The German-American Frontiers of Engineering Symposium, hosted by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, emphasized the importance of building relationships across national boundaries to tackle the world’s toughest engineering problems.
Sixty early-career researchers from the United States and Germany were invited to attend the prestigious four-day event, “A Digitally Connected World,” at ORNL in March.
Organized by the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, or NAE, the Grainger Foundation and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the symposium alternates each meeting between a German and a U.S. location to build collaborative research networks among early-career engineers from industry, universities and other research institutions.
At a fireside chat during the event, leaders from ORNL, NAE and the Humboldt Foundation celebrated the potential benefits of such research communities. “I mourned the death of library card catalogs because there was that chance, as you were thumbing through the cards, that you’d find something really cool that you’d never thought of before,” said ORNL Director Stephen Streiffer. “I think one of the real benefits of bringing people together is you have these side conversations that provide similar opportunities for unexpected discovery.”
Streiffer and Al Romig, NAE member and executive officer, shared their personal experiences of being student-scientists conducting research internationally. Romig recalled being at Y-12 National Security Complex, a sister facility to ORNL, when the Berlin Wall came down. He said the United States, Germany and other nations need to work together to solve today’s technological challenges.
“When you’re talking about engineering or applied science, those things, for the most part, are team sports,” Romig said. “There are issues around food, water, energy, climate, the proliferation of nuclear technology and the list goes on. What’s important is that people, countries and institutions work together globally to solve these problems.”
This Oak Ridge National Laboratory news article "German-American frontiers of engineering explored during symposium at ORNL" was originally found on https://www.ornl.gov/news
