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A critical lens on “sustainable AI” 1:10PM - 2:20PM (UMC Room 235)

• Session Organizer: Jed Brown, Associate Professor, Associate Chair for Community and Accountability
• Speakers: Jed Brown, Esther Rolf, , Emily Yeh, Katherine Siegel
• Type of session: Participative Panel Discussion��
• Session description: In this session, we examine environmental impacts of data centers built, under construction, and planned in the name of “AI.” We will discuss disparities between financing of infrastructure build-out and purported sustainability commitments asserted by tech companies, between messaging of energy transition to renewables from analysts advising government and realities of the increased load preventing transition per independent and IEA analysis. We will examine greenwashing efforts, the misfit between “bottom-up” and “top-down” accounting, and environmental racism. We will discuss conflicts of interest and the role of government, community organizing, and paths for effective regulation and policy.

Climate Adaptation Science: advancing sustainability at the nexus of the climate, ecological, and social sciences 2:20PM - 3:30PM (UMC Room 235)

• Session Organizer:��, Research Scientist at CIRES and the Lead Social Scientist at the North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center
• Speakers:, Elizabeth Woolner, Em Wright, Kelsey Warren, ��
• Type of session: Case Studies��
• Session Description: The North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center (NC CASC) conducts interdisciplinary, actionable science research at the intersection of the climate, ecological, and social sciences. This panel will provide a brief overview of our center, and then highlight our research through the presentation of several case studies that showcase our research collaborations with public land managers and Tribal Nations across our region. This session particularly showcases the research conducted by the cohort of summer graduate students we bring on each year. Presentations will include research on newly developed drought metrics, evaluating the effectiveness of low tech climate adaptation actions, understanding the science needs of land managers dealing with woody invasive plant species in prairie ecosystems, developing decision support tools for managers in sagebrush ecosystems, and communicating our science to multi-disciplinary audiences and practitioners.

Heat, Shade, and Sun Safety in Colorado Communities 1:10PM - 2:40PM (UMC Room 247)

• Session Organizer:��Sara Meerow,��Associate Professor, Geography.
• Speakers: Sara Meerow, Sara Tabatabaie, Olga Wilhelmi, Azadeh Bolhari, Shawhin Roudbari,
• Type of session: Interactive Workshop, Lightning Talks / TED-style talks
• Session Description: This summer Boulder has broken numerous heat and drought records, a preview of a hotter future in Colorado and around the world. Colorado also likes to claim it enjoys 300 days of sunshine, but all that sun, especially at higher elevations, can mean dangerous ultraviolet (UV) radiation exposure. Planning and designing communities to increase shade is one way to improve both heat and sun safety, but shade is often unequally distributed. This session brings together researchers and practitioners tackling different pieces of the complex challenge for a round of short talks on their work, followed by an interactive workshop that encourages participants to design heat and sun safety strategies for a real neighborhood. The session will begin with a series of short presentations highlighting different dimensions of heat, sun safety and shade, followed by a panel discussion among the speakers. The final 30 minutes will feature an interactive workshop in which participants will work in small groups to analyze how planning and policy decisions influence heat resilience and sun safety in real-world locations. Using physical site models and design elements, participants will develop and discuss practical shade interventions and implementation strategies for a variety of public spaces. The session aims to provide participants with a better understanding of the complexities of heat and sun safety in Colorado, actionable strategies for advancing heat resilience and sun safety in their communities, and avenues for cross-campus and regional collaboration on this hot topic.

Break (2:40PM - 2:50PM)

Environmental Cinema 2:50PM - 3:50PM (B2 Lab in the CU ATLAS Building)

• Session Organizer:��Erin Espelie, Associate Professor, Cinema and the Moving Image Arts Department.��
• Speakers: Erin Espelie, Erin Manzitto-Tripp, Dr. Tripp's grad students, 1 MFA film student, 1 PhD in Emergent Media
• Session Type: Interactive Workshop,Meetup / Social Gathering
• Session Description: Hosted by the B2 Lab in the ATLAS Building, this session will revolve around an interactive installation involving lichen and the CU Natural History Museum's Herbarium, considering how lichen function as environmental sensors and indicator species. There will be a larger discussion of the role cinema can play in tackling environmental issues.

Boulder Climate Ventures panel with local sustainability startup companies 1:10PM - 2:40PM (Aspen Rooms 285-287)

• Session Organizer:��Michael McGehee, James and Catherine Patten Chair in the College of Engineering and Applied Science and Renewable & Sustainable Energy Institute Fellow.��
• Speakers: Boulder Climate Ventures panel with local sustainability startup companies
• Session Type: Participative Panel Discussion
• Session Description: Mike McGehee will moderate a panel in which we will interview several people who have spun out successful sustainability companies from the University of Colorado. We are likely to invite Greg Rieker (Longpath), Wil Srubar or Mija Hubler (Prometheus), Paul Lichty (Forge Nano) and Chunmei Ban (Mana). Longpath makes methane sensors. Prometheus reduces the carbon emissions associated with making cement. Forge Nano's primary application is making tools that are used in manufacturing facilities that make batteries. Mana is a sodium battery company. We will ask them how they identified the problem they solved and what they had to do along the way to be successful.

Break 2:40PM - 2:50PM

The Third Assessment of Natural Hazards 2:50PM - 3:50PM (Aspen Room 285-287)

• Session Organizer: Lori Peek
• Speakers: Lori Peek, Abbie Liel, Shideh Dashti
• Session Type: Participative Panel Discussion��
• Session Description: The Third Assessment of Natural Hazards in the United States is now well underway, bringing together more than 100 authors who are reviewing and synthesizing decades of research evidence in the hazards and disaster field. The goal of this rigorous scientific assessment is to inform decision makers on specific actions to reduce the human toll of disaster. This session will provide an update on the Third Assessment and spotlight ���Ҵ�ý�ƽ������'s leadership with this effort as well as with prior national assessments.

Mortenson Center and Virridy Overview 1:10PM - 2:10PM (UMC 380s rooms)

• Session Organizer:��Denis Muthike Assistant Research Professor for the Mortenson Center in Global Engineering & Resilience��
• Speakers:��Fatma Koroglu,��Zhen Li,��John Ecklu,��Laura Macdonald
• Session type: Center overview and traditional research presentations
• Session Description: The Mortenson Center in Global Engineering & Resilience at ���Ҵ�ý�ƽ������ advances research, education, and partnerships to improve access to safe water, sanitation, energy, food, and infrastructure, with a focus on building resilient communities around the world. Virridy develops water monitoring technologies and carbon-financed water programs that use real-time data, machine learning, and scientific research to improve water quality, expand clean water access, and support sustainable development globally. This session with combine an overview of the Mortenson Center and Virridy and then dive into two research presentations including carbon farming and Greenland's critical mineral development.

Break 2:10 - 2:20PM

Workshop: Strategies for Partnering with Industry 2:20PM - 3:20PM (UMC 380s rooms)

• Session Organizer:��Kelly Flemming, Assistant Director, Industry Research Partnerships for Advanced Energy and Sustainability
• Speakers:��Kelly Flemming,�� Lisa Nanstad, Bri-Matthias Hodge
• Type of session: Interactive Workshop
• Session Description: Introduction to communicating applicability of research to non-technical/industry representatives with representatives from IRP, industry, and faculty who have been successful at this (10 minutes). Participants will come with a short "elevator pitch" of their research to industry representatives, and then will do a listening loop exercise at their table to refine their pitch with each person they work with. They will continue to rotate for 30 minutes with facilitators walking around for support. The last 15 minutes will be volunteers to read their original and final pitch, and say what they learned (15 minutes). Final wrap up and offer of support from IRP (5 minutes).

Student Voices on Experiential Sustainability Education 1:10PM - 2:10PM (Aspen Room 289)

• Session Organizer:��Beth Osnes, Professor of Theatre and Environmental Studies at the University of Colorado.��
• Speakers: Samuel Cartwright, Sindhu Nepolean,, Katheryn Sullivan, Joseph Ikerodah,
• Session type: Participative Panel Discussion��
• Session Description: This session will include a student-driven panel conversation moderated by a SPIKE Student Scholar from the SPIKE Center for Sustainability Education, featuring three to four SPIKE Student Emissaries. The panelists, all graduate students engaged in sustainability research, represent a wide range of disciplinary approaches and perspectives. Questions posed to the panel will invite participants to reflect on how their research contributes to the development of recently identified emergent competencies, including intrapersonal, implementation, and integration competence. Drawing on the diverse interdisciplinary approaches represented by the SPIKE Emissaries—from environmental justice and arts-science partnerships to climate media data tracking—the discussion will illuminate the varied ways students engage with and contribute to transformations toward sustainability. Ultimately, the panel will foreground student voices and experiences, offering participants an opportunity to explore how sustainability research can foster not only disciplinary knowledge, but also the skills, perspectives, and capacities needed to navigate complex sustainability challenges. By bringing these diverse approaches into conversation, the panel aims to inspire new ways of thinking about how students can help shape more sustainable futures.

Break (2:10PM - 2:20PM)

Time Literacy on a Dammed Planet 2:20PM - 3:30PM (Aspen Room 289)

• Session Organizer:��Kieran Murphy, Associate Professor, Department of French and Italian.��
• Session Speaker: Kieran Murphy
• Session type: Traditional Research Presentation,Participative Panel Discussion, Interactive Workshop, Case Study
• Session Description: Rivers have taught people how to keep time. The Colorado River has done so through spring rises, late-summer lows, and the return of floods across generations. With the construction of the Hoover Dam, that measure shifted. Rapids became a lake. Peaks and lulls became scheduled releases. Farms and communities set their rhythms to the dam's powerhouse. Today, that imposed rhythm is faltering after decades of overallocation, leaving the Colorado River Basin in ecological and social crisis. Understanding how dams remake time is essential for rethinking water policy. I call this capacity time literacy: the ability to read, interpret, and act across overlapping temporal scales. This session recasts the hydroelectric dam as a temporal interface. Geological time (erosion and sedimentation), seasonal time (flow and drought), technical time (infrastructure and energy), cultural time (art, storytelling, and memory), and political time (government and promises) intersect and alter one another as dams transform river basins. Three questions guide the work. What does a dam trap (silt, people, memory)? What percolates through cracks (submerged histories, forgotten rhythms)? What crosses layers (from environment to infrastructure, archive to narrative, technology to policy)? No discipline can answer these questions alone. Silt and erosion belong to earth science, scheduled releases to engineering, promises to law and policy, memory to the humanities. Time literacy joins these disciplines, making the collisions between their findings available to decision-makers.

Climate and Health Research across CU: Boulder and Anschutz 1:10PM - 2:40PM (Glenn Miller Ballroom)

• Session Organizer:��Kris Karnauskas,����Associate Professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences and CIRES Fellow,�� University of Colorado Boulder.
• Speakers:��TBD
• Type of Session:��Traditional Research Presentation, Participative Panel Discussion
• Session Description:��Climate change is reshaping the landscape of human health, from the spread of infectious disease to chronic illness, nutrition, water security, and mental wellbeing. This session brings together researchers from ���Ҵ�ý�ƽ������ and CU Anschutz Medical Campus to showcase the breadth of climate-health science underway across our university system and to catalyze new collaborations between the two campuses.Talks will span a range of exposures and outcomes: climate-driven shifts in vector-borne diseases such as malaria, dengue, and West Nile virus; chronic kidney disease linked to heat stress; diarrheal disease tied to climate variability and water systems; the health impacts of climate-driven migration; and the particular vulnerabilities of aging populations. We will also feature work on climate communication—essential for translating this research into public understanding and policy action, and on the development of climate-informed early warning systems that can help health systems anticipate and respond to emerging risks. Following a series of short talks, the session will close with a panel discussion designed to identify shared challenges, methodological overlap, and opportunities for joint proposals and data-sharing between Boulder-based climate (and health) scientists and Anschutz-based health researchers. Our goal is not only to highlight excellent science already happening independently on both campuses, but to actively build toward interdisciplinary bridges—personal connections, shared datasets, and co-developed tools needed to accelerate CU’s leadership in climate and health research going forward.