SAI Webinar
Venkatesh Narayanamurti, Benjamin Peirce Professor of Technology and Public Policy, SEAS; Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, HKS
In our rapidly transforming world, engineering plays an ever more central role, especially in advancing basic science, creating tools and everyday technologies, driving economic development and meeting societal challenges in areas from energy to environment to human health.
In this talk Professor Narayanamurti will examine the changing role of engineering and engineering research and education to address the great societal challenges of the 21st century. He will discuss the need for educating broadly trained engineers who understand not only how thinks work but also how the world works. Such engineers will have broad knowledge of various disciplines and understand the enormous value of integrative thinking in addition to reductionist thinking. They will need to be flexible and adaptable and be able to function in a global marketplace. Such “renaissance engineers” or “Ivy engineers” will play a key leadership role in the emerging knowledge economy.
Professor Narayanamurti will also spend time discussing emerging science and technological frontiers to address societal problems alluded to earlier. Translating research discoveries into practice is a key challenge for engineering schools and industrial R & D laboratories. The need for developing new models for university-industry collaboration and to develop the appropriate intellectual capital will be discussed.
8:30 AM in Cambridge, 6:30 PM in Pakistan, 7 PM in India, 7:30 PM in Sri Lanka & Bangladesh
