The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory had a serious presence at the 2026 AI+ Expo for National Competitiveness, held May 7-9 in Washington D.C., with a number of ORNL researchers presenting and demoing their newest work.
Hosted by the Special Competitive Studies Project, the occasion introduced collectively leaders from expertise, academia, trade and authorities to debate the quickly evolving position of synthetic intelligence in advancing U.S. innovation, power resilience, competitiveness and nationwide safety. Featured audio system included U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, DOE Under Secretary for Science and Innovation Dario Gil, and different leaders from federal companies, academia and the non-public sector centered on AI-driven scientific and technological management.
The occasion additionally strengthened DOE’s rising emphasis on AI as a strategic functionality for scientific discovery, power innovation and nationwide safety, highlighting the important position of nationwide laboratories, open science, next-generation computing infrastructure and initiatives such because the Genesis Mission in accelerating innovation, strengthening U.S. competitiveness and enabling a resilient power future.
ORNL Associate Laboratory Director for the Computing and Computational Sciences Directorate Gina Tourassi spoke as a part of a dialogue panel along with her fellow computing leaders at different nationwide labs discussing the significance of collaboration towards DOE’s Genesis Mission , which goals to double the productiveness and impression of American science, engineering and R&D inside a decade.
“The Genesis Mission reflects a bold national commitment to accelerate discovery by integrating AI, high-performance computing, advanced scientific instrumentation, and multidisciplinary expertise across the Department of Energy ecosystem,” stated Tourassi. “Events like the AI+ Expo are critical because they bring together varied stakeholders to align capabilities around a shared goal: dramatically increasing the productivity, impact and competitiveness of American science and technology.”
Several ORNL researchers representing high-performance computing, AI and superior scientific computing contributed to the dialog via displays and demonstrations highlighting the laboratory’s management in AI for science, together with Arjun Shankar, who serves as director for the National Center for Computational Sciences at ORNL. Shankar detailed ORNL’s position in main the American Science Cloud, a cornerstone initiative inside the Genesis Mission, and harassed the significance of presenting at the occasion.
“The AI expo brought together practitioners, designers and users, and presenting on the American Science Cloud at the DOE booth to an engaged audience was truly energizing,” stated Shankar.