, School of Physics and Astronomy, Rochester Institute of Technology

3:15 – 4:15
Panel 3:
Perspectives from Non-R1 Smaller Institutions
Highlight innovations, constraints, and opportunities unique to non-R1 institutions.

Moderator:  Carrie Rampp, Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Franklin & Marshall College

Panelists:

• Damian Clarke, Ph.D., Vice President, Technology Services, Alabama State University
• Wiebke Kuhn, Ph.D., Director of Academic Technology, Carleton College
• Jason Simms, Ph.D., Research Computing Manager,  Swarthmore College
• Kyriakos Tsoukalas, Ph.D., Associate Director, Research and High Performance Computing, Colgate University

4:15 – 4:45        Open Discussion and Collaboration

4:45 – 5:00        Closing Remarks

Any questions, let us know via email at info@ern.ci.

Thank you,

The ERN Steering Committee