What Lessons Did Dartmouth Delegates Learn at the 2025 MIT Energy Conference?

The MIT Energy Conference (MITEC) is an annual two-day event hosted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Energy & Climate Club, a student-run organization, and touts itself as being the largest student-led energy and climate conference in the world. This event brings together leaders and experts from technology, policy, industry, and finance to address challenges and opportunities in energy and climate. It's proved to be a fantastic learning and networking opportunity for Dartmouth's students, and a great way for students to get some real-world insights into the complex multidisciplinary and multi-sector nature of energy and climate.

This year's Dartmouth delegation included the Irving Institute's Jackie Firsty, Tech-to-Market Program Manager, and Casey Krafton, Teaching and Learning Coordinator, as well as five graduate students. The group included four inaugural Irving Institute Graduate Energy Fellows (IIGEFs); Jackson McLain, Matthew Ritterbusch, David Tuck, and Siva Kumar Thota; and Innovation PhD candidate Ene Michelle Igomu, whose attendance was supported by an Irving Institute student grant.

The IIGEF program is a multidisciplinary pilot initiative for Dartmouth graduate students who are interested in exploring topics and/or pursuing careers related to energy and climate. The goals of all those attending this year's MIT Energy Conference were to explore potential future partnerships, connect with leaders in the field of energy and climate, as well as learn about new technologies and opportunities in the field. 

"The conference was awesome, everything I expected and more. It offered great insight on almost every key issue in the energy space currently: handling electricity demand growth from AI, how to incentivize public and private investment in cleantech, and the development and commercialization of emerging technologies like fusion and hydrogen are just a few examples. The panelists and speakers' backgrounds allowed for a great blend of perspectives from both academia and industry." – Matthew Ritterbusch, IIGEF 

This year's theme was "Breakthrough to Deployment: Driving Climate Innovation to Market." The event featured keynote speeches, panel discussions, networking, and a Showcase of Lightning Pitches from climate and energy startups. A notable thread throughout the conference was the current administration policy changes and the future of clean energy. A Monday morning keynote brought together speakers Vanessa Chan, Vice Dean of Innovation & Entrepreneurship at the University of Pennsylvania's Engineering School, and former Chief Commercialization Officer at the U.S. Department of Energy and Director of the Office of Technology Transitions, and Brian Deese, Institute Innovation Fellow at MIT, and former Director of the National Economic Council. While audience questions challenged the future of clean energy given executive branch shifts in policy priorities, Vanessa Chan shared the importance of finding common ground between parties to maintain momentum. This was encouraging to hear amidst what can feel like volatile times.

 
"I personally enjoyed the opportunity to attend the MIT energy conference because of the breadth of technologies presented and the somewhat different viewpoints on development while keeping in mind that all energy sources are needed to meet the current and future energy demand." –David Tuck, IIGEF
 

The MIT Energy Conference provided a great opportunity for Dartmouth staff and students alike to learn about the world's most pressing energy challenges and discuss climate solutions. It is crucial to bring together leaders in the different fields and sectors of clean energy to foster innovation and collaboration amongst organizations. We're excited to see the opportunities that come from connecting with conference attendees, and are inspired to implement real-world projects from these connections into our Master of Energy Transition program to provide hands-on experience to future learners.