ARPA-E

This week, I have been in our Nation's capitol, attending the ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit, and going to meet some folks at the DOE to discuss our mutual interests.

The conference was at the very posh Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center:


And I thus found myself in the new outlet suburbia development of National Harbor. It's a lovely setting, very picturesque:


But it's also a weird, surreal place. At first, it looks like any other suburban pop-up community. But after a while, I came to realize that although there are thousands of people here, no one lives here! It is a community composed almost entirely of conferences, the hospitality industry, and conference attendees! So there is no grocery store, no coffee shop, no school, no auto mechanic, no gas station, no crime, no children, no dogs, no idle or unscheduled people, no old people, no young people, and no one in jeans or Carhartts. What there are instead are a bunch of people in suits with their noses shoved into mobile computers, and a bunch of people herding them around and feeding them. It is probably the most surreal place I have been in recent memory.

Huge conference:




ARPA-E Deputy Director Cheryl Martin:

My unscientific and unofficial scanning around indicated that this conference was about 1/3-1/4 women.

The DOE booth had a star on Fairbanks:

Of course I had to approach them and ask what it was all about. Did they have a little satellite office in Fairbanks of which I had been unaware? They said, "Ah, yes, our Fairbanks association! We support a professor up there! One David Newman!" So I took the above photo and emailed it to him and informed him that he possessed his very own star on a DOE map. :)