Registration is coming soon for the Research, Innovation and Impact Summit and Expo at Oregon State University, which will take place all day on Oct. 20. The event will include speakers, workshops, a research partnership expo and more.
“We’re looking to offer faculty a selection of professional development opportunities around advancing their research programs,” said summit organizer Julie Risien, director of transdisciplinary research in the Division of Research and Innovation.
The summit will be split into three focus areas — research, innovation and impact (tied to the university’s strategic plan, Prosperity Widely Shared).
“We want to support faculty as they keep moving forward in this unsteady moment,” Risien said. Faculty with research as part of their position description are the main audience for the summit, although support staff and students are welcome to attend as well.
The event will start with a morning opening event for all attendees, followed by concurrent sessions grouped into the three tracks.
The workshops will provide participants with tools they can use in their everyday jobs.
The research track is aimed at faculty who are newer to funded research at OSU and want to take a behind-the-scenes look at navigating the research process. For the innovation track, there will be a ‘lab-to-launch’ session looking at tech transfer at OSU, as well as sessions focused on industry engagement and economic and workforce development. The impact track will look at transdisciplinary and community-engaged practice as impact, capturing and sharing impact stories, and inclusive excellence as impact in 2025 and beyond.
The summit includes a lunchtime expo focused on creating new partnerships, including internal partners who offer facilities and support for researchers, as well as external partners such as contractors and evaluators.
Concurrent sessions will continue after lunch, followed by a closing plenary which will include two panels. First, faculty from different disciplines who have been successful leveraging high-performance computing and AI to accelerate their own research will share how they took their first steps to integrate these valuable tools in their own research practice and discuss the challenges, opportunities, pitfalls and benefits of using these tools. Second, deans from the multiple colleges will provide a reflective panel on how OSU faculty can and should move forward through uncertain times for the research and innovation enterprise.
The summit takes place from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Oct. 20, in the Memorial Union. For more information including details on sessions and speakers, click here.
