A letter from the directors

Dear Friends of the Scott Institute:

Looking back on 2025, the Scott Institute has extended our reach and impact in research, education, and entrepreneurship — reaching diverse audiences from across the campus to across the world. Our work has led to impact — on energy research, development, deployment, and policy. At the beginning of the year, we welcomed Margaret McGill as our new Director of Policy Engagement in Washington, D.C., with the goal of connecting our researchers directly with decision-makers, ensuring that CMU's innovations help shape the future. Below we share a few of the highlights and a preview of what lies ahead.

Leading on AI and energy

CMU researchers are global leaders at the intersection of AI, innovation, and energy, and in 2025 the Scott Institute helped elevate CMU’s expertise in these critical topics. In March, our flagship event, CMU Energy Week, brought together investors, entrepreneurs, and researchers to explore what’s next for AI and energy. In July, CMU hosted the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit, which underscored Pittsburgh's and CMU's pivotal role in the national dialogue on AI and energy competitiveness. To inform the conversation, President Farnam Jahanian tasked the Scott Institute to coordinate more than two dozen AI and energy research memos from Scott Institute Affiliates, from meeting AI’s energy demand to keeping energy affordableto maximizing sustainability.

In 2025 we celebrated a major milestone in our Grand Challenge Partnership program, welcoming Anthropic as a new partner to accelerate innovation in AI for electric grid modernization, sustainability, and resilience. Building on the national momentum, President Jahanian tasked us and Machine Learning Department Head Zico Kolter with convening the campus community. The end result — the “AI and Energy: A CMU Community Summit” — took place in November.   

Growing energy research and entrepreneurship

The Scott Institute made catalytic investments in CMU energy research in 2025, awarding over $400K in research seed grants to collaborative teams to grow research in areas including clean hydrogen production, AI hardware efficiency, and decarbonizing transportation. In the face of federal funding reductions, the Scott Institute is committed to ensuring frontier-leading energy research continues at CMU. Finally, as part of our goal of growing cleantech commercialization, this year we launched a new entrepreneurship award to translate CMU innovations from research to the market.

This support has already bolstered startups like Pipe Force AI, co-founded by faculty affiliate Howie Choset, which uses digital twins to simplify underground pipe inspection, and enabled student entrepreneur TJ Thomas to develop a semi-automated solution for removing harmful algal blooms.

Bringing the energy community together

In 2025, we continued to provide opportunities for students, staff, and faculty interested in energy to gather, build community, and collaborate. The Scott Institute convened CMU’s energy community with lectures from energy leaders such as the Westinghouse CTO, a Department of Energy National Lab Associate Director, the head of New England’s power grid, and leading energy entrepreneurs. We also continued our leadership in industrial decarbonization by hosting our annual Accelerating Green Steel workshop, where global leaders worked toward tackling the challenge of decarbonizing steel production while meeting increasing worldwide demand. The Scott Institute plays a role in CMU’s Summer Center for Climate, Energy, and Environmental Decision Making and in the Summer Academy for Math and Science, to enable high school students to learn about energy and climate topics. Our community building goes beyond campus, and in 2025 the Scott Institute received a grant from the Sloan Foundation to catalyze new collaborations across a nationwide network of University Energy Institute Leaders.

Looking forward to 2026

We are proud to be part of the regional consortium—alongside West Virginia University and the University of Pittsburgh—that was named a finalist for the $160 million NSF Engines Award to supercharge energy technology and infrastructure in our region. In collaboration with RETI, the Scott Institute hosted an interactive discussion that invited local business and thought leaders to contemplate factors that might inhibit or support energy and infrastructure modernization in the region. As a result of that discussion, we published a discussion paper, “Unlocking Opportunities in the Industrial Innovation Economy for West Virginia and Western Pennsylvania,” that breaks down six key challenges facing innovation and industrial growth in the region.

We are very grateful for your ongoing support for the Scott Institute’s community and impact, and year-end gifts to the Institute can further accelerate our impact in the coming year. We hope you will join us in March for CMU Energy Week. We wish you and your families a peaceful holiday season and a fulfilling year ahead.

Warmly,

Costa Samaras, Director

Valerie Karplus, Associate Director

Daniel Tkacik, Executive Director