Deep Tech Year in Review: Convening Leaders, Advancing Research, and Driving Impact

Thank you to everyone who supported Deep Tech this year, whether you attended an event, read our research, or visited our website. Deep Tech refers to advanced scientific innovations that require both public and private capital investment. These technologies have transformative potential across multiple sectors and intersect with critical national interests such as economic security, technological leadership, and environmental sustainability. Our focus areas include artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, quantum computing, renewable energy technology, and semiconductors.

Across all five focus areas, this year was about building community, advancing research, and convening leaders across academia, industry, government, and global partners.

Artificial Intelligence

In March, we announced our research for OpenAI with a faculty lunch and kickoff event, including a fireside chat with the Head of US and Canada Policy and Partnerships team, Chan Park. The kickoff marked a milestone for Deep Tech, bringing together faculty from across disciplines to discuss AI’s research, policy, and societal implications.

At the faculty event, we launched an RFP to join the AI for Metascience Program to explore how artificial intelligence can accelerate scientific discovery through multidisciplinary collaborations. The program resulted in four funded projects across the university, including along with one in-house Deep Tech project, spanning domains from research workflows to data-intensive discovery. The five projects represent a range of Duke departments and schools working on AI—including Pratt, Fuqua, Nicholas, Sanford, Medicine, Computer Science, Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, and Philosophy. 

Throughout the year, we also advanced thought leadership on AI governance and infrastructure. This included writing on and reviewing the publication from Paladin Global Institute, The AI Tech Stack: A Primer for Tech and Cyber Policy, which helped demystify the layered AI ecosystem for policymakers and practitioners. We convened conversations on AI and culture through engagements focused on the creative economy, including work on AI and music streaming platforms, featuring discussions with journalist and author Liz Pelly and platform accountability workshops in both Oxford and Washington, D.C.

Community-building was a major priority this year. Deep Tech Tuesdays became a touchpoint, helping build a LinkedIn community around AI, cybersecurity, and emerging technologies, while extending our reach beyond campus.

Cybersecurity

We began the year attending the Meet the Global Cybersecurity Forum (GCF) in New York City, solidifying our relationship with GCF. Throughout the year, a team led by Camila Herrera wrote Bridging the Gender Gap in Cybersecurity: Addressing Barriers and Expanding Workforce Participation in Latin America, aimed at advancing understanding of the reasons for and solutions to the challenge of women’s inclusion in the cybersecurity field across the Latin America region. Camila, Merritt, and I then represented Duke at the GCF Annual Meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in October, joining panels titled Bridging the Gender Gap in Cybersecurity: Addressing Barriers and Expanding Workforce Participation and The Talent Imperative: Unlocking the Power of Women in Cyber. The research report is set to release in mid-January 2026.

Alongside research, Deep Tech continued to expand its executive education and leadership programming, including the Cybersecurity Leadership Program (CLP), CISO certificate program, and Humphrey Fellowship Program with international engagement spanning Riyadh, Rio de Janeiro, and Madrid. We offer our thanks to Paladin Capital for being our founding partner of this program and the partnership we have formed with the Duke Pratt School of Engineering, and specifically Prof. Art Ehuan. In 2026, we will continue our work with several leading international universities: KAPSARC in Riyadh, FGV in Rio de Janeiro, and URJC in Madrid, and return for further programming. 

Quantum Computing

Deep Tech expanded its engagement in quantum science and technology by convening researchers, students, and policymakers around the growing strategic importance of quantum computing for “Quantum 101: Getting to Know Quantum Science and Technology at Duke.” The event was designed by Merritt Cahoon in partnership with the Duke Quantum Center to make quantum more accessible to non-technical experts. The program traced a century of quantum discovery and explored current technical innovations and applications shaping the field.

The event also emphasized the broader policy, governance, and national security implications of quantum technologies, with dedicated discussions on global competition, talent, and regulation. By spotlighting Duke’s investments in quantum research and featuring student poster presentations, Quantum 101 reinforced the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration and workforce development, positioning quantum computing as a critical frontier for future innovation.

Renewable Energy

We advanced our work at the intersection of climate, digital infrastructure, and finance through the Billions to Trillions Summit, focused on mobilizing private capital for climate solutions. In partnership with the Nicholas Institute, Merritt Cahoon and Ian Hitchcock authored a hyperscaler data center report examining whether large-scale data center buildout in the United States is a sustainability bane, boon, or both. The report connected energy demand, infrastructure planning, water availability, and policy considerations, grounding climate finance discussions in the realities of rapidly expanding digital infrastructure.

Building on this work, Julia Bernarde, an undergraduate Public Policy student, expanded our focus beyond the U.S. by collaborating with the Center for Latin American Convergence. Julia’s report examined data center growth and sustainability challenges in Latin America, recognizing the region’s increasing role in global digital infrastructure. Looking ahead, we plan to extend this line of research to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), continuing to align AI-driven infrastructure growth with environmental sustainability and long-term climate finance strategies. The third annual Billions to Trillions will take place on February 25th, 2026.

Semiconductors

Semiconductors will be a major focus of Deep Tech’s work through an upcoming Bass Connections class on semiconductor supply chain resilience and sustainability. The course will examine how recent disruptions and policy responses, such as the CHIPS and Science Act, are reshaping global semiconductor production, economic security, and technological leadership.

The work will map the semiconductor supply chain from raw materials to fabrication and distribution, identify key vulnerabilities and bottlenecks, and analyze the policy, geopolitical, and environmental forces shaping the industry. It will culminate in a set of public-facing outputs, including a policy brief, interactive supply chain visualizations, and a public convening, designed to inform decision-makers and advance dialogue on building a more resilient and sustainable semiconductor ecosystem.

Looking to 2026

We are building on this momentum with a robust slate of upcoming programs and convenings:

• January 14: Secure AI Adoption for Public Entities: Lessons from North Carolina in partnership with the Center for Cybersecurity Policy and Law and CrowdStrike
• Billions to Trillions on February 25^th and a State–Federal Partnerships convening with NSF on March 18^th
• April 8: AI Infrastructure Summit: Building the Foundations for the Future
• Launch of a Deep Tech suite of classes, including offerings on AI sustainability, AI and the creative economy, and continued integration of cybersecurity across curricula
• Bass Connections projects focused on semiconductor supply chains
• Expanded global engagement, returning to Riyadh, Rio, and Madrid, and launching new programming in Berlin with the Laidlaw Scholars Program

Thank you for being part of the Deep Tech community. We look forward to continuing this work together in the year ahead.