It’s a weekday in the middle of summer, so you might assume that GW’s Science and Engineering Hall (SEH) would be particularly quiet, but it’s actually bustling with activity, with faculty, students, and staff hosting conferences and professional development programs, conducting cutting-edge research, and fulfilling all of the critical functions that power our campus community.
As a state-of-the-art, LEED-certified building in the heart of the nation’s capital, the SEH is an ideal venue for a wide range of interdisciplinary convenings. The light-filled building offers plenty of open commons spaces, lined with glass walls, designed to be written on and covered with equations, lines of computer code, or simple lists of processes and tasks. The atrium on the B1 level of the building offers a vibrant display of its living green wall, one of the building’s three.
The SEH’s ideal location and features were part of Computer Science Professor Rebecca Hwa’s decision to host the AI in Cybersecurity Education Faculty Development Summer Institute 2026 in the building.
“GW in particular, being close to the National Science Foundation (NSF) in DC, is in a great location. The SEH is a really nice facility because we have classrooms, gathering spaces, an auditorium, and a green wall for events. We used almost all of the spaces, since this program involved both classroom and lecture time. I think that worked out pretty well,” Hwa said.
“NSF is keenly interested in improving AI outreach and faculty development, so we were connected with the University of Hawaii to build a vehicle to do that,” Hwa began. “GW has strong AI and cybersecurity groups, and our faculty make a strong team, so it was a natural fit for us to host the institute and collaborate with the University of Hawaii on the programming,” Hwa explained.
Twenty-five faculty members from institutions across the country participated in the institute, representing a wide range of backgrounds and teaching environments.
“Everything went well, and everyone seemed to enjoy and learn from one another. Many of the participants came with the mentality of wanting to network with other educators, and were able to take advantage of the opportunities we provided them during the institute,” Hwa shared.
Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Professor John Helveston found himself in a similar leadership position this summer as the chair of the 2026 Industry Studies Association (ISA) Conference, the premier forum for sharing industry studies research with fellow scholars, industry leaders, and policymakers.
“In academia, we’re usually divided by our fields, but we are all involved in cross-disciplinary industries. We almost never go to conferences where we talk to people outside of our field. This is a conference where we can meet people from all kinds of backgrounds, while all collaborating to understand and innovate in industry,” Prof. Helveston explained.
Helveston has attended the conference since he was a doctoral student, and won the dissertation award when he defended his dissertation. The last time the conference was hosted in Washington, D.C., was in 2017, and there was growing interest among attendees in its return to the city.
“D.C. is a logical choice for a lot of reasons, since policy is one of the foremost factors impacting these industries,” Helveston started. “I hosted the first day of the conference entirely in the SEH, and was really able to leverage our facilities to the maximum extent,” he said.
The timely theme of this year’s event was “Industry, Innovation, and Policy in Uncertain Times.” By hosting the conference in D.C., in the heart of our nation’s capital and amid headwinds of uncertainty, Helveston was able to bring in policymakers to host one-of-a-kind, engaging panels with real-world applications.
“It was a big success in that sense. We were able to bring in people who you are not able to get at a lot of events, and I think those people themselves had a great time,” Helveston shared. “A lot of them stayed for the receptions and had great conversations, because a lot of the academics who do attend are the people who are more eager to write policy briefs and be involved, so there was a lot of great networking happening,” he said.
Multiple impactful, unique convenings were hosted at the SEH this summer, bringing attendees just steps away from unrivaled experiences that extend their learning, inside and outside of the classroom.