PAST PROGRAMS
The Howard Baker Forum was established in Washington, D.C. to provide a platform for examining specific, immediate, critical issues affecting the nation’s progress at home and its relations abroad. Under Senator Baker’s leadership, the Forum organizes a variety of programs and research projects to examine and illuminate public policy challenges facing the nation today.
The Cuba Consortium was an assembly of companies, non-profit organizations, investors, academics, and entrepreneurs organized to track and examine the normalization process in both countries and to inform and prepare its members for opportunities to engage Cuba. They were complemented by foreign policy, political, economic, international development, legal, and cultural experts who have specialized knowledge of the diplomacy, politics, and economics of the normalization process.
Autonomous Vehicles (AV) introduced dramatic changes in American life–in its economy and its society. Transportation systems, urban planning and infrastructure, citizen safety, data privacy, cyber-security, and the industrial base were all affected. The pending arrival of AV challenges many of our nation’s basic working arrangements, laws, and societal relationships. It rose a plethora of ethical and legal issues and challenge governments’ ability to anticipate, adapt, and govern.
The truly disruptive transformation to driverless vehicles was outrunning our national and state governments capacity to timely and adequately legislate and regulate. The AV Start Act, which unanimously cleared the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation in October of 2017, was the first piece of AV legislation introduced to allow for more testing, deregulation, and federal preemption on AV design, construction, and performance.
Purdue Discovery Park and The Howard Baker Forum hosted an expert roundtable on Capitol Hill on January 25, 2018 examining the legal, ethical, and societal issues facing autonomous vehicles. Thought leaders from the private sector, academia, trade associations, and government took stock of the industry and discussed the legal, ethical, social, and legislative implications of a driverless future.
The cyber salon dinners were hosted both locally and abroad and worked to explore the challenges presented by a rapidly evolving international digital landscape. The Howard Baker Forum partnered with leading institutions such as the Atlantic Council and the Aspen Institute to host and sponsor events in conjunction with major international conferences such as the Munich Security Conference, the International Conference on Cyber Engagement, and the Berlin Cyber Security Forum.
The Howard Baker Forum and the Atlantic Council hosted two working group sessions that focused on the status of civil nuclear cooperation between the United States and Japan, as well as opportunities for nuclear innovation.
The Howard Baker Forum program, A National Roadmap on Advancing Energy Technologies, was established to produce an actionable, national roadmap for advancing energy technologies through the application of high performance computing (HPC) modeling and simulation. Startups, particularly small and medium-size businesses, did not take full advantage of these unique national assets. High performance computing provides an edge to American entrepreneurs and companies and hasten implementation of crucial new technologies by substantially reducing development time and cost. The U.S. national laboratory system provided expertise and capabilities at a level found few places in the world.
The Conference on Bipartisan Energy Policy was organized to develop a systems approach to national policy-making that would apply the nation’s best science-based decision-making tools to the evaluation of policy options. A group of leading universities and national laboratories worked with the Howard Baker Forum to investigate and analyze how we could improve the way energy policy is made.
Launched in February 2013, HPC4Energy.org widely disseminated information about the power of high performance computing (HPC) to improve American competitiveness in the global marketplace.
HPC4Energy.org served as a clearinghouse and one-stop shop for businesses engaged in developing energy technologies and interested in leveraging HPC and the expertise at the national laboratories to advance the commercialization of new products.
The website featured success stories, articles by leaders in energy technology, and facilitated partnerships between American companies and national laboratories. The site’s mission was to bring business leaders, research institutions, and computing professionals to discover the impact of high-performance computing on American entrepreneurship and innovation.
On March 5, 2012, The Howard Baker Forum and LLNL took the ideas of A National Summit on Advancing Clean Energy Technologies: Entrepreneurship and Innovation Through High Performance Computing on the road to Fargo, North Dakota. Senator John Hoeven and North Dakota State University hosted the first regional National Roadmap event featuring experts from academia, the national laboratories, state regulatory officials, federal energy regulatory officials, and private sector representatives. Senator John Hoeven, with representatives from sponsoring organizations and industry, held a press conference on-site to discuss energy challenges and opportunities. Following the press conference Senator Hoeven delivered a keynote address.
A National Summit on Advancing Clean Energy Technology
On May 16 and 17, 2011, the National Summit mobilized the extraordinary talent and insights of energy technologists and computational experts with the knowledge and experience of industry executives and public officials. During the event, speakers and panelists discussed the practical pathways necessary to improve America’s pursuit of energy and environmental security, economic growth and competitiveness, and the creation of next generation high-tech jobs. This informative exchange of ideas served as the foundation for a National High Performance Computing Roadmap.
The Howard Baker Forum focuses on critical issues facing the nation and, in the leadership tradition of Senator Howard Baker, seeks practical and bipartisan solutions in the national interest. Shale gas and liquids were potential game-changers for American political, economic, and energy security. The Howard Baker Forum actively worked toward a national consensus. With its technology partner, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the Howard Baker forum looked to address the contested issues surrounding this important natural resource.
The two institutions worked together to broaden the national dialogue on shale energy by inviting a wide array of stakeholders to join the process of consensus building and national policymaking. The American Shale Consortium was established to institutionalize these efforts and bring together diverse stakeholders interested in practical, near-term solutions.