Organizing Institutions
SOSE 2026 is organized through a collaboration between George Mason University and the University of Chicago and will be hosted at George Mason University’s Arlington campus. The organizing team brings together experience in open-source ecosystem development, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, distributed systems, research and technology policy, open science, community engagement, cross-sector partnership building, and collaborative workshop design.
SOSE 2026 is supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation through Awards 2626488 and 2528836. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in summit materials are those of the organizers or participants and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. National Science Foundation.
Organizing Committee
The Steering Committee is responsible for shaping the summit program, recruiting participants, designing the working sessions, facilitating cross-sector engagement, and producing the summit’s public outcomes.
Massimiliano Albanese
George Mason University
Project Lead
Cybersecurity, AI, and Cross-Sector Partnerships
Songqing Chen
George Mason University
Technical Program
Distributed Systems, Network Security, and Open-Source Technologies
Paul Chang
University of Chicago
Community Building
Technology Policy, Partnerships, and Cross-Sector Engagement
Jeremy Epstein
Georgia Tech Research Institute
Technical Program
Cybersecurity and Technology Policy
Megan Herceg
George Mason University
Program Coordination
Participant Engagement, Communications, and Summit Operations
NSF Program Liaisons
Florence Rabanal
Open-Source Ecosystems, Research Translation, and Community Building
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