September 21, 2009 — Through December, Science Applications International Corporation will bring its company leaders to the University of Virginia to discuss emerging issues in the energy field.

Topics for the series – part of an ongoing partnership between SAIC and U.Va.'s School of Engineering and Applied Science – include the future of energy storage, smart grid technology and the impact of energy policy and climate change on the future of U.S. energy markets.

Mark Gabriel, a vice president and principal at RW Beck, an SAIC Company, will give the first lecture, "Visions for a Sustainable Energy Future," on Sept. 25, from 3 to 5 p.m., in the Mechanical Engineering Building, room 205. All lectures in the series are free and open to the public.

Based on his book "Visions for a Sustainable Energy Future," the winner of the 2009 Indie Excellence Award for Environmental Publishing, Gabriel will explain the five megatrends in energy, or "destinies," and their impact on society, industry and planning.

"The SAIC speakers series allows us to engage the entire University community in a collaborative exchange about sustainability and energy issues," said James Aylor, dean of the Engineering School. "Bringing together industry leaders, students and faculty will surely produce a lively and informative discussion on these subjects."

In addition to the speaker series, the SAIC Scholars Program will provide student research stipends in support of graduate or senior undergraduate math, science or engineering students' research with U.Va. faculty. Information will be provided at the speaker series events.

These stipends will support students addressing technical problems and research issues that are of interest to SAIC and its customers. Possible subjects for the research projects include cyber security, knowledge management, networks, modeling and simulation and signal processing.

SAIC is a San Diego-based scientific, engineering and technology applications company with approximately 44,000 employees working to solve problems in national security, energy and the environment, critical infrastructure and health. One of its major units, the Cyber Program Management Office, is based in McLean.

Its clients include the U.S. Department of Defense, the intelligence community, the Department of Homeland Security, other U.S. government civil agencies and selected commercial markets.

Last year, the company funded five student research projects and presented a speaker series on cyber security.

For information about the upcoming speaker's series and research stipends, call Barry Johnson, senior associate dean for research, at 434-924-3310.

Sustainable Energy Future-Speaker Series

All lectures to be held in the Mechanical Engineering Building, Room 205, at 3 p.m. except for the final lecture, to be held at 3 p.m. at the Darden School of Business, Room 50.

Sept. 25: Mark Gabriel, "Visions for a Sustainable Energy Future"
These are exciting – and challenging – times for society and the energy industry as demand grows, expectation of reduced carbon increases and critical infrastructure is revamped to serve the digital 21st century. Based on "Visions for a Sustainable
Energy Future" (Fairmont Press), the winner of the 2009 Indie Excellence Award for Environmental Publishing, author Mark Gabriel explains the five megatrends or "destinies," and their impact on society, industry and planning.

Oct. 9: Clement Chen, "A Strategic Perspective on the 'Biology' of Smart Grid"
Smart grid is commonly viewed as the "internetization" of the electric power system that promises to help enable a sustainable energy future. The question that is not often asked is what happens when millions of new entities join the grid as "micro"-utilities
and start interacting with an infrastructure that is becoming highly networked with ever-increasing automation. This trend points to an environment that may become increasingly "biological" and lend itself to unintended consequences.

Oct. 23: Mindi Farber-DeAnda, "Sustainable Future Energy Storage"
Storage is essential to all energy systems; it provides the balancing necessary for supplies to meet demand. Storage is viable in the fossil fuel industries where we depend on petroleum terminals, coal stockpiles and natural gas caverns. Electricity storage, however, is still being developed; funding for demonstration projects is being provided under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.was provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Nov. 6: Joe Cohen, "A Renewable Energy Future: Facts, Fiction, and Potential"
Many different predictions and projections of the future use of renewable energy have been developed since the 1970s, spurred by various geopolitical conditions and environmental concerns. Meanwhile, renewable energy technologies matured to different degrees over that period, and market modeling capabilities have improved as well. As momentum has recently increased toward building a greener and more secure energy future, a new generation of analyses has been conducted to look at the future potential for different renewable energy technologies and scenarios of energy supply and end use.

Dec. 4: Jay Ratafia-Brown and Michael Mondshine, "Impact of Energy Policy Choices and Climate Change Legislation on Future U.S. Energy Markets"
The U.S. has reached a critical inflection point in our nation's energy future and is initiating comprehensive and strategic energy policies and climate change legislation to simultaneously reduce the energy intensity of our economy, broaden our energy
resource base, and dramatically lower the carbon-intensity of our energy conversion technology portfolio. This presentation will discuss a broad range of current and possible energy policies and recently proposed climate change legislation and characterize
potential energy futures based on executing SAIC's version of the National Energy Modeling System.