Emerging Technology Assessment

Students will learn a repeatable assessment workflow that begins with foundational physics constraints and engineering scaling logic, uses effective theory approximations to bound feasibility and performance, and then translates technical plausibility into policy-relevant judgments using the Heilmeier Catechism (impact, comparators, stakeholders, and transition pathways). The course is hands-on and case-based, with real-time assessments of contemporary technologies-especially AI-enabled technologies and AI-accelerated R&D-such as hypersonic systems (at an unclassified, principles-based level), future energy storage concepts, AI in science and materials discovery, autonomy-enabled sensing, and other rapidly evolving technology areas.