The theme for AEESP2025 is Information and Engineering for the Public Sector: Data-driven stewardship of human-environmental systems under global change. This theme addresses challenges in gathering, codifying, and managing information with the goal of providing data as a public good to inform public safety and environmental quality. While these objectives represent the shared values for the environmental engineering and science profession, the driving forces of global change in the human-environment interaction are making such challenges more complex and the solutions elusive.
Traditionally, information for the public sector has been applied in a wide range of forms that include building codes, standards for materials, environmental regulations, and standards on food quality to name but a few. Information as a public good also entails issues of efficient collection and interpretation of data and the associated privacy and safety issues. Advances in energy technology, the introduction of new chemicals and materials, infrastructure renewal, new tools to monitor public health, and a changing climate all increase the demand for reliable information on new products and proposed strategies for advancing a more sustainable society.
To this end, the AEESP2025 Research and Education Conference program will feature innovations by the AEESP community that advance the development and translation of information for the public good. The program will include concurrent topical sessions within this theme, including those showcasing engagement with stakeholders, innovative training for students, research partnerships with the public sector, and translation and engagement with communities. During the plenary sessions, keynotes will discuss the roles of universities in updating curricula and research agendas to meet these challenges and take advantage of data- and computationally-driven tools adapted to the inherently complex and uncertain nature of interconnected systems and multiple scales.
