Engineers Week pays tribute to ‘Pioneers of Progress’

When we consider the technological marvels that life in 2020 offers, it is clear we are standing on the shoulders of giants.

Early computing concepts from Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace set the course that Apple’s Steve Jobs and Microsoft’s Bill Gates navigated 150 years later. The genius designs of Nikola Tesla in the late 19th century led to alternating current, making it easy to send electricity over long distances, while his rival Thomas Edison patented dozens of devices that helped to usher in the 20th century. Henry Ford’s assembly line not only mass-produced automobiles but inspired thousands of similar factories in all industries.

Alexander Graham Bell’s audio experiments led to the telephone becoming a must-have communication tool. Seventy-five years later, John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and William Shockley invented the first working transistors at Bell Labs. Chemists Pierre and Marie Curie discovered the properties of radiation that have shaped medicine, energy production and other disciplines. Brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright proved that humans could take to the skies with powered flight.

And Binghamton University can boast about its own pioneer: M. Stanley Whittingham, who won the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his groundbreaking research leading to the development of the lithium-ion battery.

I am proud and humbled to be part of an organization that continues to make discoveries that propel the world forward. At the Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science — where I have served as the dean for the past decade — researchers and their students are sowing the seeds for humanity’s future.

The Watson School’s faculty members are advancing our knowledge in biomedical, mechanical, electrical and computer engineering fields, as well as in systems science and industrial engineering, materials engineering and computer science.

We are wholly committed to this important endeavor. Our tenured and tenure-track faculty numbers have increased over the last decade, growing from 60 in 2010 to almost 100 today, with over 12 expected to be added for fall 2020. These professors are shaping the minds of our student body, which also has grown to 1,128 graduate and 2,044 undergraduate students.

Our continued good work building the Watson School into a world-class institution has not gone unnoticed. The achievements of our faculty, staff, students and alumni are receiving more recognition. For example, in the 2019 rankings from U.S. News & World Report, our school leapt 32 spots to #95.

Celebrate engineers and the many life-changing accomplishments in the field of engineering during National Engineers Week, which runs from Feb. 16-22. This year’s theme is “Pioneers of Progress,” which acknowledges what has come before but also what is on the cutting edge of innovation today.

The National Society of Professional Engineers first celebrated Engineers Week in 1951 to coincide with President George Washington’s birthday on Feb. 22. Many historians consider Washington the nation’s first engineer, notably for his work as a surveyor.

Among the local events to mark Engineers Week will be a dinner on Feb. 18 at the Holiday Inn in downtown Binghamton, sponsored by the Broome County chapter of the New York State Society of Professional Engineers. Whittingham — a SUNY distinguished professor of chemistry at Binghamton University and director of the Northeast Center for Chemical Energy Storage — will serve as the evening’s keynote speaker. He will discuss the origins of his world-changing lithium-ion technology and its potential effect on energy storage, as well as his Nobel Prize experience in Sweden.

On Feb. 20, a reception for students, alumni and friends (sponsored by Watson Career and Alumni Connections) will be held in the rotunda of the Innovative Technologies Complex on the Binghamton University campus. The featured speaker will be alumna Lavanya Gopalakrishnan, who will talk about her role as a senior director in Cisco’s Customer Experience organization and how her Watson School education helped to propel her career.

Capping off the week on Feb. 22 will be our annual free Community Day in and around the rotunda at the Innovative Technologies Complex (85 Murray Hill Rd., Vestal). Local children, ages 6 to 16, and their families are invited to engage in more than a dozen hands-on activities that illustrate principles of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

From 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., youths can construct simple machines, draw with 3D pens, fold and fly paper airplanes and more. Teens can learn to write basic computer programs with our new Girls Who Code student group. There also will be the ever-popular egg drop, where children build a protection for an egg and test whether it can withstand a one-story fall.

We hope you will join us in celebrating our “Pioneers of Progress” during Engineers Week and year-round as Binghamton University and the Watson School lead the way for innovation across multiple engineering disciplines.

Krishnaswami “Hari” Srihari is dean and SUNY distinguished professor at the Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science at Binghamton University.