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2010 Symposium on Engineering & Liberal Education

June 4-5, 2010       Union College, Schenectady, NY

Download the 2010 Proceedings (pdf)

Download the 2009 Proceedings (pdf)   

Download the 2008 Proceeding (pdf)

Special Session: Inventive Courses: Blending Engineering and the Liberal Arts, FIE 2009. 
               Click for session notes.

Panel on Engineering & Liberal Education at the 2010 AAC&U conference, January 2010

2010 Keynote Speakers:

Richard K. Miller, President Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering

Thanassis Rikakis, Professor and Director, Arts Media and Engineering Program, Arizona State University

In recognition of the need to expand our understanding of what it means to be a liberally educated citizen, this symposium will bring together select academic leaders and scholars to explore different models for integrating engineering, technology and the traditional liberal arts.

The 2010 Symposium is made possible with support from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

What is it that identifies humans? The use of tools. For that reason, perhaps engineering is the most human of studies. ... Maybe we should teach engineering as a liberal art, and maybe a piece of every literate person's experience should be to create a useful artifact that improves life, including something as important as communication.

- William A. Wulf, former President, National Academy of Engineering

...only an education that prepares the student for lifelong pursuit of the basic skills of seeking information, or identifying problems, of assessing patterns to support a defensible thesis, and of articulating the results effectively to a broad constituency is worth being called "Liberal" in the sense of preparing the student for the responsibilities of being free within a global technological society.

- Lance Schachterle, "Liberal Education: Designing Lives and Careers Anew"
 

2010 Symposium steering committee:

  • Cherrice A. Traver, Dean of Engineering and David Falk and Elynor Rudnick-Falk Professor of Computer Engineering, Union College, Chair

  • Eric Hansen, Associate Professor of Engineering, Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College

  • Sharon Jones, Director, Engineering Division, Lafayette College

  • Ed Kerns, Professor of Art, Lafayette College

  • Suzanne Westfall, Professor of English/Theatre, Lafayette College

  • Drew Guswa, Associate Professor, Picker Engineering Program, Smith College

  • Clifford W. Brown, Robert Porter Patterson Professor of Government, Union College

  • David Hodgson, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Union College

  • J. Douglass Klein, Dean of Interdisciplinary Studies and Professor of Economics, Union College

  • Stacie Raucci, Assistant Professor of Classics, Union College

  • Mark Walker, John Bigelow Professor of History, Union College