Conference: Frontiers of Engineering Symposia (2026 USFOE, and 2026 EU-US FOE)

The Frontiers of Engineering (FOE) Symposia, organized by the National Academy of Engineering, provide emerging engineering leaders from academia, industry, and government laboratories the opportunity to share research insights to facilitate an interdisciplinary transfer of knowledge and research methodologies. The nature of emerging technologies and how they fit together to create products and processes that drive economic growth makes it essential that engineers understand research developments, techniques and approaches beyond their own discipline. The FOE symposia serve as a catalyst to spur engineering innovation and foster collaborative networks of researchers within the United States and between engineers from the United States and partnering countries. The FOE program has the potential to benefit society both by supporting innovation and by increasing the visibility of engineering and the important ways in which engineers serve society. This award will provide partial support for two Frontiers of Engineering (FOE) symposia, to be held in 2026. These symposia, organized by the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) in concert with international partner organizations, are for early career researchers. The meetings to be funded by this award in 2026 are: US FOE (September, 2026; Austin, Texas); and EU-US FOE (Fall, 2026; Chicago, Illinois). Topics for these two 2026 FOE meetings are still pre-decisional but may include: The Future of Space Exploration and Telescopes, AI in Advanced Communication Networks, Engineering Next-Generation Semiconductor Technologies. Approximately 100 outstanding young engineers for the U.S. symposium and 30 from each country for the bilateral symposium will participate. Each 2.5 day symposium will include plenary sessions, break-out and poster sessions, and opportunities for developing collaborative research partnerships. Sessions will consist of presentations on cutting-edge research, innovations, and emerging research opportunities in engineering fields relevant to the symposium. FOE symposium papers, abstracts, presentation videos, and slides will be made available on the FOE website (www.naefrontiers.org). This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.