Missed a keynote or want to revisit the ideas that caught your attention? Both Thursday and Friday’s keynote addresses, from UC Merced’s Dr. Joshua Viers and Dr. Lisa Yeo, are now available to watch with captions.
Keeping Humans in the Loop: Agtech, Agroecology, and a Resilient Food System - Thursday Keynote - Dr. Joshua Viers
UC Merced's Dr. Joshua Viers takes on one of the era's hardest puzzles: how a region that grows a huge share of the nation's food can also face deep poverty, vanishing groundwater, and a climate that lurches between extreme drought and atmospheric rivers. Drawing on UC Merced's new designation as an Agricultural Experiment Station and its Experimental Smart Farm — a living testbed for agtech like methane-cutting biochar, canal-top solar, and nature-based water solutions — he shows how technology and ecology can work together rather than at odds. His core argument: durable solutions keep humans in the loop, pairing modern science with inclusive innovation to build a future measured in well-being, not just yield.
The Space Between - Friday Keynote - Dr. Lisa Yeo
Universities depend on collaboration between faculty, technology professionals, librarians, research administrators, privacy officers, and many others, but these relationships are often harder than they should be. Drawing on a career that spans enterprise IT, academia, cybersecurity, and technology governance, Dr. Lisa Yeo explores why the challenge is less about technology than the incentives and structures that shape how people work together. Her core argument: collaboration isn't something organizations can simply ask for; it is something they must intentionally design for.