March 28th- AI in K-12 Education: Empowering Minds, Not Machines

On March 28th, Courtney Marshall Fairfax County Public Schools will speak on AI in K-12 education, The Human Edge: Empowering Minds, Not Machines. As AI reshapes our world, we face a critical choice: Will we become passive consumers of technology, conforming to systems built for efficiency, or active partners who redefine what’s possible? AI is rewriting the rules. Will we simply follow them, or rewrite the future ourselves? AI doesn’t think—it predicts. It doesn’t ask What if?—it finds What’s most likely? Every decision it makes collapses possibilities into a single, determined outcome. Breakthroughs don’t come from probability. They come from humans who challenge the expected, defy patterns, and create the impossible. She will describe how her work has transformed how students labeled "disruptive" learn, influenced the development of a technology ready workforce, and developed education methods that harness AI to enhance human capability rather than replace it.

Courtney Marshall is a strategist, educator, and AI-human collaboration expert who transforms complex systems into actionable, human-centered innovation. She specializes in breaking deterministic AI patterns, ensuring that technology amplifies human intelligence rather than limiting it. She holds an Ed.S. in Educational Technology specializing in AI from the University of Florida, an M.Ed. in Special Education from the University of Virginia, and a B.S. in Economics from George Mason University. Her work spans business, education, workforce transformation, and AI policy, making her one of the most versatile thought leaders in the field. Marshall served on the Fairfax County Public Schools AI Advisory Board, was recently personally invited to help develop Virginia’s first K-12 AI curriculum and has consulted for organizations including the Wireless Infrastructure Association (WIA) and Ohio’s inaugural Broadband for Teachers program, where she helped shape technology strategies that bridge the gap between education, business, and the future of work. Her SPARK Framework is a blueprint for breaking through the AI Deterministic Barrier, where algorithms optimize but do not explore. She challenges organizations, educators, and leaders to move beyond passive AI consumption and into true collaboration, ensuring that AI remains a catalyst for human ingenuity, not a replacement for it.

On March 14- Perspectives on the Electrical Grid from a Second Year PhD Student

On March 14th, Dahlia Saba will speak with us on Perspectives on the Electric Grid from a Second Year PhD Student. For over 100 years, we have been operating electric grids. However, as it has become apparent that our reliance on fossil fuel based energy is unsustainable and renewable energy has become an increasingly viable alternative, many of the fundamental assumptions we have used to operate the grid so far are changing. In this talk, I will discuss my path towards becoming a PhD student studying the electric grid. I will also present an overview of some of the biggest challenges to a clean energy transition from an electric grid perspective.

Dahlia Saba is a second year PhD student in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research focuses on the dynamic stability of electric grids with renewable energy, energy storage, and high voltage DC transmission. She is also pursuing a certificate in Energy Analysis and Policy. She received her B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from UC Berkeley in 2023. She is also the granddaughter of Don and Lita Nelsen.

On February 28th, Dr. Albert Moussa will speak on Hydrogen in Aviation – Potentials and Challenges

Join Dr. Albert Moussa to discuss how decarbonization and advances in Urban Air Mobility are driving the introduction of new fuels, technologies, and requirements in aviation. He will describe the aviation segments where hydrogen can satisfy these requirements and its associated challenges. To obtain FAA certification, manufacturers must demonstrate that the risk to passengers and the public from new fuel is no worse than that from traditional fuels. Dr. Moussa will discuss some of the safety issues with hydrogen, and drawing upon his 1982 study for NASA, compare quantitatively the crash fire hazards of aircraft fueled by liquid hydrogen vs. carbon fuels. He will also comment on hydrogen use in ground transport.

Dr. Moussa is the founder and president of BlazeTech Corp., an R and D and engineering consulting firm that services the aviation and energy industries. Previously, he spent a decade as senior consultant at Arthur D. Little, Inc. For about four decades, he worked in innovations in the areas of energy, environment and safety. For example, he developed unique software on fire, explosion and toxic releases for the chemical, aerospace and defense industries. He developed also novel pulverized and fluidized bed coal combustors. His forte has been in technology development to proof-of-concept testing but now he is seeking also the commercialization of his innovations. He has received several awards including the William Lockwood Memorial Lecture Award; Engineer of the Year by the New England AIAA Section; AIAA Distinguished Lecturer; Best Papers by SAE and ASEI; and several ASME citations. He has served on three national committees and was Associate Editor of the Journal of Energy Resources Technology. He received his Bachelor’s from Stanford University and his PhD from MIT.

On February 14th join Professor Srinivasan Chandrasekar.

Professor Srinivasan Chandrasekar of Purdue University will speak about Prince Rupert’s Drops: 400- year-old Mystery Revealed. Prince Rupert’s drops, special “glass bubbles”, possessing very striking mechanical properties, have been in existence since before 1625. Forerunners of modern toughened glasses, they exhibit a paradoxical combination of strength and fragility that excited the imagination of natural philosophers of yore. The head of a drop does not break when hammered on an anvil: yet when its tail is broken with mild finger pressure applied, the drop disintegrates explosively into fine powder. We unravel this curious behavior using high speed photography, fractography and stress measurements, thereby providing the solution to a 400-year old conundrum.

Srinivasan Chandrasekar is Professor in the Schools of Industrial Engineering and Materials Engineering at Purdue University. His research and teaching interests are in manufacturing, materials processing, fracture and tribology. His recent contributions all stem from the use of high-speed imaging techniques to characterize material flow and fracture phenomena at high spatial and temporal resolution. “Prince Rupert’s Drops” exemplifies this approach.

Johns Hopkins University Professor Peter Searson

will speak on The blood-brain barrier: what is it and what does it do? The blood-brain barrier is a 600 km network of blood vessels that supplies fuel to the brain while at the same time providing protection from anything in circulation that could compromise normal brain function. We start by describing how the blood-brain barrier performs these functions. We then discuss the role of the blood-brain barrier in health and disease. Finally, we describe how tissue-engineering can be used create models of the blood-brain barrier and how these models can be used to contribute to understanding disease progression and developing strategies for rejuvenation and repair.

Searson received his PhD from the University of Manchester in England in 1982 and was a post-doctoral associate in Ron Latanision’s lab at MIT. Since 1990 he has been at Johns Hopkins University. He was co-founder and director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Nanobiotechnology from 2006 to 2016, and holds appointments in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, the Department of Biomedical Engineering, the Department of Physics and Astronomy, and the Department of Oncology. He is the Joseph R. and Lynne C. Reynolds Professor of Engineering at Hopkins.

On January 10, Professor Ron Ballinger of MIT’s Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering will speak on Restarting Decommissioned Nuclear Power Plants.

Professor Ron Ballinger will discuss how the growing demand for electricity stimulated by EVs and data mining has led, for example, to consideration by Microsoft to restart the decommissioned Three Mile Island nuclear power plant. What are the technical hurdles to doing this and how is the Nuclear Regulatory Commission responding?

Ronald G. Ballinger is a Professor Emeritus of Nuclear Science and Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He served for 8 years in the nuclear navy before attending college. He received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1975, his S.M. in Nuclear Engineering in 1977 and in Materials Science and Engineering in 1978 and his Sc.D. in Nuclear Materials Engineering in 1982 from MIT. After receiving his Sc.D., he joined the faculty at MIT. Ballinger was appointed to the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board by President Joseph Biden on October 25, 2022. He has served on several U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) committees dealing with the stabilization, processing and disposition of metallic uranium fuel from the production reactors as well as from research reactors including teams to evaluate options for the Hanford, Savannah River, and Idaho National Engineering Laboratory sites. He has been, a member of several DOE committees to evaluate advanced reactor options and materials for these options. These committees include: (1) Independent Technical Review Group: Design Features and Technology Uncertainties for the Next Generation Nuclear Plant, (2) Power Conversion Unit Study Committee, and (3) the Idaho National Laboratory Materials Review Board. Professor Ballinger was a member of the Independent Performance Assessment Review Panel that evaluated the total system performance assessment for the license application for the Yucca Mountain waste repository. Professor Ballinger was appointed to the NRC Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards in 2013.