The Grainger Foundation Frontiers of Engineering 2025 Symposium will be held at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, September 14-17. About 100 outstanding early career engineers will meet for an intensive 2-1/2 day symposium to discuss cutting-edge developments in four areas: Advances in Neural Engineering; Next-Generation Computing/Quantum Computing; Fusion Energy; and Sustainable Aerial Mobility. The goal of the Frontiers of Engineering program is to bring together engineers from all engineering disciplines and from industry, universities, and federal labs to facilitate cross-disciplinary exchange and promote the transfer of new techniques and approaches across fields in order to sustain and build US innovative capacity. 

We are grateful to The Grainger Foundation for its support. 

More information will be posted as it becomes available.

DRAFT LIST OF SESSIONS
(Working topics listed. Order of speakers and sessions TBD.)

Chair:  Karen Willcox, University of Texas at Austin  

ADVANCES IN NEURAL ENGINEERING
Session co-chairs: Annabelle Singer, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Joshua Kline, Delsys Inc.
Proposed Speakers:

Flexible, transparent neural interfaces seamlessly integrate with tissue while simultaneously allowing optical access to the brain
Daniel Gonzalez, Vanderbilt University

Biochemically functionalized probes for cell-type–specific targeting and recording in the brain
Anqi Zhang, California Institute of Technology

Agonist-antagonist myoneural interface amputation preserves proprioceptive sensorimotor neurophysiology in lower limbs
Shriya Srinivasan, Harvard University

MyoSuite--A contact-rich simulation suite for musculoskeletal motor control
Vikash Kumar, Carnegie Mellon University

NEXT-GENERATION COMPUTING/QUANTUM COMPUTING (WORKING)
Session co-chairs: Jean Anne Incorvia, University of Texas at Austin and Shavindra Prematatne, Intel
Proposed Speakers:

TBD
Mollie Schwartz, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

TBD
Timothy Proctor, Sandia National Laboratories

TBD
Catherine Schuman, University of Tennessee Knoxville

TBD
Deep Jariwala, University of Pennsylvannia

FUSION ENERGY
Session co-chairs:  Andrea Schmidt, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Patrick Snouffer, Zeno Power Systems
Proposed Speakers:

TBD
Derek Sutherland, Realta

TBD
Adam Rutkowski, Marathon Fusion

TBD
Sara Ferry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

TBD
Caroline Sorenson, Commonwealth Fusion Systems

SUSTAINABLE AERIAL MOBILITY
Session co-chairs: Phillip Ansell, University of Chicago-Illinois, and Mr. Kevin Antcliff, Joby Aviation
Proposed Speakers: (preliminary talk topics)

(Aviation technology, power and energy systems, and advanced aircraft concept formation)
Anna Oldani, U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, Office of Environment and Energy

(Aviation technology, power and energy systems, and advanced aircraft concept formulation)
Hubert Wong, Boeing

(Life cycle assessment, techno economics of sustainability, economic impacts and operational networks of aviation)
Florian Allroggen, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

(Advanced air mobility, battery-electric aircraft systems, airline operations)
Cedric Justin, Georgia Institute of Technology