Engineering a Renaissance
A Celebration of the Past, Present, and Future
&
The Launch of the
Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
~
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Cambridge, Massachusetts
seas launch Dinner speech (transcript)
Venkatesh “Venky” Narayanamurti
Dean, Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Drew and Steve, thank you so much for your very kind words.
And many thanks again to each and every one of you for being here tonight.
Let me tell you, today has proven to me beyond any possible doubt that you are never too old to be excited by the first day of school.
It’s a unique kind of energy, isn’t it? If we could bottle it we’d solve our energy crisis and many of the world’s other problems, too.
But I do imagine we are all feeling some variation of the same mix of emotions that students of all ages are feeling across campuses everywhere this September:
We feel pride in our past accomplishments that helped bring us to this moment and we feel gratitude to those who helped us achieve them.
My special thanks go to the members of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers and to the past and present university leaders whose support has been so instrumental to the launch of SEAS, some of whom you saw in the video.
Of course we feel excitement for all the promising possibilities that lie ahead and We feel trepidation about both our ability to meet the tests we know are coming and to ready ourselves for the unknown—those inevitable pop quizzes.
We feel a sense of belonging—to an institution and tradition that is much bigger than we are and that compels us to expect more of ourselves. Veritas unites and elevates us. Engineering joins the other great schools of Harvard in the pursuit of truth; defined here by what works; what can be designed from the truth of science and crafted within the truth of culture, laws and marketplace to serve the true needs of society.
We feel humility at the realization that the institution is counting on us to carry it on, to reinvent it and continually bestow it with meaning in the midst of change. The creation of the Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard in 1847 at the early stages of the industrial age marked and catalyzed a change in the perception of an engineer: from tinkerer to educated professional. With the development since of fields, standards, societies, awards and much else, the professionalization of engineering was well accomplished and the professional engineer gained status as a provider of excellent technical service.
In 2007, we find ourselves in the midst of another marked shift with the advent of the digital age and a knowledge revolution. Now, engineers and applied scientists often are leaders and shapers of societies.
The present age also underscores the engineer’s role in the advancement of knowledge, which stands to benefit the global eco-human welfare in fundamental and often unpredictable ways. We must do this by developing new sophisticated tools and methods that assist the broader scientific enterprise – biologists, for example, are increasingly relying on engineering approaches to understand how organisms function as systems. But engineering and applied science research also contributes directly to the advancement of knowledge, whether it be through a better understanding of climate dynamics or through an understanding of microfluidic phenomena.
At the same time, solving complex real-world problems is a direct service to society and will always be central to the engineering enterprise -- technologies developed by engineers have contributed immeasurably to human well-being, although humanity still is faced with enormous challenges.
The hyper-specialization of fields, which helps us add to, and sort through, the abundance of knowledge, also demands that we go beyond a stovepiped world. We must collaborate, integrate, and synthesize to solve problems that transcend narrow knowledge domains.
This changing context in turn demands that we prepare our students for this shift—from professionals to leaders, from providers of service to creators of value, from expert guides and master builders to explorers, discoverers, synthesizers, and innovators.
But as they say, in challenge lies opportunity. SEAS intends to lead the way as a model of engineering research and education for the 21st century and how an engineering school should connect to and serve the wider world.
As we do all this, one of our great challenges is that neither the education of students nor the advancement of research nor the application of knowledge through entrepreneurial endeavors can possibly be done in isolation. We each have a role to play, and to play together.
Our outstanding alumni who are represented here tonight by some of our closest friends are essential eyes and ears for the school. Not only do I rely on your experiences in guiding our decision-making, but your implicit knowledge is of great value to our students. Explicit information may be declining in value, but the value of experiential knowledge is increasing and I thank you for sharing it so supportively.
To my fellow deans who are here tonight, I am honored by and grateful for your display of unity. We have a unique opportunity to explore Harvard’s breadth and depth to forge collaborations that meet the challenges of specialization and I look forward to doing much more of that.
Those types of collaborations extend across time zones and geographies and are represented by distinguished members of our peer institutions—from Boston to Mumbai, India to Sendai, Japan to Beijing, China. Science and engineering operate at a global scale, but ultimately the connections are person-to-person. So the vitality of our international networks is paramount to the mutual progress of our students and researchers. My personal thanks to each of you for being here and staying connected.
Our collective thanks are also deeply owing to our industry, government, and foundation partners here tonight who support the environment of free inquiry in which science must operate and also inform us with the challenges of real constraints on which engineering thrives.
There are two groups without whom this day would not have been possible. The first, our dedicated and extremely competent staff, not only from SEAS but also from FAS and other parts of the university. My deep gratitude for your service to the school.
And finally I would like to offer a special thanks to the faculty of SEAS.
For the past ten years it has been a privilege and an honor to count you as my colleagues and friends. You are the sure nucleus of our scholastic organism. You are diverse, and getting more so – an essential element of our healthy evolution. You inspire the students – our foremost responsibility – with vitality in your teaching and devotion to your research. You serve the school, university and community with the generosity of your spirit. And most importantly, because you keep your doors and your minds open, I know you will help us achieve our full potential. Please stand and be recognized as we wish everyone a grateful goodnight.