Department Spotlight: The Department of Energy

The mission of the Department of Energy (DOE) is "to ensure America's security and prosperity by addressing its energy, environmental, and nuclear challenges through transformative science and technology solutions." Technology plays a huge role in both the research surrounding and protection of energy resources.

The DOE may lead the government in their use of supercomputer technology. In fact, supercomputering is one of the key focus areas in the agency's budget. This spring the DOE issued a contract that will allow them to build the world's most powerful computer with a performance greater than 1.5 exaflops. Supercomputers, like the one being built, provide researchers with the needed speed and scale to conduct scientific modeling and simulations as well as utilize AI and analytics for activities as diverse as manufacturing and public health.

Of course, the security of the data running through these supercomputers, as well as the national power grid itself is of paramount focus for the DOE. To support these growing needs, the DOE is looking to blockchain as a way to secure energy delivery and more.

We've pulled together a list of upcoming events that will help the DOE, as well as the companies that serve it, better understand the technologies that can ensure our energy supply remains secure and efficient.

• Energy Exchange 2019 (August 19-22, 2019; Denver, CO) - This event is the largest annual training and trade show event for the Department of Energy. Over three days, attendees can attend over 100 CEU qualified training sessions. Other event activities include plenary panels with some of the most influential people in the federal government energy management sector, and an interactive trade show, showcasing the latest technology and solutions for energy management, conservation, and resiliency.
• 9^th Annual NGLs Conference (September 10-11, 2019; Houston, TX) - This conference will examine growth and evolution in the natural gas markets, tackling the critical questions facing the NGLs market in 2019 as well as examining supply/demand, infrastructure capabilities, and fluctuating influence from the petrochemical industry.
• Detect '19 (September 29-October 2, 2019; National Harbor, MD) -- Detect '19 offers sessions targeted at identifying the most effective way to manage threat intelligence data to mitigate the growing number of threats against technology systems and critical infrastructure.
• Berkeley Lab - 8th Annual LabTech Symposium (October 23, 2019; Berkeley, CA) - This event is created by, and for, lab staff. It focuses on computing and technology for science and operations and appeals to the Lab's scientists, technologists, and support staff. The symposium includes a look at tools for data management that can be immediately implemented in lab environments.
• Blockchain Expo North America (November 13-14, 2019; Denver, CO) - The conference agenda will present a series of expert keynotes, interactive panel discussions, and solution-based case studies. All will explore the key industries that are set to be disrupted the most by this new technology, including legal sectors, retail, financial services, healthcare, insurance, energy, music, government, real estate and more.
• SC19 (November 17-22, 2019; Denver, CO) - This technical program is designed for professionals and students in the high-performance computing (HPC) community. The program is designed to share best practices in areas such as algorithms; applications; architectures and networks; clouds and distributed computing; data analytics, visualization, and storage; machine learning and HPC; performance; programming systems; system software; and state of the practice in large-scale deployment and integration.

Let us know other suggestions for training and development for those in the energy field. Share your thoughts in the comments.