AI Data Centers: A Problem-Solving Approach

Join us in University Park for Join us for an interdisciplinary symposium of engineers, architects, scientists, educators, activists, citizens, and civic leaders in a candid and thought-provoking confrontation of issues surrounding AI and data centers. Network with experts across fields. Breakfast and lunch will be provided; no cost to attend.

"AI Data Centers: A Problem-Solving Approach," is hosted by the Penn State Dickinson Law Center for Excellence in Energy and Environmental Law, and is the inaugural event of the newly launched center. Held in-person at the Lewis Katz Building in University Park on Thursday, November 5, the symposium will also be livestreamed to the Carlisle location of Penn State Dickinson Law.

Please register by October 30.

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Data centers have lately seen their popularity rise quickly and sink even more quickly across the Mid-Atlantic region. Many local communities and even some states have voiced unmistakable hostility to data center construction. Because of their necessity to the AI buildout now unfolding with ramifications at regional, national, and global scales, however, this impasse demands our fullest attention. This interdisciplinary symposium will bring together experts, activists, citizens, and civic leaders to discuss these and other issues surrounding AI and data centers.

For more information, contact Professor Jamison Colburn at jec38@psu.edu.

Symposium Schedule

The symposium will kick off with a complimentary breakfast, followed by introductory remarks by Professor Colburn, two panels in the morning, a networking lunch, and two panels in the afternoon.

8:00 a.m. | Networking Continental Breakfast

9:00 a.m. | Introductory remarks from Professor Colburn

This panel’s focus will be the data center as an emergent challenge to existing communities, the experiences of host communities, growing local resistance to new data centers, and the opportunities design professionals have to resolve them.

Panelists:

Andy Yencha, Extension Educator, Penn State University
Catherine Chen, Steedman Fellow and Visiting Critic, Cornell College of Architecture, Art, and Planning
Wangda Zuo, Professor of Architectural Engineering, Penn State College of Engineering
Jesse LaCavalier, Associate Professor, Cornell College of Architecture, Art, and Planning

10:45 a.m. | Morning Break

This panel will broaden the lens to reach some of the ways that data centers impact communities, labor markets, and the environment regionally.

Panelists:

Zheng Tian, Assistant Research Professor, Department of Agricultural Economics, Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences
Ralph Exton, Executive Director, Water Environment Federation
Michael Hicks, Emeritus Professor, Ball State University
Rachel Housego, Assistant Professor of Geosciences, Penn State College of Earth and Mineral Sciences

12:30 p.m. | Networking Lunch

Experiences to date have hardened some challenges and sharpened their contours, ethically, politically, and legally. This panel will draw out what have become the looming barriers to continued AI and data center development in the United States.

Panelists:

Hannah Wiseman, Professor of Law at Penn State Dickinson Law and Wilson Faculty Fellow, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences; Co-Director of the Penn State Center for Energy Law and Policy
Mike Helbing, Executive Director, Penn State Center for Energy Law & Policy
Andrew Dehoff,. Executive Director, Susquehanna River Basin Commission
Kristen Bowman-Kavanagh, Deputy Executive Director, Delaware River Basin Commission

3:00 p.m. | Afternoon Break

This closing panel will extend the day’s themes into the broadest contexts in which AI and infrastructure impasses have now taken up residence.

Panelists:

Erich W. Schienke, Assistant Teaching Professor, Penn State College of Earth and Mineral Sciences
Amy Stein, Cone, Wagner, Nugent, Hazouri & Roth Professor of Law and UF Research Foundation Professor, University of Florida Levin College of Law
Nilanjan Ray Chaudhuri, Professor of Electrical Engineering, Penn State College of Engineering
Lauren McPhillips, Associate Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Penn State College of Engineering

AI Data Centers: A Problem-Solving Approach

Symposium Schedule

8:00 a.m. | Networking Continental Breakfast

9:00 a.m. | Introductory remarks from Professor Colburn

Panelists:

10:45 a.m. | Morning Break

Panelists:

12:30 p.m. | Networking Lunch

Panelists:

3:00 p.m. | Afternoon Break

Panelists:

4:45 p.m. | Closing Remarks

5:00 p.m. | Event End

Legal Statements