Somewhere in Virginia, about a year from now, there will be a room where the only sound will be a low, repetitive hum, sort of like an MRI machine. That sound will be the rhythmic pulse of gas moving through tubes; gas that's meant to keep a machine colder than outer space. Inside that machine is a different approach to computing: A system built to take on the problems our best supercomputers can't even touch.

On this episode of Access to Excellence, President Gregory Washington is joined by TreQ founder and CEO Mandy Birch and director of George Mason's Quantum Science and Engineering Center Patrick Vora to discuss establishing the Virginia Quantum Hub at George Mason: an inclusive quantum ecosystem built by public-private partnerships that will bring the first open-architecture quantum computing system to the National Capital Region.

The President's Daily Brief is arguably the most sensitive document in American government. It’s a report, delivered in person every morning, updating the President on the most dangerous national security threats facing the nation. During President Obama’s first term, the person charged with delivering that report was a decorated career intelligence officer named James "Jim" Danoy – the first officer from outside the CIA ever trusted with that weighty task.

And Danoy got his start here, as a student at George Mason University.

Danoy’s path in national security didn’t begin in a situation room. It began in a classroom – the place where a young person first learns about thinking under pressure, judging information, weighing options, and making hard decisions. Now, as an adjunct faculty member at George Mason's Schar School of Policy and Government, Danoy is teaching students who are travelling the same path he did.

On this episode of Access to Excellence, Danoy discusses his career, as well as how judgment, character, and resilience can be taught, and whether we’re doing a good job of it.

Depending who you talk to, AI – artificial intelligence – is either the cutting edge of technology that can usher in a golden age of efficiency, precision, and capability that will allow humans to shake off the shackles of drudgery and guesswork, or it’s a resources-devouring shadow that’s going to strip us of our humanity, creativity, and connectedness.

On today’s episode of Access to Excellence, College of Public Health professor of health informatics Farrokh Alemi joins President Gregory Washington to discuss the unique juncture of health care, industrial engineering, and now, artificial intelligence; specifically, what AI can do for educators and clinicians.