Crowd image from the 2018 iCons Fall WorkshopThe iCons Fall Workshop and Idea Slam is an annual event where industry and academic thought-leaders engage the iCons community and guests in discussions on a critical real-world issue. The theme of the event typically alternates between the iCons tracks: renewable energy and biomedicine/biosystems.

Upcoming Workshop:

Idea Slam ~ Solving the Problem of Unsustainable Chocolate Production
Wednesday, October 25, 2023
6:00 - 8:00 pm EST
UMass Amherst campus | ILC S131

For more information about the iCons Fall Workshop and Idea Slam, please contact iCons at icons@cns.umass.edu.


iCons Fall Workshop | Dr. Jonathan Thon Speaking to a Student in 2017Past Workshops:

  • 2022 | Tricia Canavan (Tech Foundry), Laura Draucker (Ceres), Michael Fogwill (Waters Corporation), and Anna Goldstein (Prime Coalition)
    The Business of the Energy Transition
  • 2021 | Museum of Science, Boston
    Should We Engineer the Mosquito?
  • 2020 | Christine Crago (UMass Resource Economics), Peter Green (National Renewable Energy Lab), and Lily Rajic (Elateq)
    Social Justice in the Energy Transition
  • 2019 | Woody Sherman (ROIVANT)
    Curing Cancer without Chemotherapy
  • 2018 | Krish Sharman (UMass Mechanical and Industrial Engineering)
    Can a Blue Revolution supply a hungry world with food and energy?
  • 2017 | Jonathan Thon (Brigham and Women's Hospital)
    What do you do when blood supplies run out?
  • 2016 | Dan Nocera (Harvard Chemistry)
    How can you use solar energy when the sun isn’t shining?
  • 2015 | Jeff Karp (Harvard Medical School)
    How can you repair a hole in the human body without using sutures?
  • 2014 | David O'Connor (ML Strategies), Carter Wall (FirstLight Power), and Mike Kearney (Ambri Inc.)
    A Sustainable Blueprint on the Massachusetts Military Reservation
  • 2013 | Bob Langer (MIT)
    The latest innovation developed in the Langer Lab at MIT
  • 2012 | Keith Hastie (U.S. Fish and Wildlife)
    Energy development in New England
  • 2011 | Pam Silver (Harvard Medical School) and Bill Lee (Gilead)
    From Biomedicine to Renewable Energy, how an interdisciplinary career can solve BIG problems