University of New Mexico President Garnett S. Stokes and Provost James Holloway are featured speakers at a town hall on Tuesday, Sept. 8 focused on strengthening the national foundation for advanced modeling and simulations (M&S) at HBCUs/MIs.

Hosted by The University of Texas-El Paso (UTEP), the purpose of the town hall is to bring together renowned administrators, scientists, researchers, engineers, entrepreneurs, and visionary from a wide spectrum of advanced M&S domains to address using M&S university capabilities to help the nation meet the challenges of the 21st century, and training the workforce in critical areas of national need. 

The town hall meeting talks are comprised of keynote talks by prominent speakers in focused areas, panel discussions from various stakeholders & decision makers including program managers, administrators, business leaders/entrepreneurs, students and faculty, and will feature breakout sessions in selected areas with a focus on diversity, equity, and inclusions issues in advanced modeling & simulations; and challenges and opportunities at HBCU/MSI institutions.

The town hall will feature specific sessions including leadership, engagement and partnership. Stokes will speak during the leadership session focused on equity, access and excellence issues and opportunities in advanced modeling & simulations, while Holloway will participate in the engagement session focused on creating an equitable environment for advanced M&S researchers at HBCU/MSI.

The town hall will also highlight selected research projects at minority-serving institutions (MSIs), in particular at Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs). The proposed workshop will provide a forum to engage with a diverse group of researchers (from different disciplines and from industry and institutions of higher education) who can bring distinct perspectives to the advanced M&S challenges.

The workshop will offer a unique opportunity to engage in discussions that could lead to innovative solutions to challenges that society faces. In addition, researchers will share best practices for successfully establishing research partnerships and will identify ways to overcome obstacles that could prevent the creation of research alliances among universities, industry, and national laboratories.

Afternoon sessions will focus on a number of areas including Department of Defense, Energy & Sustainability, Health Sciences and Sustainability,

The goals of the town hall include:

  • Identifying opportunities for synergetic research and strategic partnerships among participating research extensive universities, MSIs, and industry that will effectively address the complex engineering systems;
  • Create partnerships among the majority‐minority universities and university‐industry/Lab to address gaps and opportunities in M&S;
  • and identify the actions needed to create a culture of collaboration that facilitates the formation of research partnerships.

Registration for the event is available at UTEP advanced M&S Town Hall.

For more information, visit Town Hall Initiatives.