Hosted at the Georgia Tech Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design, the workshop was organized by a committee of researchers and practitioners from across the macro-energy systems community. The committee was chaired by Micah Ziegler, assistant professor in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School of Public Policy.
The two-day workshop brought together more than 130 participants and featured lightning talks, poster presentations, interactive learning sessions, and keynote addresses that strengthened connections across the macro-energy systems research community.
“The energy challenges facing society today are increasingly interconnected, and solving them requires a systems-level perspective,” said Christine Conwell, director of planning and operations at the Georgia Tech Strategic Energy Institute. “Supporting events like the MES Workshop, which provides a unique space for academic collaboration and knowledge sharing, aligns with the Strategic Energy Institute’s commitment to advancing research and workforce development that support more resilient and effective energy solutions.”
The workshop received financial support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, which supports research and education in science, technology, engineering, math, and economics. Through its Energy and Environment program, the foundation helps advance interdisciplinary research and collaboration across the macro-energy systems field.
“The Macro-Energy Systems Workshop has become a significant forum for interdisciplinary energy systems researchers to share and discuss their work,” said Evan Michelson, director of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s Energy and Environment program. “We were especially glad to help ensure participation from early-career researchers spanning a wide range of institutions, providing them access to the collaborations and conversations that will help them develop as scientists.”
Graduate students and postdoctoral scholars played a central role in this year's workshop, presenting research on energy system planning, grid reliability, technology deployment, energy transitions, and policy. Their sessions gave the early-career researchers opportunities to share new approaches to studying large-scale energy systems, interact with faculty and industry experts, refine research ideas, and build collaborations beyond their home institutions.
“This year, we significantly expanded the MES Workshop to include more early-career scholars,” said Ziegler. “The workshop provides a great opportunity for young researchers to develop ideas, connections, and a better understanding of how to design research to have a positive impact on the world.”
The workshop also featured keynote presentations from Kelly Sanders, professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Southern California, and Erin Mayfield, assistant professor at Dartmouth College's Thayer School of Engineering. Both speakers discussed insights from their experience contributing to policymaking and highlighted opportunities for energy systems research to inform policy decisions.
Interactive sessions led by Michelle Graff, assistant professor in the Georgia Tech Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School of Public Policy encouraged participants to consider how macro-energy systems research can more effectively inform and support policymakers and other decision-makers. Graff developed and facilitated the sessions, with support from Morgan Edwards, assistant professor of public affairs from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Micah Ziegler. The first session explored how researchers can identify policy windows and position their work to inform decision-making at the right time. The second focused on matching research to the appropriate audiences and jurisdictions, highlighting opportunities to inform policy at the state and local levels.
]]>Hosted at the Georgia Tech Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design, the workshop was organized by a committee of researchers and practitioners from across the macro-energy systems community. The committee was chaired by Micah Ziegler, assistant professor in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School of Public Policy.
The two-day workshop brought together more than 130 participants and featured lightning talks, poster presentations, interactive learning sessions, and keynote addresses that strengthened connections across the macro-energy systems research community.
]]>Georgia Tech is hosting the 2026 MFEM (Modular Finite Element Methods) Community Workshop, Sept. 22-25. MFEM supports research in computational physics, earth systems modeling, engineering, energy, and other fields.
The four-day workshop is being held at the Georgia Tech Global Learning Center and will focus on improving software for scientific computing and discovery. Participants can also attend online. Registration for the workshop is open through Sept. 11.
“We're very excited and grateful for the opportunity to have this workshop at Georgia Tech,” said Tzanio Kolev, a computational mathematician at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL).
“Georgia Tech has a great reputation in our field, and hosting at universities is a great way to connect with students. We see students as our future colleagues who will improve MFEM for generations to come.”
MFEM is an open-source software library for solving equations in computational models. Scientists and engineers use it to build and test virtual designs on some of the world’s most powerful supercomputers before creating real-world prototypes.
In fact, MFEM powered a tsunami early-warning model that ran on El Capitan, the world’s second-fastest supercomputer. The framework completed a simulation in a fraction of a second, 10 billion times faster than conventional algorithms. Kolev was part of the team that won the 2025 Gordon Bell Prize for the project.
MFEM’s impact extends beyond its original developers. The AWS Center for Quantum Computing uses the software as the foundation for a tool called Palace. This project runs 3D electromagnetic simulations to aid in the design of quantum computing hardware.
“These workshops have been very beneficial for both the broader user community and also for MFEM developers,” said Kolev.
“Every workshop, we are surprised by the ways people are building on our work, seeing what incredible, interesting, amazing things they do with it.”
Next month’s workshop at Georgia Tech will connect MFEM users and developers from national laboratories, academia, government, and industry.
The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority joins LLNL and Georgia Tech in sponsoring this year’s workshop. Nearly 20 scientists from Department of Energy (DOE) laboratories are attending in person. They represent LLNL, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, and the Naval Nuclear Laboratory.
The workshop’s first day features a free, hybrid tutorial. LLNL’s High Performance Computing Innovation Center will lead the tutorial, helping new users get started with MFEM and learn what the software can do. The tutorial requires separate registration for virtual participants.
The workshop will also host a simulation and visualization contest. Participants can submit images and videos of simulations using MFEM, which will be posted in a gallery. The workshop organizers will select an overall winner.
Further workshop activities include:
The MFEM workshop highlights the role open-source software plays in scientific discovery.
By making tools freely available, researchers can build on each other’s work rather than starting from scratch. This shared approach can accelerate innovation, improve software, and make advanced computing tools accessible to a wider community.
Georgia Tech hosts a Center for Scientific Software Engineering and an Open-Source Program Office. This year’s workshop connects these units with the MFEM community to help put the software into the hands of more researchers across science and engineering.
“The MFEM workshop aims to foster collaboration among all MFEM users and developers,” said Qi Tang, a workshop organizer and assistant professor in the School of Computational Science and Engineering.
“Hosting its annual community workshop brings researchers from DOE laboratories, universities, and industry to campus, giving Georgia Tech faculty and students direct access to experts from the field.”
]]>Georgia Tech is hosting the 2026 MFEM (Modular Finite Element Methods) Community Workshop, Sept. 22-25. MFEM supports research in computational physics, earth systems modeling, engineering, energy, and other fields.
The four-day workshop is being held at the Georgia Tech Global Learning Center and will focus on improving software for scientific computing and discovery. Participants can also attend online. Registration for the workshop is open through Sept. 11.
]]>With more than 150 attendees from industry, academia, and research organizations, the event’s high-level engagement underscored the urgency of critical issues facing the energy sector today, including the surging electricity demand, resiliency of the grid, and evolving supply chains, as well as the value of a dedicated space for candid, solutions-oriented dialogue.
“INTERSECT 2026 demonstrated the power of bringing together leaders who are actively shaping the future of energy,” said Laura Taylor, director of EPIcenter. “What began as a forum to explore emerging ideas has grown into a critical platform for aligning perspectives and advancing actionable solutions across the Southeast.”
This year’s program focused on real-world implementation challenges, including managing large-scale load growth and coordinating infrastructure investments to meet demand reliably and affordably. Panels featuring leaders from utilities, global energy corporations, and research organizations emphasized the importance of aligning strategy across sectors to ensure that the Southeast remains competitive and resilient.
Chris Womack, chairman, president, and CEO of Southern Company, delivered the keynote address, highlighting the unprecedented scale of current energy demands.
“Meeting this moment requires us to think differently — serving growth while ensuring reliability, resilience, and long-term value for our customers and communities,” said Womack.
Launched in 2017, the inaugural INTERSECT conference marked the launch of EPIcenter itself and established Georgia Tech’s commitment to connecting research, industry insight, and policy development. It focused on the need to bridge the gap between rapidly advancing technologies and slower-moving regulatory and market frameworks, a theme that continues to shape its mission today.
As INTERSECT 2026 concluded, participants pointed to a shared takeaway: With its industrial base, growing population, and integrated energy systems, the Southeast is uniquely positioned to lead in the next phase of the energy transition. With AI-driven power demand and grid infrastructure playing a significant role going forward, it is imperative to bring together the right voices to shape policies and strategies that will connect ideas to action.
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