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X-WR-CALNAME:Bovay Lecture on the History and Ethics of Engineering 2026: S
 teven Skerlos
X-WR-TIMEZONE:Eastern Time (US & Canada)
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTAMP:20260609T205319Z
UID:tag:localist.com\,2008:EventInstance_52063478612195
DTSTART:20260508T190000Z
DTEND:20260508T203000Z
DESCRIPTION:Making Sociotechnical Engineering Ordinary\n\nEngineering educa
 tion has a persistent gap. Students are trained to optimize technical perf
 ormance while context\, stakeholders\, and distributional consequences are
  treated as topics that can be removed from "real" engineering without los
 ing it. The result is a profession that often produces well-engineered sol
 utions to problems no one owns\, and that is sometimes surprised when good
  ideas fail in the world for reasons that were visible from the start.\n\n
 This Bovay Lecture follows one path through that problem. It opens with a 
 manufacturing case in which a technically sound and environmentally benefi
 cial cutting-fluid recycling technology failed in industry for organizatio
 nal\, incentive-driven\, and human reasons. From that diagnosis the talk m
 oves to a decade of curricular response at the University of Michigan: the
  Socially Engaged Design process model\, the Socially Engaged Engineering 
 Toolkit\, and the Center for Socially Engaged Engineering and Design (C-SE
 D)\, which now partners with roughly one hundred instructors across every 
 department in Michigan Engineering and reaches more than unique three thou
 sand students annually through repeated\, in-course encounters chosen by f
 aculty rather than mandated by the college.\n\nThe lecture then turns from
  sociotechnical integration to engineering ethics proper. Drawing on the d
 esign ethics\, responsible innovation\, design justice\, and values-in-des
 ign literatures\, it offers a working synthesis of engineering design ethi
 cs organized around six necessary conditions\, and asks whether those cond
 itions can be taught inside ordinary technical courses\, using approaches 
 familiar to C-SED\, without a parallel ethics curriculum. The thought expe
 riment continues to visualize what a real-world classroom application coul
 d look like in practice\, with exclusion criteria\, redesign triggers\, an
 d values-to-specification traces written into the engineering decision its
 elf rather than added afterward.\n\nThe talk closes with an invitation. Wh
 at should count as evidence that engineering ethics education is actually 
 changing engineering practice\, and what shared infrastructure might let u
 niversities work on that question together?\n\nAbout the Speaker\n\nSteven
  Skerlos is the J. Reid and Polly Anderson Professor of Manufacturing and 
 Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of
  Michigan.  He co-founded and serves as Faculty Director of the Center for
  Socially Engaged Engineering and Design (C-SED). He teaches the college's
  senior mechanical engineering capstone and graduate courses on sustainabl
 e design and manufacturing\, and advises doctoral students working on wate
 r\, resource recovery\, and sustainable production systems.\n\nHis researc
 h spans sustainable manufacturing\, anaerobic bioprocessing for wastewater
  treatment and resource recovery\, supercritical CO2 machining\, and life 
 cycle and technoeconomic assessment of emerging technologies. A consistent
  throughline has been the question of whether technically sound sustainabi
 lity ideas can survive contact with the organizations\, incentives\, and p
 eople who would have to adopt them. As a serial entrepreneur\, he is the f
 ounder and Chief Technology Officer of Fusion Coolant Systems\, which rece
 ived the EPA Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award\, and previously
  co-founded Accuri Cytometers\, later acquired by BD Biosciences.\n\nC-SED
  partners with instructors across every department in Michigan Engineering
  to make stakeholder engagement\, contextual analysis\, and sociotechnical
  judgment ordinary parts of technical coursework. Through Design Skill Ses
 sions\, microhistorical case studies\, and curricular partnerships\, the c
 enter now reaches more than three thousand unique students each year. C-SE
 D's resources are being released for free public use\, and Skerlos's curre
 nt work extends the center's approach toward new sociotechnical domains an
 d developing a national-level infrastructure to support the sociotechnical
  mindsets and skills of engineering students.\n\nAbout the Event\n\nThe Bo
 vay Lecture in the History and Ethics of Engineering is an annual public e
 vent bringing high-profile speakers to Cornell to stimulate discussion of 
 social and ethical issues in engineering. This year's lecture will be deli
 vered by Prof. Steven Skerlos of the University of Michigan.\n\nThis event
  will be simulcast on Zoom and recorded for posterity. To register for the
  Zoom webinar\, click or tap the "Register" button on this page. Registrat
 ion is not required to attend in-person.\n\nThis event is organized by the
  Sue G. and Harry E. Bovay\, Jr. '36 Program in the History and Ethics of 
 Professional Engineering.
GEO:42.443924;-76.48217
LOCATION:Upson Hall\, 222
SUMMARY:Bovay Lecture on the History and Ethics of Engineering 2026: Steven
  Skerlos
URL;VALUE=URI:https://events.cornell.edu/event/bovay-lecture-on-the-history
 -and-ethics-of-engineering-2026-steven-skerlos
CATEGORIES:Lecture
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