ADELPHI, Md. -- A team of researchers from the U.S. Army Research Laboratory's Energy and Power Division participated in the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy Summit March 13-15 at the Gaylord Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland.
The annual summit brought together subject matter experts from government, industry and academia to identify and discuss emerging energy challenges and new and innovative ways to address them.
In celebrating its ninth year, the three-day event was designed to move transformational energy technologies out of the lab and into the marketplace via networking seminars and technology showcases.
The conference kicked off with keynote addresses by Chief of Naval Research Rear Adm. David J. Hahn and the Honorable Paul Dabbar, DOE Under Secretary for Science.
ARL's E&P division participated in various events such as the government agency networking program, the Defense Energy Networking breakfast and the women in energy sciences luncheon.
These events allowed time for strategic discussions and potential collaborative efforts that could positively impact research and discovery efforts among the participating agencies and organizations.
Dr. Ed Shaffer, chief of the E&P division of ARL's Sensor and Electron Devices Directorate, participated in a panel of energy experts from both government and industry to address High Power Systems and Thermal Management Challenges in Defense.
Shaffer said the topic for the panel discussions were timely from an Army perspective. He highlighted the process of refocusing Army S&T to address the shift in Army modernization focus toward lethality and capabilities.
"This shift poses both challenges and opportunities for the collective technical community -- there will be an initial focus on integrating technologies into existing systems as well as developing more mature prototypes and technology options; industry engagement will be critical to the success of these efforts over the next five to seven years," he said.
The Department of Defense panelists highlighted the technical and operational needs and challenges that are unique to the warfighter and the DOD and offered advice and guidance on how to best interact and collaborate with DOD.
ARL's engagement in the Energy Innovation Summit provides the lab with opportunities for leveraging these technologies for Army use and exposing the performers to Army specific research interests and needs. The ARL technology display showcased information on the lab's basic and applied E&P research programs, fuel cell and thermophotovoltaic prototypes, and information on Open Campus and ARL extended sites.
Conference participants expressed interests in the ARL research efforts as well as the Open Campus and extended constructs, paving the way for potential future collaborations that will ultimately result in E&P improvements to benefit the warfighter.
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The U.S. Army Research Laboratory s part of the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command, which has the mission to provide innovative research, development and engineering to produce capabilities that provide decisive overmatch to the Army against the complexities of the current and future operating environments in support of the joint warfighter and the nation. RDECOM is a major subordinate command of the U.S. Army Materiel Command.
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