Panch is a distinguished scientist, university administrator, and former director of the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). Never far from academia, he is currently University Professor of Technology and Innovation and Foundation Chair in Computing and Augmented Intelligence at Arizona State University. Panch is also a proud uOttawa alum with a PhD and an honorary doctorate (PhD Engineering ’89, DUniv. ’24).
Many people who contributed to Panch’s education journey were in the room for his lecture. Specifically, Panch thanked professor Morris Goldberg, his doctoral advisor, for instilling in him fundamental values like the need for scientific independence, the importance of interdisciplinary thinking, and the role of collaboration in solving global problems.
Democratizing talent and ideas
These uOttawa-nurtured values emerged in his lecture. Throughout the evening, he spoke about the power of science and innovation as key to unlocking global development—with the caveat that this will only happen when learning opportunities and new technologies are available to all.
Adept at weaving in experiences from his career, Panch shared the story of David Hayden, a visually impaired student who worked in his machine learning research lab at Arizona State University. As a freshman, David struggled to see the lecture slides and was concerned about falling behind in class.
Panch encouraged David to tackle this obstacle head on. Over the coming months, David built an assistive technology device to optically zoom in on lectures, capturing freeze frames to pair with his notes. He prototyped the device with visually impaired peers and collaborated with design students to refine the interface. David’s tool was so effective that his sighted counterparts wanted to use it for their notetaking! With pride in the telling of this story, Panch shared that David went on to win a global technology competition hosted by Microsoft and is now a leading actor in the field of Artificial Intelligence.
David’s story, Panch said, “demonstrates the impact of enabling environments that support people with great ideas—especially those who may face barriers in making those ideas a reality.”
Delivering innovation through the National Science Foundation
Bringing this “opportunities for everyone, everywhere” mindset to the NSF in 2020, Panch spearheaded the creation of the Technology Innovation Partnerships Directorate. This new branch of the NSF, the first new initiative in decades, focused on launching innovation centres across the United States to make funding opportunities more accessible to a range of institutions.
The centres focus on bringing together public-private partnership to support innovative ideas that address challenges faced by specific localities. One such innovation centre in Reno, Nevada, brought together university and industry expertise to evolve the state’s lithium mining ecosystem. Thanks to the project, the entire life cycle of lithium extraction and processing now takes place in Nevada versus overseas—keeping jobs and prosperity local.
Another of Panch’s flagship NSF initiatives was the Global Centers program, where researchers from around the world team up to solve global challenges. With Panch at the helm, the NSF’s leadership and initial investment secured funds from countries like Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom. The program launched seven climate and clean energy centres, before moving forward to focus on biomanufacturing and biotechnology innovations.
“Science is global, and our grand challenges require scientists combine their efforts to find solutions which then enrich local problems in the most effective manner,” said Panch of the Global Centers’ impact.
Science at a crossroads
Panch acknowledged the current challenges in the scientific environment where its value and efficacy are being increasingly questioned. In his opinion, this can be attributed to a lack of understanding and public awareness of the impact that science brings to our everyday lives.
“If you take your phone, there are tens of thousands of NSF projects inside,” he offered as an example. “But when you ask the average person handling the phone, they do not have that appreciation because we did not do a good enough job communicating the impact of that science.”
Panch issued a challenge to everyone in in the room to promote the advancement of science by explaining its value. “Science is an investment, it is not a spend,” he said. “This distinction has to be understood.”
Universities can also play a role in countering this misunderstanding by being proactive in demonstrating the importance and impact of science to humanity and society. He suggested supporting projects with experts from multiple disciplines, as well as those that partner with industry and policymakers. He added that welcoming many schools of thought and being transparent throughout the entire process will increase the likelihood that an innovation is adopted instead of overlooked.
The rise of AI
Panch also touched on the rise of AI and how it is making innovation possible at never-before-seen speeds and scales. He addressed the need to balance rapid progress while protecting human values and well-being. “Challenges should be taken in stride,” he said. “After all, no progress has been made without tackling a suite of problems.”
He added that AI fluency as a skillset is important, but just as vital is that young people to cultivate mindsets of curiosity, entrepreneurialism, and global awareness. “Take on challenges, sign up for hackathons, and be part of a team committed to solving whatever size problem it is,” he suggested. “You don’t have to be an entrepreneur to be entrepreneurially minded.”
The spirit we need in this moment
With a focus on leaving no one behind, learning mindsets, and pursuing the global good, Panch’s lecture was an inspiring call to action for the uOttawa community. In his closing remarks he invoked the example of the late Alex Trebek: “[Alex] stood for excellence. He cared about people. He lifted people up. We need to embody this spirit, and I know that Canada and Ottawa have a huge role to play.”
About the Alex Trebek Distinguished Lecture Series
This annual lecture series was made possible through the generosity of Alex and Jean Trebek who wanted to create a legacy of engagement on critical topics and provide an opportunity for students, alumni and residents of the National Capital Region to hear from renowned speakers on big ideas.