We had a jam-packed second day of the 2023 ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit. Day 2 of the Summit kicked off with "Coffee with ARPA-E," where attendees had the opportunity to network with ARPA-E leadership, Program Directors, Tech-to-Market Advisors, and Fellows, and to talk about the future of energy innovation and technology.

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Coffee with ARPA-E

The morning began with Fast Pitches about Nuclear and Materials from ARPA-E Program Directors Dr. Ahmed Diallo, Dr. Robert Ledoux, and Dr. Jenifer Shafer.

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ARPA-E Fast Pitches - Dr. Jenifer Shafer, Dr. Robert Ledoux, and Dr. Ahmed Diallo

Morning Breakout Panels included:

• “Grid Storage Beyond the Hype” with Yayoi Sekine, Head of Energy Storage at Bloomberg NEF, Dr. Jesse Jenkins, Assistant Professor at the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment at Princeton University, Julia Souder, Executive Director of the Long Duration Energy Storage Council, and TJ Winter, Vice President of Strategic Technologies at Fluence

ARPA-E Breakout Panel - Yayoi Sekine, Dr. Jesse Jenkins, TJ Winter, and Julia Souder

• “What’s Behind the Corporate Curtain?” with Christy Wyskiel, Director at Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures, Dr. Patty Chang-Chien, Vice President & General Manager at Boeing Research and Technology, Roman Mueller, Executive Director and Principal at RTX Ventures, Limor Spector, General Manager of Incubation Technologies at GE Research, and Mark Szendro, Director of Battery Materials at North America BASF

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ARPA-E Breakout Panel - Christy Wyskiel, Roman Mueller, Dr. Patty Chang-Chien, Limor Specter, and Mark Szendro

The Student PITCHES Session was an incredible success, with graduate students from across the country pitching their technology ideas to a panel of experts across industry and academia including Dr. Halle Cheeseman, Program Director at ARPA-E, Dr. Paul Glaser, Hydrogen & Future Fuels Leader at GE Vernova Advanced Research, Dr. Brenda Haendler, Director of Technology Management at Breakthrough Energy Fellows, Gautam Phanse, Strategic Relations Manager at Chevron Tech Ventures, and Mark Szendro, Director of Battery Materials at North America BASF.

The Student PITCHERS included:

• Aditya Mishra, University of California, San Diego: "DERConnect: Voltage state estimation in partially known power network"
• Bogdan Dryzhakov, University of Tennessee - Knoxville: " Single Cells with Tandem Power"
• Gustavo Marquez, Stanford University and Melissa Zhang, Harvard University: "RockFix"
• Lindsay Walter, University of Utah: "Power at the nanoscale: Waste heat recovery using near-field thermophotovoltaics"
• Shomik Verma, Massachusetts Institute of Technology: " High-temperature ceramic combustor with thermophotovoltaic power generation"
• Sichao Cheng, University of Maryland: "Self-sustaining methane conversion facility for methane flaring sites with economical feasibility"

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ARPA-E Fellow Julia Greenwald and PITCHERS Bogdan Dryzhakov, Lindsay Walter, Melissa Zhang, Gustavo Marquez, Shomik Verma, Sichao Cheng, and Aditya Mishra

We launched into the second session of the Technology Showcase with 400+ ARPA-E performers exhibiting their cutting-edge breakthrough energy technologies.

Technology demonstrations held at the morning session of the Technology Showcase included:

• ARPA-E SCALEUP 2021 performer Imagen Energy demoed their CHARGED Project: Commercialization of Highly Accelerated Reliable Grid-networked Energy Delivery

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 Tech Demo - Imagen Energy

• ARPA-E NEXTCAR performer UC Berkeley demoed their predictive data-driven vehicle dynamics and powertrain control 

Tech Demo - UC Berkeley

During lunch, the American Energy Innovators Network gave a brief overview of the policy landscape affecting clean energy startups, entrepreneurs, and investors, and hosted a discussion on policy priorities for the upcoming year. The session was led by Dr. Tanya Das, Senior Associate Director of Energy Innovation at the Bipartisan Policy Center and Natalie Tham, Policy Analyst for the Energy Program at the Bipartisan Policy Center.

American Energy Innovators Network lunch

The general session kicked off with a Keynote Address from the Honorable Arun Majumdar, Dean of the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability and the inaugural ARPA-E Director. He discussed the early days of ARPA-E, the cultivation of constructive debate, and climate challenges ahead.

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Dr. Arun Majumdar

His address was followed by a Fireside Chat with Mujeeb Ijaz, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of ONE, Alicia R. Knapp, President and Chief Executive Officer of BHE Renewables and the Honorable Kathi Vidal, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

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Mujeeb Ijaz, Alicia Knapp, and Kathi Vidal

As the 2023 Summit is taking place in Maryland, Governor Wes Moore joined us on the Main Stage to give a Keynote Address to the audience.

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Maryland Governor Wes Moore

Dr. David Victor, Professor of Innovation and Public Policy at the School of Global Policy and Strategy at UCSD, and U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski from the great state of Alaska both took to the Main Stage.

Dr. David Victor

U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski 

We finished up the general session with Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Keynote Address, and ARPA-E Director Evelyn Wang joined him on the Main Stage for a lively Q&A session.

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ARPA-E Director Evelyn Wang and Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson

Program Director Dr. Simon Freeman, Fellow Dr. Anil Ganti, and Program Directors Dr. Philseok Kim and Dr. Marina Sofos gave Fast Pitches on Sustainability and Resilience, discussing topics such as automating the global blue economy and evaporatively cooling cities with engineered systems.

ARPA-E Fast Pitches - Program Director Dr. Simon Freeman, Program Director Dr. Philseok Kim, Program Director Dr. Marina Sofos, and Fellow Dr. Anil Ganti

Afternoon Breakout Panels included:

• “Best Practices and Challenges for Product or Process Lifecycle Analyses” with Dr. Stephen McCord, Research Area Specialist Lead at the University of Michigan Global CO2 Initiative, Michelle Krynock, Senior Life Cycle Analyst at the National Energy Technology Laboratory, Laurette Lahey, Senior Director of Flight and Vehicle Technology at Boeing Research & Technology, Cory Tatarzyn, Global Zero Waste Program Manager at General Motors

ARPA-E Breakout Panel - Dr. Stephen McCord, Laurette Lahey, Michelle Krynock, and Cory Tatarzyn

• “Nuclear Power for our Low Carbon Future: Rethinking the Nuclear Waste Challenge” with ARPA-E Program Director Dr. Robert Ledoux, ARPA-E Program Director Dr. Jenifer Shafer, Dr. Per Peterson, Professor at U.C. Berkeley, Sylvia Saltzstein, Manager of Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage, Transportation, Security, and Safeguards R&D at Sandia National Laboratory, Jackie Siebens, Director of Policy and External Affairs at Oklo Inc.and Dr. Kris Singh, Chief Executive Officer of Holtec

ARPA-E Breakout Panel - Dr. Jenifer Shafer, Jackie Siebens, Dr. Per Peterson, Dr. Kris Singh, Sylvia Saltzstein, and Dr. Robert Ledoux

In the evening, ARPA-E Director Evelyn Wang sat down with Susan Babinec, Program Lead of Stationary Storage at Argonne National Laboratory, Dr. Robert Ledoux, Program Director at ARPA-E, and Ashwin Salvi, Chief Operating Officer at Atmoszero to discuss their experience working at the agency, how they decided that a role at ARPA-E was the right fit for them, and how ARPA-E served as a pivotal point in their career trajectory.

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Director Evelyn N. Wang 

Technology demonstrations held at the evening session of the Technology Showcase included:

• Clarivate demoed their global research & innovation analytics data hub and the intelligence potential.
• ARPA-E ASCEND performer Wright Electric demoed their 2nd generation motor for lArge ElectRIc Aircraft propuLsIon SysTems (AERIALIST.)

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Tech Demo - Wright Electric 

• ARPA-E HITEMMP performer Vacuum Process Engineering demoed their design and manufacturing development of compact diffusion bonded microchannel heat exchangers using high nickel superalloys for highly power dense and efficient modular energy production systems.

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Tech Demo - Vacuum Process Engineering

Follow @ARPAE on Twitter for live updates of Day 3 and join the conversation by using #ARPAE23.