Hampton University was this year’s site for the U.S. Department of Energy’s annual DOE to the People conference.
For Neelam Azad, vice president for research at Hampton, it signifies the university’s strengthening role in the energy sector and draws national visibility to the Peninsula.
“It’s mainly about the students, it gives them hands-on experience,” Azad said. “We are developing diverse leaders, and they can directly impact clean energy, aviation (and) many other fields.”
It’s only the second year the federal department has held the conference. It was created to highlight current projects and initiatives underway at labs and connect faculty and students at tribal colleges, minority-serving institutions and HBCUs with opportunities to get involved.
The day was packed full of talks on topics ranging from cybersecurity and nuclear energy to the equitable revitalization of Detroit, drawing participants from 17 Department of Energy laboratories. It also gave a Hampton aviation student an opportunity to take a flight in an electric plane owned by the Forgotten Heroes Foundation.
“What it gave us was a unique opportunity to see Hampton and its capability in real time,” said Trina Bilal, program manager with the DOE’s Office of Energy Justice and Equity.
“It allowed us to be keenly aware of all of the expertise and the thought leadership that Hampton has on campus, and it opens up our mindset as we’re developing different research opportunities for institutions to plug into.”
HBCUs have a history of being underfunded compared to predominantly white institutions. The trend extends into research and development funding, with HBCUs receiving less than 2% of the more than $44 billion earmarked by federal agencies for that purpose in 2022.
This is a narrative Bilal said she hopes the Department of Energy can begin to change in partnership with universities like Hampton.
“We want to open up our doors to create a contextually relevant environment for these institutions to partake in,” she said. “We really want them to be re-positioned as the anchor, as the economic hubs within our communities, to help build up economic wealth at the end of the day.”
Hampton is no stranger to the Department of Energy. The university has partnerships with Jefferson Lab, a Department of Energy facility, and has research collaborations funded by the department. But Bilal said the opportunities have often been “siloed,” and that the conference presented an opportunity to hear Hampton’s thoughts on new avenues and opportunities for research collaborations.
“We always do so much more with less and … still do a great job with it,” Azad said. “It’s great to realize that there are agencies like DOE and others who are very aware of this and putting their best foot forward to make sure that they can also help us go to the next level.”
