BRICCs Pathways 2026

Overview

BRICCs Logo Building Research Innovation at Community Colleges - Establishing Pathways for Regional Computing (BRICCs-Pathways) is a unique conference that brings together educators, researchers, administrators, and partners to explore strategies for strengthening regional computing pathways at community colleges. The meeting will focus on building sustainable collaborations, sharing effective practices, and advancing research and workforce development initiatives. Attendees will have opportunities to engage in discussions, share projects and lessons learned, and connect with colleagues working across computing education, research infrastructure, and data management with a focus on building practical, sustainable pathways between community colleges and research-intensive R1 universities.

Location, Dates and Times

Location: The Westin Alexandria Old Town, 400 Courthouse Square, Alexandria, VA 22314

Map

Dates: March 15-17, 2026
Arrival Day: Sunday, March 15th, 2026 | 4:00pm - 9:00pm
Conference Day 2: Monday, March 16th, 2026 | 8:00am - 5:00pm
Conference Day 3: Tuesday, March 17th, 2026 | 8:00am - 1:00pm

Schedule

Last updated: March 18, 2026

Sunday, March 15 Dinner - Wright Room, Second Floor
The Westin Alexandria Old Town
400 Courthouse Square, Alexandria, VA 22314
Phone Number: (703) 253-8600
Map
4:00PM onward Check in at the Hotel
7:30PM - 9:00PM Dinner
Wright Room, Second Floor
Introductions and Meet & Greet.
Monday, March 16 Reception - Wright Room, Second Floor
The Westin Alexandria Old Town
Wright Room, Second Floor
400 Courthouse Square, Alexandria, VA 22314
Phone Number: (703) 253-8600
Map
8:00AM - 9:00AM Registration and Continental Breakfast
9:00AM - 9:30AM Welcoming Remarks
Dhruva Chakravorty, Princeton University
9:30AM - 10:30AM Addressing the missing middle in research infrastructure
Joshua New, SeedAI Director of Policy
10:30AM - 10:45AM Break with Snacks
10:45AM - 12:00PM AI Session
Boyd Wilson, Omnibond - BOF Bringing AI Agents into Community College Research And Teaching: Opportunities, Access Ideas, and What We Can Learn from OpenClaw
Anne Ho, University of Tennessee - AI Tennessee: Taking a People-First Approach in the Age of AI (Slides (pdf))
Denise Davis, University of South Carolina - Data Science Map: Training, Courses, Competitions, and Connections (Slides (pdf))
12:00PM - 1:00PM Lunch
1:00PM - 1:30PM AI infrastructure available for research and education: an overview of the National AI Research Resource (NAIRR)
Alejandro Suarez, Program Director, NSF Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (OAC) (Slides (pdf))
1:30PM - 2:00PM Building Research in Community College in Texas, BRICCs-TX
Sarah Janes, San Jacinto College
2:00PM - 2:15PM Networking Break
2:15PM - 2:45PM Data Management Plan (DMP) Tool
Becky Grady, UCOP, California Digital Library
2:45PM - 3:15PM Quantum
Forough Ghahramani, NJ Edge (Slides (pdf))
Mickey Slimp, Great Plains Network (Slides (pdf))
3:15PM - 3:30PM Break
3:30PM - 4:30PM Dhruva Chakravorty, Princeton University
Sarvani Chadalapaka, University of California, Merced (Slides (pdf))
Tabitha Samuel, National Institute for Computational Sciences, UTK
Costis Toregas, National Cybersecurity Training and Eduation Center (NCyTE), The George Washington University (Slides (pdf))
4:30PM End of Day 1 Closing Remarks
Tuesday, March 17 Wright Room, Second Floor
The Westin Alexandria Old Town
Wright Room, Second Floor
400 Courthouse Square, Alexandria, VA 22314
Phone Number: (703) 253-8600
Map
8:00AM - 9:00AM Continental Breakfast
9:00AM - 10:00AM Cybersecurity and Partnerships In Education
Kevin Rocha, Hill College - Building Regional Computing Partnership through a Student-Run Cybersecurity Operations Center (Slides (pdf))
Susanne Wetzel, Stevens Institute of Technology
Anas AlSobeh, Utah Valley University - From Transcript to Trusted Portfolio: A Provenance-Centered Model for Building Trusted AI and Cybersecurity Transfer Pathways (Slides (pdf))
10:00AM - 10:30AM Research Infrastructure
Rob Day, Research Space - RSpace as Research Infrastructure Orchestrator: A Scalable Service Delivery Model for Multi-Institutional Research Data Management (Slides (pdf))
10:30AM - 10:45AM Break with Snacks
10:45AM - 11:00AM Building Research Innovation at Community Colleges Proceedings
Mary Ellen Sloane, Middle Tennessee State University
11:00AM - 11:45AM BRICCs: What have we learned?
Austin Gamble, Lonestar Education and Research Network (LEARN)
Lisa Perez, Texas A&M University
Dhruva Chakravorty, Princeton University
11:45AM - 12:00PM Closing Remarks
12:00PM - 1:00PM Lunch and Departures

Call for Proposals

Participants are invited to share position papers on how they see computing become more intrinsic in academic and research programs, the challenges they face at their institutions, the opportunities and their strategies. The two NSF programs guiding these discussions are NSF CC* and NSF IDSS.

We will welcome the following session types:
- Posters, which will be displayed during the workshop
- Position papers, which will be presented as 10-minute lightning talks
- Panel sessions, of 30 minutes length
- Birds-of-a-feather sessions, of 30 minutes length

For more details in the format requirements of the sessions see the details section below.
Sample topics for discussion include:
- How to build academic programs that can use computing
- How research and education networks are preparing for AI/ML
- Experiences in building data science programs
- Experiences in offering computing services
- Experience in building student research or student internship programs
- What are the security issues one has to consider?

This is not an exhaustive list, and other topics are encouraged as well.

Details

Position papers should be 1,500-2,500 words and will be published in the proceedings. Papers will be presented as 10-minute lightning talks. The position paper should include the following:
- Introduction: Introduce the topic, thesis or position for the paper.
- Body: This section contains the arguments or claims with supporting evidence. Please include relevant results or case studies.
- Conclusions: The final section of a position paper emphasizes the claims and summarizes the paper. It can include recommendations and implications.
- Acknowledgements: Acknowledge funding sources and relevant collaborators.

Proposals for panel sessions, birds-of-a-feather sessions, and position papers should be formatted in a single column using Times New Roman 12-point font and one-inch margins, and include citations in APA format.

All proposals should be submitted as PDF files.

Note that at least one author of an accepted work must attend the conference to present the work.

Presenters will be prioritized for travel support.

Please use the submission link below to submit your proposal.

Submit Proposal

Acknowledgement

The BRICCs team gratefully acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for this collaborative effort. This project is supported by NSF CC* award number 2346751. To learn more about BRICCs, please visit us at https://hprc.tamu.edu/briccs/. To send feedback or general questions to the BRICCs team, please contact us via email at briccs@hprc.tamu.edu, or via the BRICCs slack workspace.

Contact Information

Phone: 979-845-0219
Email: briccs@hprc.tamu.edu