Speakers & Program
Sunday (9 May 2010)
Monday (10 May 2010)
Keynote Speaker: Steven L. Goldman, Philosophy and History, Lehigh University
Title: Beyond Satisficing: Design, Trade Offs and the Rationality of Engineering
Abstract: Design is a complex process whose input is an abstraction, typically an incomplete specification, and whose output is concrete: one particular, new, object, broadly construed, that needs to be to be realized. At the heart of this process is the sub-process of making trade-offs, in which the incomplete specification is transformed into just one realization out of many possible alternatives. It is in the distinctive and fundamentally unscientific making of trade-off decisions that the rationality of engineering reasoning is most clearly revealed, and revealed to be different from the definition of rationality that has dominated Western science, mathematics and philosophy since Plato. Engineering is thus caught up in the tension between knowledge and know-how in Western culture, between reason and will, and between the Sophistic, Sceptical and Pragmatic traditions in Western philosophy and the Rationalist, Empiricist and Idealist traditions.
Bio: Steven L. Goldman is the Andrew W. Mellon Distinguished Professor in the Humanities at Lehigh University where he holds a joint appointment in the Departments of Philosophy and History. He was for eleven years Director of the Science, Technology and Society Program at Lehigh and his research focus is the social and historical contexts of the evolution of modern science and technology. He has published widely in this area, including a series of articles in the 1980s on the philosophy of technology and of engineering in which he rejected the identification of engineering as applied science and linked the distinctive character of engineering reasoning to engineering practice. Most recently he has returned to this theme, while creating three courses for the Teaching Company on the history and philosophy of science.
Lunchtime Plenary Speaker: Anu Ramaswami, Professor and Director, IGERT Program in Sustainable Urban Infrastructure, University of Colorado Denver
Title: Challenges in Sustainability Engineering– Design for Whom, How and Why?
Abstract: What does it mean to “do” sustainability engineering? Often the core design questions are the same as those asked in all engineering design projects – for whom is the project and how can it meet user expectations? However, identifying user wants and needs can be particularly challenging in sustainable infrastructure and development projects in communities. Furthermore, the sustainability engineer may find themselves questioning the rationale for the engineering project in the first place, wanting to explore trade-offs among various opposing sustainability outcomes, e.g., environmental, public health, socio-cultural and economic impacts. Through field experiences in implementing sustainable infrastructure projects internationally and in the US, the speaker will explore some of these questions and their relationship with ethics. She will also discuss an inter-disciplinary sequence of three courses in sustainable infrastructure, presently being implemented at the University of Colorado Denver that aims to provide the space for engineers to ask and answer some of these complex questions.
Bio: Dr. Ramaswami is a Professor of Environmental Engineering and Director of the NSF-Sponsored $3.2M IGERT Program on Sustainable Urban Infrastructure in the College of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Colorado Denver (http://thunder1.cudenver.edu/IGERT/). She received her BS in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, and her MS and PhD in civil and environmental engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. Ramaswami’s research spans environmental modeling, technology development for sustainability and integration of science and technology with policy and planning for real-world implementation in communities. In 2005, Ramaswami was invited by the National Science Foundation to represent the United States at the World Science Forum to discuss “Knowledge, Ethics and Responsibility” in an international setting. In 2008, Dr. Ramaswami was invited by the National Science Board to serve on the National Task force on Sustainable Energy. Dr. Ramaswami along with her students have extensive experience working on greenhouse gas emission inventories and climate action planning with more than 15 cities in CO and nation-wide. This work in Colorado is already impacting approximately 1 million people statewide.
Programs from past meetings
Themocracy
[...] Speakers & Program [...]
[...] Steven L. Goldman will speak on Beyond Satisficing: Design, Trade Offs and the Rationality of Engineering at the 2010 Forum on Philosophy, Engineering, and Technology to be held at the Colorado School of Mines 9-10 May 2010 (Sunday-Monday). More information about the talk and the speaker is available here. [...]
[...] Speakers & Program [...]