Impact Forum shows how Penn State connects ideas, people and opportunity

PHILADELPHIA — In an era when challenges related to workforce development, artificial intelligence and economic opportunity increasingly cross traditional boundaries, Penn State is working to bring together the people and organizations best positioned to address them. That effort was on display Sept. 10 and 11 at the Penn State Impact Forum, where hundreds of leaders, educators, students, researchers and community partners gathered at CYTO|PHL in Philadelphia.

Through keynote presentations, panel discussions, student showcases and networking opportunities, the forum highlighted how Penn State helps connect people, ideas and organizations across sectors, creating partnerships that extend beyond the University and into communities, classrooms and workplaces.

“The Penn State Impact Forum brings together leaders from higher education, industry, government and communities to build relationships, share ideas and create partnerships that expand opportunity for students and drive innovation and impact,” said Justin Aglio, associate vice president for Penn State Outreach and executive director of the Readiness Institute at Penn State.

Throughout the two-day event, speakers returned to a common theme: While technology continues to transform society, meaningful progress depends on trusted relationships and collaboration.

Trust as a catalyst for innovation

Penn State Executive Vice President and Provost Fotis Sotiropoulos spoke about the opportunities and responsibilities that come with advances in artificial intelligence and emerging technologies.

"Trust isn't something that we add after innovation," Sotiropoulos said. "It's the fundamental infrastructure that is required to be able to innovate."

During his remarks, Sotiropoulos described Penn State's efforts to advance a human-centered approach to AI through research, education and collaboration across disciplines, emphasizing that innovation must be grounded in transparency, accountability and shared values.

The conversation continued during the forum's "Trust in the Future" panel, where leaders from education, technology and community organizations discussed how trust creates the conditions necessary for collaboration and progress.

"It really starts with people and building relationships," said Nathan Flood, president and CEO of Kinber.

Tony B. Watlington Sr., superintendent of the School District of Philadelphia, offered a reminder about how trust is established.

"Trust is built in drops and lost in buckets," he said.

For Karen Quintos, former chief customer and marketing officer at Dell Technologies, successful partnerships begin with recognizing the human element behind every innovation.

"Trust is about remembering we're in the people business," she said.

While discussions often focused on technology, speakers consistently pointed to relationships as the mechanism that turns ideas into meaningful action.

Connecting education and industry

One example of that approach can be found in Penn State's partnerships with industry leaders. During a panel featuring participants in the Penn State and Deloitte AI Fellows program, students, faculty and industry leaders explored how collaborations between higher education and employers are helping students develop both technical expertise and the critical-thinking skills needed to navigate a rapidly changing workplace.

"The future is going to be characterized by judgment, multidisciplinary thinking, experiences and cross-team collaboration," said Brett Davis, principal and U.S. chief innovation officer at Deloitte.

For Somay Bansal, a Penn State student and participant in the AI Fellows program, the fellowship stood out because students were given meaningful responsibility and encouraged to take ownership of their work.

"We were given complete freedom, but with that freedom, some guardrails, some guidance," Bansal said. "Eventually, when we were given our tasks, we were given ownership. Literally, they said, 'Have at it. Fix these up and take care of it and do the best you can.'"

Bansal said the experience differed from a traditional interview process because students were asked to tackle real-world business challenges from the beginning.

"It was a really unique interview," he said. "We actually got to build out a product that I pitched that worked."

For Jonathan Alavez Reyes, a computer science student at Penn State Abington, working alongside industry professionals reinforced the importance of critical thinking and decision-making.

“With this specific internship, it was completely different. The way it was structured, the way we're supposed to perform,” he said. “The whole judgment of making decisions, the whole critical thinking that you needed to have.”

The experience also allowed him to immediately apply lessons learned through the fellowship to his academic work, he said.

"I was able to put those skills into practice," Alavez Reyes said. "This is exactly pretty much what I just did at Deloitte."

Adam Pasewicz, a Penn State electrical engineering student and participant in the AI Fellows program, said the experience demonstrated how artificial intelligence can help students from a variety of disciplines contribute in new ways.

"I'm not a comp sci major," Pasewicz said. "This is very new to me. But one of the benefits that I found with working with AI is that I don't need to be a comp sci person."

Instead, he said, AI allows students to focus on problem-solving and applying knowledge across disciplines.

"Here's this critical thinking piece that you need to do up front, but as soon as you do that, you can pretty much can go wherever you want," Pasewicz said. "It doesn't matter about the specialty that you're working in."

The Penn State students' experiences illustrated how partnerships between the University and industry provide opportunities for students to engage with emerging technologies, collaborate across disciplines and gain firsthand experience solving real-world problems.

Students represented one part of the broader mix of voices Penn State intentionally brought into those cross-sector conversations.

Creating connections and opportunities

Students were not simply attendees at the forum, but active participants alongside leaders from education, industry, technology and communications, bringing their own perspectives to conversations about innovation, workforce development and opportunity.

The forum included 48 high school students from Pennsylvania and New Jersey and more than 20 higher education students from three Penn State campuses: Abington, Great Valley, University Park.

Khushi Khurana, a junior at Moorestown High School in New Jersey, said the opportunity to present at the Penn State Impact Forum was the latest step in a journey shaped by relationships she built with Penn State faculty and leaders.

Khurana was selected to participate in the forum's Student Spotlight program after launching a youth STEM initiative that has provided free coding opportunities to approximately 160 middle school students.

Looking to expand her work, she reached out to Priya Kumar, PNC Technologies Career Development Assistant Professor in the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology, whose research aligned with her interests.

"I actually cold-emailed her," Khurana said.

What began as an introduction evolved into a research collaboration examining how peer-to-peer instruction can encourage long-term interest in computer science, she said.

"Over the past two years, we've been kind of really delving into the research and scientific effects of why kids teaching kids makes such a big difference and sparks lasting interest in computer science," Khurana said.

The partnership, she added, opened doors to opportunities that extended well beyond the coding camps themselves.

"This June, we actually presented a paper in the U.K. based on this," she said.

Another connection led her to Aglio, one of the forum's organizers.

"So, I cold-emailed him too," said Khurana, whose conversations with him ultimately led to her participation in the forum’s High School Student Spotlight. "I had a few meetings with him, and we were talking about different ways I can kind of expand what I'm doing and continue get involved."

Her experience reflected a larger theme woven throughout the event: Opportunities often begin with a conversation, a partnership or a connection that brings people together around a shared goal.

Beyond the forum

While discussions covered topics ranging from artificial intelligence and workforce development to education and innovation, the forum’s emphasis on relationship-building extended beyond the conversation taking place on stage.

The experience stretched across the Philadelphia area with opportunities to connect after the daytime programming, including community engagement events, an EdTech gathering, Penn State Abington’s screening of “The Godmother of Silicon Valley” that highlights the life of Esther Wojcicki, and a Penn State Alumni Association celebration at Cira Green. Together, the experiences created additional settings for attendees to continue conversations and build relationships outside the formal conference agenda.

During the daytime forum, attendees participated in 19 sessions, featuring 46 speakers and panelists, along with numerous opportunities for networking, collaboration and partnership building.

"It's an opportunity, I actually think, not a challenge, to really think differently about how those relationships come together," Davis said.

Those relationships are central to the Penn State Impact Forum's mission of connecting leaders across sectors to address shared challenges and create new opportunities for students, communities and organizations.

As one panel concluded, Sotiropoulos offered a reflection that captured the spirit of the gathering.

"Innovation may be powered by technology," he said, "but ultimately depends on people."