ACES Symposium on Energy and Water Brings Together Leaders from Education, Industry and Government

Three years ago, Lehigh underwent a strategic planning process—the university’s first in nearly 15 years.

Throughout the process, ambitious goals were set and much of the focus was on student outcomes and becoming a nationwide leader in interdisciplinary education. Lehigh also expressed a desire “to expand and invest in three core, integrated research areas that are addressing immediate and deeply challenging problems that require solutions drawn from a broad range of engineering science, business and liberal arts disciplines,” according to President Joseph J. Helble ’82.

The Center for Advancing Community Electrification Solutions (ACES) is one of the three University Research Centers (URCs), addressing the energy needs of AI data centers.

“That center [ACES], and our intentional focus on finding creative ways to address the large-scale opportunity afforded Pennsylvania around data centers and AI through intelligently addressing the infrastructure challenge is what, of course, leads us to gather with you here today,” Helble said as Lehigh hosted “Innovating Energy and Water Solutions for Tomorrow's AI Data Centers.”

Additionally, McCormick discussed the important role as a leader Pennsylvania holds in regard to the country’s energy and AI future.

“What you're doing here today matters not just for Lehigh or Pennsylvania, but for the future of our country,” McCormick said.

He also mentioned research and development partnerships that will be necessary, and will include not only industry and government, but academia as well.

The Senator wasn’t the only speaker to discuss the pivotal part higher education plays moving forward. It was mentioned numerous times throughout the day, including by the event’s first keynote speaker, Abby Smith, CEO of Team Pennsylvania.

“Because we have so many different characteristics of our regional economies, a lot of this work has to happen locally…on the ground,” Smith said. “And our universities across the board play a really critical role in setting the conversation, providing expertise and being real partners in how we actually look at all kinds of projects.”

Much of what the speakers discussed throughout the day centered around the challenges and opportunities related to their specific topics. The buzz, energy and ideas born out of the event were immediately felt on the Mountaintop Campus. The prompts served as launching points for continued conversation as attendees organically participated in their own discussions with each other during breaks and over lunch in the dining room and hallways in Iacocca Hall.

To assist in continuing the conversation, Urban explained to attendees that a report, which may partially be AI-generated, would be created to summarize the topics covered at the symposium. The report, he said, would also identify key areas where they believe collaboration between the groups represented at the event were possible in the short- to medium-term.