Shaping the Future with Purpose & Integrity
Because emerging and future technologies shape every aspect of our world, advancements in this area have the potential to transform how we live, work, and connect—with impacts that are both profoundly positive and challenging. Emerging technologies empower individuals, strengthen communities, and enrich society by driving innovation, enabling smarter decision-making, and fostering sustainability. Yet they also introduce critical questions about privacy, equity, job displacement, environmental impact, and digital well-being. Our commitment at Wake Forest to innovation, thoughtful leadership, creativity, and integrity provides an exciting opportunity to shape a future that is not only smarter and more connected, but also more humane and equitable.
Building off of the 2023 WFU Strategic Framework, a new university-wide Emerging & Future Technologies initiative will leverage the university’s unique interdisciplinary expertise to create an ambitious vision for how emerging and future technologies will contribute to a better future by creating meaningful collaborations between scientists, engineers, scholars across all disciplines, policy-makers, industry leaders, and the communities whose lives may be influenced by their discoveries.
The goal of the Strategic Framework Visioning process is to define that ambitious vision.
Led by the Provost’s Office, this initiative will shape a vision for the future for this discipline at Wake Forest, ensuring that the University becomes a globally recognized leader in this field and defining the aspirational goals that will make a real, positive and sustainable difference for our students, faculty, and local and global communities for years to come. The process consists of three key phases described below.
Wake Forest’s Emerging & Future Technologies initiative aims to leverage the University’s interdisciplinary strengths to create new technologies, understand how they influence our world, and design innovative solutions to lean into opportunity, address potential negative impacts and improve well-being.
This visioning process seeks to define a bold and specific vision for Wake Forest’s role in emerging and future technologies over the next 10-20 years, ultimately leading to a white paper that outlines short-term and long-term strategic goals and milestones and metrics for implementation.
A leadership task force is developing a comprehensive framework to define Wake Forest’s aspirations and unique contributions to the field.
The task force has been working to:
- Assess Wake Forest’s current strengths in emerging and future technologies.
- Identify opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration across disciplines university-wide.
- Articulate the principles that could define a long-term vision that positions Wake Forest as a hub for pioneering work in emerging and future technologies that leads to a smarter, more connected future for all.
The University community will have the opportunity to engage in discussions, dream about the future, and help define the strategic vision.
In the next phase, the University community will help us to define the vision. A facilitated session will provide an overview of the goals, followed by activities designed to encourage aspirational thinking. This session will help participants envision bold, cross-disciplinary opportunities to advance a shared university-wide initiative. Most important, participants will then provide ideas and input to a series of questions that will serve as the basis for Phase 3.
The task force will compile the information from phase 2 to draft a whitepaper articulating our vision, identifying broad areas of focus, setting short- and long-term goals (with milestones and assessment for accountability), and detailing a plan for pursuing funding, partnerships, and academic growth.
- Kim McAllister, Ph.D. (Vice Provost for Research, Scholarly Inquiry, and Creative Activity; Professor of Biology, WFU and Professor of Translational Neuroscience, WFUSM)
- Betsy Barre, Ph.D. (Assistant Provost and Executive Director, Center for Advancement of Teaching, Affiliate Faculty, Department for the Study of Religions, WFU)
- David Carroll, Ph.D. (Professor of Physics; Director of NanoTeq Center, WFU)
- William Cochran, Ph.D. (Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Computer Science, WFU)
- William Fleeson, Ph.D. (Hultquist Family Professor of Psychology, WFU)
- Metin Gurcan, Ph.D. (Professor of Internal Medicine, Director of the Center for Artificial Intelligence Research and Clinical Image Analysis Lab, WFUSM)
- Raina Haque, J.D. (Professor of Practice, School of Law, WFU)
- Woody Hood, Ph.D. (Professor of Communication; Director of Film and Media Studies Program, WFU)
- Odi Iancu, Ph.D. (Executive Director, Enterprise Systems, WFU Information Systems)
- Oana Jurchescu, Ph.D. (Baker Family Professor of Physics, WFU)
- Ajay Kandada, Ph.D. (Assistant Professor of Physics, WFU)
- Ryan McGinnis, Ph.D. (Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering; Director of the Center for Remote Patient and Participant Monitoring, Co-director of the M-Sense Research Group, WFUSM)
- Shannon McKeen, M.B.A. (Professor of the Practice; Executive Director of the Center for Analytics Impact (CAI), School of Business, WFU)
- Stacie Petter, Ph.D. (Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs; Professor of Management Information Systems, School of Business, WFU)
- Melva Sampson, Ph.D, M.Div. (Assistant Professor of Preaching and Practical Theology, School of Divinity, WFU)
- Ryan Shirey, Ph.D. (Teaching Professor of English; Director of the Writing Center, WFU)
- Timo Thornhauser, Ph.D. (Associate Chair of Physics, Wright Family Professor of Physics; Director of Center for Functional Materials, WFU)
- Saami Yazdani, Ph.D. (Professor of Engineering, WFU)
- Osama Zahid, Ph.D. (Director of Licensing, WF Innovations, WFUSM)
Get Involved
There are multiple ways to participate in this important process.
In-person events: All faculty are encouraged to attend this facilitated session:
- Monday, October 13, 1:00-3:00 pm in ZSR 403
Office hours: If you are not available on Monday, Oct. 13, and want to discuss any aspect of the process or provide 1:1 input on the vision (in person or via Zoom), Vice Provost Kim McAllister will host office hours on:
- Wednesday, Oct. 15, 9:00 am-12:00 pm and 1:00-5:00 pm in Reynolda Hall 304
- Friday, Oct. 17, 2:00-5:00 pm in Reynolda Hall 304
Faculty are welcome to stop by anytime during office hours. If you’d like to schedule time for a 1:1 Zoom session, please email Jen Haggas (haggasji@wfu.edu).
Online Survey: Link to provide input will be posted on October 14.
Our aspirational vision will be stronger if everyone participates. Please come dream with us!