CALL FOR PRESENTERS

The Review Committee does NOT accept any solicitation or sales pitch presentations through the presenter bio submission process. The Review Committee also does NOT accept proposals from entities currently applying for awards within the Department of Energy.

Note: Acceptance does not imply endorsement of any products or services.

The 2022 DOE Cybersecurity and Technology Innovation Conference, June 13-17, 2022, welcomes submission of presenter bios for the purpose of presenting or informing a breakout/session/panel during the Conference. Once your bio is submitted, you will receive a confirmation email containing a link with your personal access key. You will be able to use this access key to edit/add additional information and register for the conference. When submitting your bio, please be sure to incorporate the conference theme:

Leveraging Innovation to Meet Future Challenges

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) leads broad and substantial efforts to research, develop, and implement new technology, capabilities, practices, and principles that will shape how we deliver cybersecurity that protects our data and systems across the DOE enterprise, enabling the advancement of Departmental and Administration priorities across our diverse mission spaces, including:

• Combating the climate crisis, including by delivering reliable, clean, and affordable power to more Americans.
• Creating clean energy union jobs by investing in American manufacturing and workers.
• Promoting energy justice through expanding access to energy efficiency and clean energy for families, communities and businesses.
• Supporting reliable broadband access to underserved communities

Collaboration and innovation are vital to our mission success. We leverage DOE's diverse workforce, facilities, infrastructure, programs, and partnerships in information technology (IT), operational technology (OT), and cybersecurity knowledge and expertise to drive mission success, mitigate risk, and serve the nation requires continued collaboration and innovation across the DOE’s diverse workforce, facilities, infrastructure, programs, and partnerships. The DOE and its stakeholder communities comprise federal, state, and local public, private, and academic partners and thought leaders, with an objective to secure, modernize, and leverage IT-OT solutions to achieve their respective missions. We believe it to be our collective responsibility to advance and accelerate the delivery and implementations of these services. We embrace a forward-looking, diverse, and collaborative mindset to enable a workforce culture and achieve the goals of the Department and its constituencies.

The 2022 DOE Cybersecurity and Technology Innovation Conference will strengthen the foundation for collaboration and innovation across the DOE enterprise and with our non-federal public, private sector, academic, and international partners, allowing us to better protect the critical systems, and infrastructure. Staying ahead of threats, handling incident response, excelling at records management and privacy, and building resilience starts with recognizing the unique resources and opportunities for transformative innovation that the DOE enterprise seeks to provide. It also requires that we utilize our world-class expertise in resiliency and supply chain risk management, critical infrastructure security, and state-of-the-art technologies, e.g. 5G, advanced testing facilities, high performance computing, artificial intelligence/machine learning, advanced analytics, geoscience, visualization frameworks, and cloud platforms. We must continue to shift our mindset from a short-term compliance focus toward a future state that embraces the latest technological advancements intended to mitigate risk and enable our people in an expanding threat landscape. Many of these capabilities will shape our approaches to securely and reliably achieving our missions in the decade to come.

The 2022 DOE Cybersecurity and Technology Innovation Conference, “Leveraging Innovation to Meet Future Challenges” will offer an engaging and collaborative environment, with thoughtful and actionable conversations about the people, processes, and technology that drive energy-focused success and security. The conference will examine efforts to explore the human factor of IT and cyber-physical security to expand and retain a talented, diverse, and mission-driven workforce, reinforce our commitment to reliability, enablement, privacy, and records management, and promote new ideas focused on measurable, tangible results.

SESSION LENGTH

Sessions will take place on Tuesday, June 14 through Thursday, June 16. Breakouts are 45 minutes long. Sessions could occur in various forms, such as panel discussions, short, individual presentations or moderated dialogue.

CONFERENCE TRACKS

Track Descriptions are Subject to Change.

Track 1: Adapting Your Cybersecurity Approach in an Evolving Security Environment

Description: Linking every effort at DOE to expand the clean energy economy, to create new union jobs across the sector, and to deploy new and expanded energy access and other technologies to communities across America is the need to ensure that these systems, and the grid that links them, are reliable, secure, flexible, and resilient. This track will explore how DOE mission success is driven by how we address complex cybersecurity challenges across the DOE enterprise and integrate those efforts with our development of the new digital capabilities we need to stay ahead of our adversaries. In an increasingly interconnected and hostile cyber landscape, we must adapt our efforts to improve our cybersecurity posture, and to continuously detect, contain, and respond to cybersecurity incidents. Sessions in this track will include conversations around how we can best balance risk and compliance, including the requirements as called for in the 2021 Executive Order (EO) 14028, Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity as we collaborate across the enterprise to secure our systems today and prepare to confront future threats. This track will address the latest key topics in cyber innovation, including the “zero trust” model that eliminates the distinction between trusted or untrusted networks and devices, including for enterprise mobility solutions. Topics will also include collaborative work with the private sector, including sessions that will examine how DOE approaches Supply Chain Risk Management (SCRM), and how we are working to weave SCRM into priorities and initiatives as we work to meet National Institute of Standards Technology (NIST) requirements. This track will incorporate discussions on mitigation, incident response, cybersecurity in the energy sector from a national security perspective, risk evaluation, and research and development (R&D) efforts. Discussions will address issues related to Operational Technology (OT), the deployment of ubiquitous sensors, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), industrial controls, and other specific technologies and capabilities from a perspective of both the risks they pose to the enterprise and the opportunities they create for innovation and mission success. Topics in this track will include the privacy and records management impacts of new and shifting cybersecurity tools and practices and specific questions related to new and emerging threats and technologies. Along with opportunity, the conversation will examine how 5G might accelerate cyber events, create visibility problems, and make it more difficult to detect a cyber attack or spill, or how artificial intelligence can help solve certain challenges with predictive analysis and automated incident response.

Sample Track 1 Presentation Titles:
Feel free to submit a presenter bio addressing these topics or other topics relevant to Track 1.

• “Understanding the Impact of the Internet of Things - Balancing Cyber-Physical Security Risk with Next-Gen Innovation”
• “Balance Compliance and Risk to Enable Mission Objectives”
• “Innovative Approaches to Assessing Effectiveness of Cybersecurity Controls”
• “Integrating Quantified Risk Management Principles into a Risk Management Program”
• “Applying Cybersecurity Requirements in Control Systems Environments”
• “Incorporating Data Privacy Tools and Practices”

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Track 2: Accelerating and Leveraging Innovation

Description: DOE has a vital role to play in government-wide efforts to deploy broadband access and other key technologies to communities across America, and the innovations we pursue across the enterprise will drive that progress and unlock new potential opportunities to expand access to new energy sources and other vital resources to communities nationwide. This track will explore how DOE can continue to advance its information ecosystem and provide new and emerging solutions by driving forward innovation efforts in processes, procurement, and policy as well as technology. Innovation and modernization will assist DOE-wide efforts to improve transparency and visibility into the use of taxpayer funds and help to ensure investments are properly targeted and deliver value. Innovation in technology and process will be key to meeting the goals set forth for DOE to securely and efficiently provide clean energy jobs, expand access to broadband, and supply clean and affordable power. DOE needs to be able to move quickly to adopt new and innovative solutions developed in industry or by the government as well as predict where these innovations are needed and prepare for them as needed. Sessions in this track will examine our efforts to build an enterprise-wide culture of innovation to successfully harness the latest technologies and services for delivering maximum impact on the mission. New and expanding mission requirements across the enterprise require rapid and thoughtful development and deployment of innovations in Smart, Secure Cities and Communities which include IT, OT, 5G, and beyond. This track will also focus on how we can best address and harness emerging technologies and standards such as advanced wireless communications, edge-computing, advanced analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning, geospatial data, and more. Panels will address how DOE can adapt its High Performance Computing and quantum computing efforts to a new landscape that includes more and more private sector partners. Conversations will also address how DOE will adapt and integrate cloud solutions to solve information and data problems and address new and evolving challenges. This track will explore how the new DOE Innovation Community Center can help drive and coordinate innovation efforts across the enterprise and ensure collaborative and productive outcomes. Conversations will explore how innovations can support and enable the DOE workforce, and how innovation can help drive DOE’s social innovation efforts, including how our systems and data can be used to target the Department’s investments in clean energy jobs, combating climate change and its impacts, and addressing energy justice issues.

Sample Track 2 Presentation Titles:
Feel free to submit a presenter bio addressing these topics or other topics relevant to Track 2.

• “Commercializing R&D to Advance the Nation’s Economic, Energy and National Security”
• “Bolstering and Accelerating Early-Stage Cyber Technologies”
• “Ensuring Effective and Practical Cybersecurity Practices for HPC”
• “Innovative Supply Chain Solutions Technologies”
• “Making Sense of Big Data Automation to Inform Intelligent Innovation”
• “Transforming the Digital Landscape with 5G and Beyond”

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Track 3: Enabling a Skilled and Adaptable Workforce in a Post-Pandemic World

Description: As DOE works to support the creation of new clean energy union jobs and works to improve energy justice in every community nationwide, we are also working to ensure that we improve the diversity and inclusiveness of our workforce and ensure that the DOE enterprise better reflects the American people. This track will explore how we build and enable the DOE enterprise workforce we need for future mission success. Discussions will address how DOE is working to create a culture of transparency, collaboration, and information sharing across the enterprise to support DOE’s expanding mission portfolio and adapt to a new normal of flexible work environments. This track will explore the latest thinking across government and all sectors about the challenge of recruiting, retaining, and supporting a diverse workforce with the skills and training needed for mission success. Sessions will explore DOE efforts to place diversity, equity, and inclusion at the heart of our workforce development initiatives, including our efforts to build a workforce that is more inclusive of all minority groups, and reflects our values and the American people as a whole across all disciplines and offices across the enterprise. Sessions will address how DOE can confront the existing systemic and structural factors underpinning the unequal opportunities for minority communities of all kinds that impede the creation of a more inclusive and equal workforce and workplace. We will emphasize the importance of accessibility and equal employment opportunities for people with disabilities. Participants will learn how to apply lessons learned from diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts across the enterprise, as well as replicable methods to promote collaboration, properly manage records, safeguard privacy, protect institutional knowledge, and address risks such as insider threats with a more dispersed workforce.

This Track will also discuss how the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted how and where we work, and what this means for effective, safe and reliable IT enablement. The DOE enterprise now works in different ways than before the Covid-19 pandemic, and we aim to be thoughtful about those shifts in capabilities and expectations. Sessions will explore the best ways to use education at all levels across the enterprise to enable our people to drive change while ensuring the security of our information. Discussions will examine bridging the gap between members of the workforce who specialize in OT and those who specialize in IT at a time when those traditional boundaries are becoming blurred. The track will discuss next-generation workflows and workplaces, with an emphasis on fostering effective governance, data driven decision making, and maximized visibility and transparency across the enterprise. The track will also discuss fostering effective governance in response to new directives, shifting priorities, threats, landscapes, technological developments, and the expansion of ways that data is shared, used, protected for privacy, and analyzed across and between departments, programs, and projects. Discussions will address success stories in information sharing to identify replicable best practices. Sessions will explore how the Department is shaping, participating in, and responding to the whole-of-government efforts to improve cybersecurity across the entire energy sector, as driven by the new EO, as well as the attendant complexities involved in protecting privacy, managing data, systems, teams, and processes as we collectively work to take old habits and patterns of work and modernize them to work with and in the new, wide-ranging, and dramatic changes that will drive our mission success for years to come.

Track sessions will include the use of data and data management to inform our workforce recruitment efforts and for driving decisions about selecting and using IT systems across the enterprise. Discussions will explore ways to make governance more impactful, as well as using new collaboration tools to gather input and foster productive conversations that help ensure our colleagues get the support and resources they need. The track will examine how collaboration, processes, and governance will be impacted by advancements in artificial intelligence and how it might be applied to things such as risk assessments, records management, and privacy.

Sample Track 3 Presentation Titles:
Feel free to submit a presenter bio addressing these topics or other topics relevant to Track 3.

• “Applying a Workforce Framework for Cybersecurity”
• “Developing and Enabling a Critical Infrastructure Workforce”
• “Reimaging Workforce Collaboration with Virtual Communication Platforms”
• “Achieving the Mission through Building a New Culture: Identifying and Assessing Cybersecurity Gaps and Skills”
• “Applying Enterprise Architecture Principles, Transparent Governance, and Robust Privacy Practices to Increase Productivity and Security”
• “Acquiring Top Cyber Talent with Strategic Hiring Practices, and Building a Diverse Workforce that Looks Like America”

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Track 4: Modernizing and Securing America’s Critical Energy Infrastructure

Description: DOE plays a central role in a whole-of-government effort that, in combination with our partners across the private sector, is working to modernize and secure the grid to accommodate new clean energy technologies that help to combat climate change and generate the energy we need to deliver affordable electricity to all Americans. This track will explore how DOE can better work across the enterprise and the energy sector, including with interagency, private, academic, international, and state and local partners to secure critical infrastructure., Sessions will also examine how the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (“Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill”) provides $1.2T in funding for critical infrastructure programs across several domains, including energy critical infrastructure, and how that infusion of resources may influence ongoing OT and IT security efforts across the sector. Sessions will also address how to integrate OT and IT across the energy sector.

Discussions will address how DOE can best leverage the EO 14028 requirements to drive modernization and cybersecurity efforts across the federated enterprise, including with the critical infrastructure under the control of the federal Power Marketing Administrations (PMAs). The track will help to identify opportunities for collaboration on solutions to ensure that our critical infrastructure operators, including the PMAs, meet key statutory and regulatory requirements, leverage the latest tools and innovations, and ensure that the entire sector is prepared to face new and expanding threats in the future. Sessions will explore the role of OT in today’s power grid, with an eye toward how the role of OT has evolved and expanded over time to help us anticipate how tomorrow’s grid will function. Discussions will address securing critical infrastructure in the traditional power structure, as well as the security requirements for an evolved grid that incorporates renewables and distributed energy resources (DER). Also, as the grid of the future evolves from an operator-driven system to become more autonomous, improving the reliability, resiliency, and recovery of services to customers, the new IT and OT systems that will drive this change will also introduce new forms of risk. Therefore, security of key data systems will be just as vital to the grid as the security of the grid itself. Discussions will address grid edge devices such as solar panels and vehicle chargers, as well as devices embedded into the grid such as sensors. Sessions will address field environment challenges around commodity IT being used in the grid with embedded operating systems. Panels will explore challenges related to patching firmware and monitoring and updating the software we need to use. Discussions will address the difference between acceptable risk profiles in a power substation versus acceptable risk profiles of standard IT systems, and the related challenge of how to integrate OT and IT across the energy sector.

Sample Track 4 Presentation Titles:
Feel free to submit a presenter bio addressing these topics or other topics relevant to Track 4.

• “Develop Secure Critical Infrastructure Using Dark Fiber and Advanced Communications”
• “Modeling, Simulating, and Assessing the Behavior of Electric Power Systems”
• “Distilling the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act”
• “Organizing Best Practices Across the OT, IT, IoT, and IIoT Panorama”
• “Investing in IT to Mitigate Expanding OT Threats”
• “Mapping critical infrastructure assets, systems, and networks for Impact Analysis”