 My name is Arvind Raman. I'm the Dean of Engineering, and it's my honor and privilege to welcome our inspirational leader, President Monk Chiang, to the stage here. Thank you, Dean Raman. I thought you're a mechanical engineer, but now I realize, you know, you indeed truly are. You are already calculating how many people can be there on the bridge, on the bridge of the amazing Armstrong Hall of Engineering. Fifty-five years ago, a border maker named Armstrong, with statues out there, the most popular selfie spot on campus, took a small step and a giant leap, and today it's just announced an hour-and-go in the presence of Senator Young and Director Prabhakar, whom I'll be introducing properly in just a minute, along with Governor and many other visitors from the federal, state, local government, and ambassador that SK Hynex, the world's sixth largest semiconductor company, is now investing four billion dollars to start with in a memory AI chip advanced packaging site here in West Lafayette on Purdue Research Park. Now, what this means is that as students, you get to have even more opportunities right here learning while working, interning, and doing co-op with an amazing company, world's number one provider of AI memory chips. As professors, you have the opportunities to research, collaborate, and jointly create many IPs, not only in memory for AI, but also across a broad range of science, technology, and business fields. And as a border maker said, Easter Sunday afternoon, that he used to be overlooked, but you can't overlook him anymore, while this university in our state can't be overlooked anymore when it comes to AI. Now, it's a distinct pleasure to welcome the leader in the White House for AI and for the implementation of the Bipartisan Chips and Science Act of 2022. Dr. Arati Prabhakar is a long-standing, outstanding leader in federal government, in private practice, and in research herself. And it is only most fitting to have someone who actually wrote a PhD dissertation in the science of semiconductors to lead our nation's effort to revitalize semiconductors and lead in the age of AI. And equally honored I am to welcome to stage in this fireside chat our own senior US senator from the great state of Indiana, Senator Todd Young-Hoo, co-sponsored the Chips and Science Act. In fact, four years ago, right around this time, spring, Senator, you will remember you were starting to champion for the Endless Frontiers Act, using the same phrase that Vannebar Bush started in 1945-46. And we are as a nation at another critical juncture. For national security, economic security, and job security, thank you for your leadership. Senator Young and Director Prabhakar. Welcome to Purdue. Hi, everyone. Hello. Welcome, welcome. Director Prabhakar, Senator Young, it's really an honor and a privilege to have you both with us. And you know, let me just start off by clarifying in case it isn't abundantly clear that we are really good at other things besides basketball and economic development here at Purdue. You know, we are the number one computer science historically program, the first CS granting program started here at Purdue. Today's the largest top-ranked engineering program in the country. The sky, you know, as it comes to space, this is where it all began, the cradle of astronauts, 27 astronauts and counting from Neil Armstrong, in whose name this building is, to Laura Lojara, who's up in space right now, the largest number of astronauts from any civil university in the United States. This is home to Amelia Earhart, to Lillian Gilbreth, and today one of the leading universities in hypersonics and energetics in life sciences, and now today the leading semiconductor university in the United States. So welcome to the Ballermaker community. Thank you. Thanks for having us. It's great to be here. Thanks for being here everyone. Would you like to say a few words? Well, it's an honor to be here with Director Prabhakar and all of you. I am so privileged to have my opportunity to be of service to this institution in some small way to partner with it on this Chips and Science Act initiative to bring semiconductor manufacturing and packaging back to the state of Indiana for maybe some of your future employment opportunities and to bolster our national security in the process. Four years ago, as your president, Meng Cheng, emphasized, I introduced the Analyst Frontier Act and the theory of the case was that the United States of America over the years had come to under-invest, under-invest in research, which historically see the space race has had an amazing payoff for our country. So we propose, Senator Schumer and myself, to double, triple down on our investments in research, not just basic research, but also areas of applied research, learning from our own economic history. And it was fairly apparent early on in that process that we could also use this opportunity at this moment in history to fund the Chips Initiative as well, to strengthen our supply chain, to ensure that the United States of America became less dependent on other countries and their nodes to the supply chain for mission critical semiconductors, which go into things like our weapon systems, our smartphones, and various other devices that are necessary for a modern economy. We got that done with a whole lot of work, but that was only half of the challenge. The other half is to make sure that implementation went well. I have to say, the Biden administration, it won't surprise anyone that I don't agree with them on everything, but on this, they have just done tremendously well. They've been all business. And they have looked at passing out subsidies for semiconductor manufacture on a very objective basis. Indiana and West Lafayette won. You won this opportunity on your merits. We're going to make the most of this opportunity together. And then I see many more positive announcements to come for the state of Indiana to build on this success. I should note, because I don't think the president mentioned it, and he rarely does he miss an opportunity to brag about Purdue, as he should. There's a lot to brag about. But this is the largest economic development announcement in Indiana's history. And as I say, there is more to come. So very excited to be here. Thank you very much for the invitation. Director Prabhakar. This is great. First of all, I just want to say I am delighted to be at Purdue. I have worked with people from Purdue and a lot of my public sector life was at DARPA where I funded projects at Purdue. I've seen amazing things come out of this place. But to actually be here in West Lafayette and be with all of the students is a dream. I love it. I'm so excited to get into this with you all. When I go to college campuses, I love meeting with the engineering and science students, and I've gotten to do it in lots of different places. I've never gotten to do it with a United States senator. So this is awesome. And as you all know, Senator Young is someone who cares passionately about the things that all of us care about, which is how do you use science and technology to make the future a better place, to move the country forward and make the world a better place. And the progress that we've made, I think, is just so important. It was great fun to be able to celebrate the announcement this morning. And to me, what's happening here in Indiana with Purdue and the work that you all are doing is one piece of this idea that the purpose that science and technology plays in our society, in our world, is to make it possible to create a better future and to do the things that change people's lives. That happens when we reinvigorate semiconductor manufacturing for our economy and for national security and the kinds of manufacturing investments that lead to jobs. It happens when we think about the technologies and drive the technologies that matter for national security more broadly, thinking about everything it's going to take to be able to make sure we maintain stability and this changing geopolitics. Science and technology is critical for how we change American health outcomes, which are not acceptable for the richest country in the world. They're vital for how we're going to create opportunity for every single person in this country, the unfinished notion, the unfinished idea of what America is. Science and technology is critical for how we're going to solve the climate crisis. We've made great progress and there's a ton more that we have got to get done. And as we develop these technologies, like these powerful technologies like AI, we've got to figure out how to get them right so that we seize their benefits by managing their risks. That's the agenda for everything that we're working on in science and technology. And for me, it is just a tremendous privilege to get to work for President Biden and to work with leaders like Senator Young and to do the work of the country together in science and tech. I'll just finish my opening here by just, I just want to tell you that I feel I just hit Medicare age, I just hit 65. So for a lot of decades, I've gotten to work on these things that I am so passionate about and it's been such a satisfying life to get to do this work. That journey for me began where your journey is beginning. For me, it began in a public university, Texas Tech University in my case, studying engineering. And I learned a lot about equations, but I'll tell you the single most important thing I learned was the fact that we engineers have agency in the world and we get to work on the things that change the future. And I'm so excited when I look around the room and up on the balcony and to think about what you all are going to do, but know that you can do anything from starting at a place like Purdue. Thanks for having me. Let's get into it. Thank you. All right. We have a bunch of questions by the students. And so here's what we're going to do is I'm going to call upon a few students first. Who had expressed interest in questions. And then we'll open the floor to the other students to ask questions, right? So when you do stand up and ask your questions, my request is, you know, tell the director and the senator something about yourself and then direct your question to either one or both of them. All right, so let's get started here. Catherine Brower. Go for it. Hi, I am an undergrad in biological engineering here and I'm minoring in biotechnology. And I really wanted to hear from the both of you. What were some of the best experiences you had in undergrad that helped you get to this point in your career right now? Both of them. Yes. Well, thank you so much for the question and I have to say I had an unconventional college experience. I attended the U.S. Naval Academy. And raise your hand if you're familiar with Myers-Brigg personality tests. All right, probably just about everyone. Um, I think this will resonate with a lot of folks but that the profile, the typical profile for an entering freshman at the U.S. Naval Academy at the time probably hasn't changed with ESTJ, so extrovert sensing, thinking, judging. I discovered that I was an INFP. So this was a round peg square hole sort of of situation. It was very, very challenging for me. Moreover, I was a recruited athlete. I played soccer and that probably had something you know to my getting in at that year to say nothing. It was probably a week recruiting classes as well. I discovered once I got to the school, I know this will sound naive to all of you scholarly individuals. It's an engineering school. I'm an arts and letters sort of guy by nature. And so it was very challenging to me. So I'm having a difficult time isolating any particular experience but I just say that that experience of mixing with people who see the world entirely differently than I do of being forced just through exposure and challenge to work on my weaknesses really helped make me the person I am. It wasn't always fun but it was an experience of going through that crucible, learning the skills of an extrovert, learning how to think linearly and with some measure of scientific discipline about problems and that experience informs a lot of the work I do today. Moreover, to build on something Director Prabhakar said it's really important. I learned how you can take those engineering and math discipline science and solve the world's problems. That seems so obvious to all of you. It's not obvious to everyone else. It inspired me and it led me in some way with great intentionality to working on this legislative effort called the Chips in Science Act. So I just want to encourage all of you to you know whether it's semiconductors or another field take the baton and run with it. You can change the world and dare I say with all the challenges you had a presentation of climate before this as I understand it we all have some measure of responsibility to use the skills and opportunities we have to change the world in a positive way. So that's it. That's it. Going through the crucible at Annapolis was my experience. I really touched on the thing that I found formative when I was an undergraduate at Texas Tech. The department chair when I was there was Professor Russell Seacat. I still remember him and he would tell every entering class about what the role of an engineer was in society and in the world and in a company that you know he thought each of us is going to go off into. And he explained that everyone else had really important roles but that there was this special thing about making something happen that had not been possible before that that's what engineers could do and that's how we created value in the world. And you know I went from Texas Tech to Caltech for graduate school and even though they both end in tech the cultures could not have been more different. Caltech is a place that you know its highest value is is pure physics right and so it's like a very physics oriented culture very sciencey culture and just understanding new physics for its own sake was what people ran to work for every morning and I was like that's interesting. I don't I don't really quite get that because like don't you want to use that and change the world and so that culture I mean I learned a lot of really important things at Caltech and everywhere else but that culture of the point is to make the future better than the past actually stems all the way back to that that engineering notion. That's great we'll move on to the next question Anushka would you like to ask a question? Space is most definitely oh I apologize I neglected to introduce myself I'll fix that now I'm Anushka Sharma I'm a junior studying aerospace engineering I'm also a member of the John Martinson Honors College so space is most definitely on my mind in orbit and also a grand challenge of the 21st century as we begin to develop new technology can you share a little on how you hope we will evolve in space and its applications specifically focusing on the convergence between space as a measure of defense that is protecting critical US assets we have commercial interests and also scientific exploration for the pursuit of pure knowledge in addition could you share a little bit more about space policy what that overarching space policy looks like and how it's going to reinvent the way that Americans think about space Dr. Prabhakar and Senator Young both your thoughts would be most appreciated thank you I'll start first of all I think you answered your own question because that's what's going down right now on orbit the Soviet Union got to orbit first with Sputnik and it it shook us we got going and then for decades we got to do whatever we wanted on orbit it was you know a few other countries were up there but we had it all to ourselves and that is not space today it is a real-time dynamic environment with intense geopolitical competition going on commercial activity going on we rely on it for GPS and so many other and communications it's really a very different environment and that trend is only going to continue and so I think the issues that you're highlighting are critical it is more and more valuable and more and more complex all the time and that's why it's an important area of focus I just want to use this occasion to tell you all about the coolest memo I think I have ever gotten in my life which was it's actually a memo I got to sign and that was a memo that directed the NASA to establish timekeeping around celestial bodies other than planet earth and as the memo explains the reason that this is necessary is that both special and general relativity will be required to make sure that we keep time accurately and around other celestial bodies so in addition to everything else space is just darn cool oh my goodness there's such a fantastic question and I know what my team is thinking I've got members of my staff over there they're thinking what is the senator going to do with this smart question right and I'll have you know that I read half of a book on space policy blessedly on the way back from Vietnam the other day so I can answer this the book is something like it's like the new geography you know look it up um and and the whole premise of the book is is that space is kind of like Antarctica in the sense that you know it's a shared domain right now and it may it may conceivably be up for grabs in the future for economic reasons and geopolitical reasons and so the challenge is do we continue as as things are and have been in which uh we we allow it to be a shared domain under past rules or do we sort of stare in the face the the reality that there's going to be a scramble there's going to be a scramble for positioning on the moon to scoop up rocks rare earth minerals there's even a new mineral they found on the moon not too long ago you probably all know that um do we position ourselves with an increasingly cluttered atmosphere to ensure that we have various spaces of the sky for our satellites I think in reality there is going to be a bit you know there will be an effort to stake some claims in the sky and on the moon and beyond but wherever possible and this is an area for cooperation with every country on the earth I hope wherever possible we need to find agreements rules of the road if we can to share the domain of space so that we can all benefit from from the many you know uh blessings associated with its occupation you know worst-case scenario it can become a place where humanity could could locate itself uh at some point in the distant future I don't want to alarm everyone uh in the near term it can be a source for critical minerals and and metals and other materials uh and it all of of course is is going to be uh continue to be a domain in which we can communicate with one another through satellites and and enjoy the benefits of modern technology we don't there's an outer space treaty the United States is not signatory to that we have the Artemis to uh accord so this you're going to some of you who are captivated by space and think that you might see a diplomat in the mirror uh there will be a role for space diplomats I think in the future and there are already ongoing conversations between uh many countries and I know director Prabhakar her office and is is involved in in some of these conversations with our state department so we need people thinking about these critical issues thanks for the question that's great uh let me call uh Shawna Anika hi I'm Anika and I'm a fourth year chemical engineering student here and I want to work in semiconductor and chip manufacturing in the future and I spoke with Shawna before about asking this question um so I was wondering how do you currently see the aspect of sustainability in the semiconductor industry and how do you see this aspect as well as governmental support for this aspect developing in the next five to ten years we've been way further in the future if you have thoughts on that um in terms of the whole life cycle of semiconductors including more sustainable sourcing of materials um using less energy to process the semiconductors as well as recycling these answers come with these questions come with their answers baked right in it's these are a packaged deal I'm going to jump in because this is something we've been thinking in a lot about and working on you know my home's Palo Alto um when I'm not doing my job in Washington and when I when I'm driving down the main drag I drive by superfund sites that used to be where semiconductor manufacturing happened that doesn't happen anymore because the industry has made an enormous amount of progress and yet we know we're not done because the materials that go into building these semiconductors and then these complex package systems afterwards and the processing to build them both involve materials that we know have environmental and safety and health issues and so that's a continuing challenge for the industry and this is an industry that that what they're doing is so incredibly complex already if you think about the the mechanical the thermal the electrical properties of the materials and the fact that they have to be patterned to these extraordinary dimensions all of that is super hard and then there are all of these issues about sustainability on top of that so what you're outlining is a is a key challenge it's going to take materials scientists and chemical engineers um and and I think that there will be ways forward one of we've talked a lot about AI in the course of the conversations today one of the areas where AI offers tremendous potential is to is to vastly expand the the space in which we can explore for new materials and new and new chemicals and new chemistries and and if we can couple that with much more rapid experimentation so that we can go from opening the universe of possibilities to getting to real answers that really work in practical situations that that's where I think that that's where I think technology offers tremendous potential for what is a scary hard problem today part of the chips act once when when congress defined it they invite they defined manufacturing incentives and tax credits for now but they also put a significant investment in chips r and d because we knew we had a lot more inventing that had to happen for the future and this is an example of one of the areas that I know the commerce department and the nonprofit that's working with it on chips r and d is focused on I don't know that I can significantly improve on that answer so I would just highlight a narrow area but a very important area of sustainability which is the energy that will increasingly be required electricity in particular to run the various chips including those that will be packaged here in the West Lafayette area this is an engineering challenge it's an engineering challenge in the sense that there are folks at Purdue and and other places around the world who are trying to seek innovations software innovations as well as hardware innovations to ensure that less energy is used but there's a certain reality that we're likely to encounter which is we're going to need more electric power and we need to come up with efficiencies to generate it there's a iterative innovation occasionally a breakthrough innovation occurring on the electric power generation front modular nuclear isn't ready for immediate adoption but I hope that earns a significant consideration by policymakers in coming years that's great Aaron Tyler and Catherine you guys had a question too thank you so my name is Aaron and this is Tyler we're both undergraduates in aerospace engineering and our question to the both of you was relating specifically to AI with the use of AI becoming more prevalent how can we both protect our information from cyber security threats and verify the validity of AI generated information for solving complex questions in both research and industry and I'm interested in understanding what policies and measures you're planning on putting in place to support these research institutions in the ethical use of AI and effective use as well I'll start she'll correct me or certainly make conditions well for starters congress needs to provide clarity to our policy atmosphere as it relates to data security who owns your data and and every geography in the country so we need a national data standard to the extent we can clarify that that makes it easier for developers and users alike to accommodate whatever the law is and then we have a sense of what is there for the taking what isn't there for the taking and and that's on congress and hopefully in coming months or years we'll finally get that done the other question you had I think related to I'll give you ethical use oh that was the hard part that I wasn't going to answer okay all right well I don't just turn it's it's already gotten hard for me so we'll turn to director crab but I will say in in the next couple of weeks and probably no more than that you'll see a white paper document being produced by myself senator schumer senator Heinrich senator round so the four of us in a bipartisan way have convened a number of what we're calling AI insight forums so that members of the united states senate have a better sense of some of the challenges and opportunities of AI but that can only and and and and we want to make sure the united states leads the way by my reckoning right now and the development of AI technologies we want to make sure that we stay in the lead but perhaps the thing that would most undermine that is failure to act legislatively on the policy front because then if risks occur associated with using AI technologies policymakers have a habit of doing intemperate things that constrain innovation so we're trying to come up with what you might call a regulatory sandbox we've collected all kinds of information through these insight forums our lessons learn will be published in the next couple of weeks in this roadmap and in that roadmap we will identify what our future policy outlook looks like and then we ask our members of the senate to act we'll address things like explainability transparency safe use ethical use of AI workforce challenges and opportunities and and so your question is both timely and really important and obviously linked to the semiconductor announcement today I got to participate in one of those AI insight forums that the senators put together and I just want to say how great that conversation was and it was amazing to have I think you had more than half the senators in the room and people were listening engaged asking great questions I think it's a great sign because we absolutely need legislative action my personal story is that I came into my job in October of 2022 anyone who was paying attention would know that chat GPT came out into the world in November of 2022 so guess what I spent 2023 doing I felt like my schedule got hijacked by AI but in the most constructive possible way look AI I think this crowd really knows that AI was already in our lives in so many different ways that it had seeped in and then all of a sudden when it became chat bots and image generators everyone understood that there was a big deal happening with AI and when that really sees the public imagination President Biden and Vice President Harris were very clear that this was a priority it was an urgent priority and they said look this is the most consequential technology of our times because of its enormous breadth and we know what happens with consequential technologies good things happen and evil things happen and so our job is to make sure we manage the risks so that we can use it for all of the things that we know it's going to be powerful for and necessary for and that that's that's what set us off on our journey last year the work that we were able to get done from from the executive branch just to be because we can move out first we got voluntary commitments from AI companies that's to try to help point to the right direction for AI and then very significantly the President signed a broad comprehensive executive order on AI in October and of course an executive order says we get it Congress you have to make the new laws but under existing law the President had tasked us to go find everything that we could be doing under existing law that he could he could direct through an executive order and that's what that it's about a hundred page executive order so why is it so broad and why is this so hard well you all know better than anyone that AI is simply computing systems that are trained on data of all different sorts and then used to make statistical predictions about things and here we are in the information age and that means there are an infinite variety of data sources back to your data question and that really is why AI is so broadly powerful and why its implications are so immense and so when people talk about the ethical issues of AI it can be about how do you make sure it's safe it can be is it embedding and exacerbating bias and discrimination is it revealing private information is it going to hollow out jobs or can we put it on a path so that it allows people to do more and earn more which is really where we want to go so there are a whole host of issues the work we've done in the administration has got got us on the right path and I think has been important for global leadership the United Nations just passed a resolution that we sponsored with I think we got 122 co-sponsors which is remarkable that just says we've got to get AI right it just gets the basic principles in place but that's you know that's part of what American leadership looks like right it's having great AI companies and helping the world get on the right path so I think a lot's been done we need we need more and I'm really glad to see Congress on it I just want to finish by saying I think something that's really important for all of us as people in engineering and sciences your question about ethics is key because that is how we're going to make sure we get the benefits and tamp down the risks we have to be deliberate about that and the the choices that society makes about how to use a powerful technology like this we're not going to just make it up in engineering right like it's going to take all of society doing that but we actually have a special responsibility because we see what this technology does we're the ones that are we have our hands on it and we see what it's going to be good for and how it could be used or misused and so I think it's I'm so glad to hear your focus on that and I would encourage people to just you know keep that as an integral part of what you think about whether it's AI or any other important technology you're working on I just to underscore how important it was that Arati and her team put put out those executive orders it provided some measure of of guidance for the development community for users for businesses and really to the rest of the world about what we're going to prioritize we want to make sure that is as these developers continue to develop technologies that those AI technologies satisfy our values they're consistent with our values around things like privacy and consumer protection and civil rights not and I'll be undiplomatic here not the values of the Chinese Communist Party we want enlightenment values the values on which the Declaration of Independence were established to inform development of these technologies and how do you do that make sure that the United States of America stays a step ahead of those who don't share our values and developing the technologies and then we harmonize across geographies our laws and regulations with those of our friends and then if someone who doesn't share our values wants to sell into the largest market in the world well they they better develop those AI technologies consistent with the standards that we have already established that's really what's at stake here it's not just you know technical jargon that's it's a it's our very way of life and so all of you that enter this field or related fields will be part of that larger mission to make sure that the United States leads the way this is our space race we're in the middle of another space race maybe literally in space fueled by AI technologies but also figuratively it's it's a competition between systems and we have to win matthew hi i'm matthew i'm a undergrad in aerospace engineering and my question was given the time and money that research and development takes do you see congress and or the batten administration increasing the budget of scientific programs like nasa darpa and the national science foundation in the future to increase research and development pace in america well we authorized a significant increase the most significant increase in generations through the chips and science act it'll be an increase in funding for darpa which has received additional appropriation so it's actual money not just authorized under the law the national science foundation which has not received the actual money that we need to appropriate and i'm advocating for more again based on the value proposition we've seen over the years there's a lot of bang for the buck department of energy labs a very important research occurs through those as well so if i had my druthers even amidst this time of sort of fiscal scarcity when there's great scrutiny appropriately on the federal budget there are still certain investments that lead to a larger pie a larger economy and that helps drive our our prosperity our way of life our national defense it also brings in more revenue for the federal government so we've got to be very careful not to starve ourselves of the seed corn that will pay dividends later and president biden has just been clear from day one that r&d and the federal role in r&d is vitally important that it's you know the president loves to talk about america being defined in a single word and that word is possibilities and when he looks at me as his science and tech advisor he what i see him saying to me is you guys have to deliver on possibilities so he understands that this is what this community does and that's why it's been a high priority it's why he was one of such such an enthusiastic backer and did a lot of work with congress on ships and science um and that so i think some there's some very important stakes on the ground and we have a lot of work to do to convert that into actual funding because we have not hit the benchmarks because of the budget pressures and i think that's i think we're all very disappointed in what's just happened recently and i know we've got a lot more work to do there to meet this commitment that we're all clear about so much of the research and development in this country occurs through private companies so i'd be remiss if i didn't emphasize this as someone who's carried a tax bill through congress advocating for extension of our r&d incentives we need to keep incentivizing the Eli lilies of the world the Cummins of the world to and and unknown startups uh uh around the united states to invest in r&d to invest in r&d intensive business models because every other country is doing so if if one invests a hundred dollars in china and and r&d you get two hundred dollars two hundred dollars worth of credit on your taxes in china in the united states you invest a hundred dollars it's not quite zero it's it's now ten dollars because our previous r&d provisions have expired so that's just that's no way to incentivize the gazelles of the future to start up and to be sustainable over the proverbial valley of death so that's another policy instrument we need to bring to bear and i want to say something really exciting that i just that just came out the statistics just came out the latest statistics on where countries are on spending on r&d and there's actually really good news a few years ago everyone was prepared for china to to run past the us because they had been growing their r&d spending so aggressively the most recent numbers actually show that we are still in the lead uh the united states this is public and private spent eight hundred billion dollars in the most recent accounting and china is the prc total is like six hundred and seventy billion or something like that so that's remarkable but very much to your point that huge surge in american r&d that big growth has been driven by private industry we absolutely want that when we talk about these huge advances in ai that's an example of why that is possible and we have to understand that the seed corn and the foundation for all of that is the closer to the two hundred billion that the federal government puts in it's not the most massive part but if you don't have that eventually you don't have the rest and so it's we have to keep our eye on all parts great we're nearing time but i know mariana has a question for you uh director provacar so maybe if we can roll that up to concluding remarks also from your side and then over to your senator hi yes my name is mariana artang i'm an undergrad for aerospace engineering with a minor in nuclear engineering you occupy a very prominent role of leadership um for the scientific community as specifically a woman in science and i was wondering how your role as a woman in the scientific community has affected both your career and your repeated achievements as a leader both in darpa and nist and if you have any um advice for future women in stem um as they navigate their career well i see a lot of amazing women in stem right here in this room and i have to say it's so exciting to come into a room like this and see all the different faces and all the different backgrounds and i think it represents enormous progress when when i was an undergraduate at texas tech this is ancient history i know but when i was an undergraduate i was in the first class that had two women in it never was like wow there are two women right so we've made a lot of progress there's still more room to go and but i think you know at the end of the day here's what matters for women in stem but here's what matters for anyone and what what it is you're trying to do the way you're going to make a contribution of the world is the same for everybody right it's like in the works you're doing now or the first jobs that you have as you all go out into the world go find something and go do something useful make something good happen and be a good colleague while you're doing that be constructive and be good to people and amazing things happen if you just do those two things do something useful and be good to people that's all it's all about but i you know i think um this country represents the idea that every person gets a shot and we've the president loves to say that we've never fully achieved that we've never lived up to it fully but we've never walked away from it and that's that's the uncompleted american journey and let's just keep at it because it's um holy worthwhile thanks for having me and and and thank you so much for having me i guess you know the only thing i would add uh is a parting comment here is listen all of you by definition uh because you attend per due university because you are affiliated with this amazing world-class institution which uh day by day seemingly improves its profile uh you you will be regarded as leaders leaders at work leaders in your community and leverage that not just to the benefit of consumers which is very important but also to the betterment of of your community your state your nation and beyond find ways in which you can apply your unique skills given to you by god cultivated and improved here at per due and and solve some problems out there because that's what that's what engineers do that's what stem folks do uh is is you know how to solve problems bring to bear your unique talents on on problems in the world it will enrich your own lives while enriching others thank you good luck please have me back god bless well um so we're going to take a photo shoot of director provacar and senator young with all of you we're going to try and position them here and maybe take the photo from here but while we do that please join me in a big round of applause for the director and the senator