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More about Friends of Volpe

Review the Conversation Sessions and Forums

Purpose

Our purpose is to call again on a select group of distinguished leaders in various fields to independently review the current and evolving role of the Federal Government in transportation research and innovation and to examine the changing context for the Volpe Center. The insight and suggestions will assist the Volpe Center as it readies itself and its clients for the 21st century. These sessions bring together technical-area experts and Friends of Volpe in a series of informal conversations that will culminate in subsequent day-long forums examining the resultant implications for/on the future of the Volpe Center. Each session will have Friends of Volpe in attendance as well as technical area experts. Each session will be attended and summarized by Volpe Center staff. These sessions will:

  1. Provide an ongoing flow of new ideas and knowledge essential for Volpe Center strategic direction and program development.
  2. Enhance the Volpe Center presence within the transportation community.
  3. Provide increased opportunities for the Center to reach out to all members of the transportation community.

Focus: The conversations will be focused on three cluster themes: work force/education, technology scanning/forecasting, and research/innovation policy. TEA-21 and other reauthorization actions in air and marine systems will be included as they relate in each of the clusters. A segment of each of the conversations will focus on Volpe business processes.

Each conversation will be built around a specific topic within one of the three major themes. The findings from these informal sessions will result in day-long forums tying together the overall conclusions of the sessions for the future of the Center. The initial conversation session took place in February, and the series will continue through the fall. The first forum resulting from these conversations will be held in late September.

Participants: Each conversation session will last four hours and bring together up to five "Friends of Volpe," augmented by 1-2 outside technical experts (e.g., from academia, industry, government). Each session will address a set of questions posed by the Volpe Center Director who will facilitate and focus the discussion. The Forums will include those Friends of Volpe who participated in the sessions as well as additional guests.

Work Force/Education Cluster

This topic explores several of the major themes in learning that face the transportation community in general and the Volpe Center in particular. This cluster builds upon information presented at the Spirit of Innovation in Transportation Conference and at the ONE DOT Meeting held at the Volpe Center on February 1, 2000 on Transportation Learning Needs.

Technology Scanning/Forecasting Cluster

This topic explores aspects of identifying, understanding and assessing emerging technologies potentially relevant to transportation. This "technology scanning' process is important to the Center for carrying out its current work, preparing for future work, and acting as a catalyst for innovation and as an "early warning system" for the Department and the transportation enterprise.

Innovation and Research Policy Cluster

This topic explores emerging concepts of the innovation process and the role of research in fostering and stimulating a climate for innovation in the transportation sector. The conversations will focus on the shaping and integration of federal research programs that will have maximum impact on establishing the climate for innovations essential to achievement of national transportation goals. Specifically, attention will be on how best to design and exploit results of R&D; efforts directed toward advances in safety and physical and information security innovations to the overall transportation system.

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