[Env seminars] LFEE/CEE co-sponsored seminar-(Nov. 8) "Engineering for the 21st Century"

[Karen Gibson]

We are pleased to invite you to a special seminar sponsored by the 
Laboratory for Energy and the Environment and the Department of Civil 
& Environmental Engineering.
  (Please rsvp to kgibson at mit.edu)


"Engineering for the 21st Century: Managing Humanity's
Relationship with the Environment"

Brad Allenby
Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
and Professor of Law
Arizona State University

Monday, November 8
12:00 - 1:30 p.m.
E40-496

	A major result of the Industrial Revolution and the 
associated changes in human demographics, cultures, and technological 
and economic systems is the evolution of a planet where the dynamics 
of major natural systems are increasingly affected by human activity. 
Examples might include the climate system; regional complexes such as 
the Everglades, the Baltic, and the Aral Sea; and bioengineering and 
commoditization of genetic information.  These impacts will 
undoubtedly grow as a result of dramatically accelerating 
technological evolution, especially given the NBIC convergence 
(nanotechnology, biotechnology, information and communication 
technology, and cognitive sciences). 

	These circumstances require the development of new, 
non-traditional capabilities in engineering.  At the Arizona State 
University's Ira A. Fulton School Of Engineering, we are responding 
by investigating new areas including engineering macroethics (who's 
responsible for the ethical implications of the Internet? Of 
nanotechnology?), and earth systems engineering and management (how 
does one "engineer" the Everglades?).  We are also using Phoenix as a 
testbed for new visualization technologies, and creating "clusters" 
and "themes" that provide a framework for students and professors to 
work with more realistic and complex problems.  But providing today's 
engineering students with the intellectual tools and frameworks to 
enable them to not only function in an unpredictable, complex and 
rapidly changing technological environment, but to help create a 
socially just and environmentally desirable future, remains a 
fundamental challenge. 

Brad Allenby is Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and 
Professor of Law, at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona, and 
a Batten Fellow at the University of Virginia Darden Graduate School 
of Business.  Previously, he was at AT&T for over twenty years, 
serving as senior environmental counsel, research vice president for 
technology and environment, and most recently as environment, health 
and safety vice president.

Please rsvp to kgibson at mit.edu if you plan to attend.  Pizza and 
drinks will be provided.
-- 
_________________________________
Karen  L. Gibson
Program Assistant
MIT Laboratory For Energy and the Environment
77 Massachusetts Avenue, E40-469
(1 Amherst St., E40-469 - for DHL and FedEx)
Cambridge, MA 02139  USA
Tel:  1 (617) 258-6368; Fax:  1 (617) 258-6590
http://lfee.mit.edu
http://globalsustainability.org
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