The University co-hosted the Grainger Foundation Frontiers of Engineering 2026 Symposium from Sept. 21-24. The three-day symposium brought together engineers from various disciplines to discuss topics like challenges in AI and bioengineering.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The symposium, co-hosted with Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., a semiconductor company, was a selective event that invited early-career engineers from industry, universities and federal labs, said Stephanie Houser, Director of the Grainger Foundation Frontiers of Engineering program. Session topics addressed innovation in engineered materials, computing challenges for artificial intelligence, agricultural engineering and hypersonics.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of the biggest advances we\u2019ve seen in engineering and technology in recent history have come from collaborative efforts,\u201d Houser said. \u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to foster here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Around 70 engineers within 10 years of starting their careers were invited to attend the symposium, three of whom came from the University, said Karen Willcox, the symposium\u2019s co-chair and the director for the Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences.<\/p>\n
One of the three UT attendees was David Fridovich-Keil, who directs the Control and Learning for Autonomous Robotics Laboratory and is a member of Texas Robotics and the Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences. He said the symposium was a successful opportunity to hear from people far outside his area of expertise.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe talks have been quite high quality, I would say,\u201d Fridovich-Keil said. \u201cOn the other hand, I\u2019m usually not one that gets much out of talks. I get more out of talking to people one-on-one about their work, see where we can connect, and that\u2019s been the highlight here.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the guest speakers was Anthony Dudo, an associate professor in the Stan Richards School of Advertising & Public Relations and program director of science communication in the Center for Media Engagement. Dudo hosted a Skills Workshop on Engineering Communication.<\/p>\n
\u201c(The attendees) are really the cream of the crop when it comes to the next generation of people who are going to be doing amazing things in engineering,\u201d Dudo said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
During his presentation, Dudo encouraged the engineers to think intentionally about their goals, audiences and communication strategies rather than simply informing the public.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they left that meeting yesterday and they now understand that there\u2019s a difference between communication and effective communication \u2014 that is the core learning objective of that talk,\u201d Dudo said. \u201cAnything they learn beyond that is icing on the cake.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beyond effective communication, Willcox encouraged engineers to embrace leadership and public service in their careers.<\/p>\n
\u201cMake the most of this call to leadership, this call to service,\u201d Willcox said. \u201cBecause if there were ever a time that the world needs engineers to come together to give good advice to the government, to give good advice and explanations to society, it\u2019s now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The University co-hosted the Grainger Foundation Frontiers of Engineering 2026 Symposium from Sept. 21-24. The three-day symposium brought…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":451258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-451257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=451257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}