IEE 3.0 Spring Symposium

A Symposium on Powering the AI & Energy Transition

Hosted by the Institute for Energy Efficiency, UC Santa Barbara

On June 3, 2026, the Institute for Energy Efficiency at Henley Hall at the University of California, Santa Barbara introduced IEE 3.0—a forward-looking vision for research, collaboration, and impact at the intersection of energy and emerging technologies—at their annual Spring Symposium.

This event highlighted our strategic impact areas, including energy-efficient photonics and electronics; AI and machine learning; quantum technologies; AI-informed computing architectures and infrastructure; energy storage systems; and energy analysis and policy. Together, these focus areas define a coordinated effort to address the most pressing challenges and opportunities in powering the AI and energy transition.

Leading researchers, industry partners, and policy experts convened to outline this next chapter, share insights, and explore opportunities for collaboration. 

This year’s program featured distinguished speakers from across industry and research, including Khaled Ahmed, Senior Principal Engineer at Intel Corporation, who shared insights on next-generation data center infrastructure; Fei Sha, AI Research Scientist at Meta, offered perspective on the evolving role of AI within data center ecosystems; Dr. John Teufel of NIST and AWS Center for Quantum Computing, presented on breakthroughs in quantum technologies; and Zach Lee, Director of Research & Development at PowerFlex, discussing innovations in energy infrastructure.