How does the Nashville airport manage to be one of the busiest hubs for travel while undertaking one of the biggest expansions in the country? How does safe drinking water make it from the clouds to your sink? And how do music concerts sound so reliably good?
A new spring semester series in the School of Engineering—”How Does This Work?”— features current and former CEOs, CTOs, and prominent entrepreneurs sharing their insights on tackling major engineering problems. Vanderbilt University’s entire community can learn directly from 19 leading experts about solving complex, large-scale societal challenges in Nashville and beyond.
In addition to enrolled students, the seminar is open to all Vanderbilt students, faculty, staff, and the broader Nashville community, and it provides a rare chance to gain firsthand knowledge from those at the forefront of innovation. The class meets Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4:15 to 5:30 p.m. in Featheringill Hall auditorium, room 134, and is led by Bruce and Bridgitt Evans Dean of Engineering Emeritus Philippe Fauchet, Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
“In almost every case, few of us have any understanding of the scope of a system, or its limitations and weaknesses. All the extraordinary speakers will make presentations accessible to the non-expert, focusing on the state-of-the-art and issues that need to be dealt with,” Fauchet said.
The individual sessions fall into topics such as health and medicine, transportation, energy and the environment, security, making Nashville work, entertainment and direct consumer impact.
Music tour fans won’t want to miss Paul “Relli” Barber talk about “Concert Touring: A Backstage Pass to Choreographed Chaos” on Tuesday, Feb. 25. Barber’s COPILOT company provides advanced technology systems and expert personnel to support touring artists and has contributed to performances across more than 50 countries.
Some of the other session topics are (see full list below):
- The Enormous Complexity of Operating Rooms and OR Facilities (Jan. 14)
- A Bird’s-Eye-View of the U.S. Air Traffic Management System (Jan. 21)
- Smart Grid: Redesigning the World’s Biggest Machine (Jan. 28)
- It’s not Magic: It Takes Epic Systems Integration to Deliver Safe Drinking Water (Feb. 13)
- Leading the Charge: Advancing Manufacturing for Tomorrow’s Vehicles (Feb. 27)
- How on Earth Do They Do That, Everyday? The FedEx Story (March 25)
- Engineering the Dining Experience: Cracker Barrel’s Recipe for Success (April 3)
- Fueling the Future: How Refineries Transform Oil (April 10)
Leaders have been asked to speak as candidly as possible about the weak points in their fields. Students enrolled in the seminar will develop a short proposals to improve on those challenges.
