Converge @ NPS is a catalyst for linking applied research, latest technologies, education, and operational priorities to solve the most pressing national security challenges for the Joint Force and our allies and partners.
Held July 22–24, 2026, at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, the latest Converge @ NPS convened more than 550 active-duty students, defense-focused faculty, industry, military and government professionals, VC firms, and alumni to discover the latest research and explore emerging technologies.
Co-hosted by the Naval Postgraduate School Foundation under a Partner Intermediary Agreement (PIA) with NPS, the event is designed for strategic collaboration that will accelerate research, education, experimentation, and capability development across the Naval and Joint Force.
Through operational breakout groups, technology workshops, NPS project pitches, panel discussions, and networking sessions, participants identified opportunities where research, operational expertise, and commercial technology can converge into real solutions for national security.
Throughout the week, NPS students and faculty presented operationally relevant research projects and connected with collaborators, industry demonstrated technologies with defense applications, and government organizations engaged directly with researchers developing the next generation of solutions for the Fleet and Joint Force.
More than 30 industry and government organizations exhibited at the three-day event, showcasing technologies and collaborative opportunities alongside NPS student and faculty research spanning artificial intelligence, contested logistics, cybersecurity, energy resilience, autonomous systems, wargaming, and other mission-critical disciplines.
Exhibiting organizations included Messier 42, Defense Unicorns, NVIDIA, RTX, Palantir, DARPA, Marine Innovation Unit, Joint Fires Rehearsal Center, Anduril, Google, ServiceNow, webAI, Watchtower Labs, Armada, and many more. Exhibitors brought interactive technologies and prototypes to the event, providing a hands-on experience that supported collaborative exploration.
Prior to the exhibit floor opening, experts from NPS, Vannevar, and RTX participated in the Drone & Counter-Drone panel, sharing unique perspectives — from operational experience and autonomy research to AI-enabled intelligence and counter-UAS capability development — that made for a thoughtful and dynamic conversation.
“Converge @ NPS was a clear success; it connected the right people around the right problems—warfighter students, defense-focused faculty, industry, and government partners working together on real national security needs. The event demonstrated the power of NPS as a convening platform for applied research, emerging technology, and mission-driven collaboration, and the NPS Foundation’s support under the Partner Intermediary Agreement was essential to making that impact possible.” – Kaitie Penry, Director of Emerging Technology & Innovation at NPS
Under the PIA with the Naval Postgraduate School, the Foundation serves as a bridge between government, academia, industry, and venture capital — helping identify technologies, connect partners, support technology transfer, expand corporate engagement and accelerate research collaborations that directly benefit the warfighter. This model allows emerging ideas to move more quickly from classroom and laboratory research into experimentation, prototyping, operational evaluation and ultimately fielded capability.
The strength of Converge @ NPS is measured not simply by attendance, but by what happens after participants leave Monterey.
New research partnerships are formed. Students connect with sponsors for thesis and capstone research. Faculty identify collaborators for experimentation. Industry discovers pathways for technology experimentation and deployment. Government organizations gain access to expertise that can accelerate mission outcomes.
"Technology doesn't advance because people gather in the same room. It advances because the right people leave the room willing to work together. That's what stood out at Converge. Every conversation built on the last, whether it was with students, operators, researchers, or industry. By the end of the week, conversations had become introductions, collaborations, and opportunities we would not have found anywhere else. Those outcomes did not come from a trade show floor. It happened because Converge brought together the people, experience, and resolve needed to take on defense’s hardest unsolved problems." – Andrés Vega, CEO, Messier 42
Converge @ NPS also coincided with the annual International Alumni Symposium held at NPS this year. The overlap of all the events created an opportunity to connect senior international defense leadership with innovators and technologists shaping the global security environment.
By bringing together those who understand operational problems with those developing emerging technologies, Converge @ NPS shortens the distance between innovation and impact.
One of the defining moments of the 2026 Converge @ NPS was the commissioning of the NVIDIA DGX GB300 supercomputer for NPS, expanding AI education, research, and experimentation for the Department of the Navy and Joint Force.
The ribbon-cutting ceremony at NPS on July 22 brought together NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang, Commander of U.S. Pacific Command Adm. Samuel J. Paparo, NPS President retired Vice Adm. Ann Rondeau, Foundation leadership, faculty, students, and industry partners to celebrate a transformational investment in AI education and research.
NVIDIA donated the DGX GB300 to the NPS Foundation, which installed it at NPS along with funding for research projects that require its high compute and memory capacity. Vertiv, DDN, VAST Data contributed infrastructure, storage and technical expertise that helped rapidly deploy the capability. The system enables advanced AI model development, high-fidelity simulation, digital twin research, weather and ocean modeling, cybersecurity analysis, operational decision-support, and other areas directly aligned with future naval and joint force requirements.
Following the ribbon-cutting ceremony, attendees gathered for a fireside conversation featuring Huang and Paparo, moderated by Rondeau. The conversation provided an opportunity for two of today's leading voices in technology and national security to share their perspectives with the NPS community and reinforcing that technology is only as powerful as the people who use it.
"Leadership is about being in service of something else. You're in service of your team. You're in service of your country. You're in service of your mission. And all of this technology is just tools to help you." – Jensen Huang
The milestone highlighted a central theme of Converge @ NPS: meaningful public-private collaborations can rapidly deliver transformational capabilities while preparing military leaders to understand, evaluate, and responsibly employ emerging technologies.
The momentum generated during July's Converge @ NPS reflects a growing and shared commitment to solving the nation's toughest challenges. The commissioning of the DGX GB300, the relationships formed throughout Converge @ NPS, and the research collaborations launched during the week are only the beginning. Together, they demonstrate what is possible when government, academia, industry, and military professionals intentionally converge around a shared mission of accelerating innovation for national security.
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The NPS Foundation is a non-federal entity. It is not part of the DOD or any of its components and has no governmental status. Mention of industry collaborators does not imply endorsement of services or products by the Naval Postgraduate School, the Department of the Navy, or the Department of Defense.
