Fresh Approaches to Emerging Issues

Thought leaders, decision makers, and stakeholders from across the global transportation enterprise visit the U.S. DOT Volpe Center in person or virtually to discuss future transportation issues, generate fresh approaches to emerging issues, anticipate transportation trends, and inform decision making.

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A Different Transportation Theme Every Year

• From November 2023 through February 2024, FAA and the U.S. DOT Volpe Center, in coordination with the Office of the Under Secretary of Transportation for Policy, convened Up, Up, and Away: Innovations in Advanced Air Mobility. This seven-part virtual series featured transportation innovators and leaders, including Under Secretary of Transportation for Policy Carlos Monje, FAA Deputy Administrator Katie Thomson, and Elan Head, Senior Editor, The Air Current. 
• In July-November 2023, the U.S. DOT Volpe Center hosted Delivering the Benefits of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), sponsored by the USDOT Project Delivery Center of Excellence. This eight-part virtual series featured more than 20 thought leaders across the transportation enterprise, including U.S. Transportation Secretary Buttigieg and Professor Bent Flyvbjerg, author of How Big Things Get Done and Megaprojects and Risk.
• Our 2021 thought leadership speaker series, Innovation for a Sustainable, Equitable Transportation System, took place virtually from June through September 2021. As we innovate toward a clean energy future, this series considered how to transition to a low-/no-carbon transportation system—one that enables disadvantaged communities to gain access to mobility, jobs, and economic opportunity.
• The Volpe Center's 2019 speaker series, Our New Mobility Future, convened leading thinkers innovating in novel transportation modes to explore the promise and pitfalls of our new mobility future—and discussed how we're going to get there. 
• The Volpe Center's 2018 speaker series, Transportation in the Age of Artificial Intelligence and Predictive Analytics, explored the age of artificial intelligence and predictive analytics in the context of the global transportation system.
• The Volpe Center's 2017 speaker series, The Ongoing Transformation of the Global Transportation System, brought together top thinkers to explored challenges and opportunities affecting the advancement of transportation.
• The Volpe Center's 2016 thought leadership speaker series, The Future of Transportation: Safety, Opportunity, and Innovation, brought together top transportation innovators who are thinking beyond the horizon on important transportation issues.
• In 2015, our series Reimagining Transportation explored technology, disruptive innovation, and the future of transportation.
• Our Transportation and the Economy series examined current and emerging issues crucial to moving people and goods to remain competitive in the global economy.
• Our Transportation System Resilience series explored the escalating threats our changing climate presents to the global transportation infrastructure.

Advancing Transportation—in Under an Hour

Each session in our speaker series features a 45-minute talk followed by a live and online question-and-answer session.

Dig Deeper with Volpe Center Colloquia

Transportation Challenges and Opportunities continues the Volpe Center's long tradition of facilitating knowledge exchange across the transportation community. Our colloquia feature panels of thought leaders and experts from government, academia, and the private sectors who focus on core issues underlying today's most pressing transportation challenges. Members of the transportation community are encouraged to participate in question-and-answer periods.