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Fall Lecture Series

Each fall, the College of Engineering partners with the UW Alumni Association to present a series of free lectures featuring our distinguished faculty. The emphasis is real-world applications of the dynamic research underway at the college.

The 2008 lecture series, "Engineering Inspired by Nature: Robots, Greener Energy & Nanotech Systems," has concluded.

Missed a lecture or want to see one again? Look for these lectures on UWTV beginning in December:

Back to Nature for the Next Technology Revolution

Presented November 19, 2008 in Kane Hall

Babak Parviz, Associate Professor, Electrical Engineering

Technology evolved slowly over the first 50,000 years of “modern” human culture, then progressed at warp speed following the Industrial Revolution. Now we are on the cusp of an even more profound revolution in manufacturing.

Just 40 years ago, an electronic circuit had a handful of transistors. Today’s CPUs have one billion. Tomorrow’s units will have many billions of very tiny components. They can’t be manufactured with today’s technology.

Nature builds the most complex and sophisticated systems, so engineering researchers such as Babak Parviz are turning to nature for solutions. Imagine using DNA as a template to “grow” electronic devices, or custom-designing molecules to build transistors. Come learn about the amazing new, yet ancient, world of “self-assembly” on the nanoscale. It will transform our future.

Beyond Oil: Powering the Future

Presented October 30, 2008 in Kane Hall

Miles P. Drake, Senior Vice President Research and Development, Chief Technology Officer, Weyerhaeuser
and
Daniel Schwartz, Boeing-Sutter Professor, Chemical Engineering
Associate Dean of New Initiatives, College of Engineering

Transportation consumes 70% of the oil used in our country. As worldwide demand for oil soars, supplies tighten, and prices skyrocket, how will we keep transportation moving? Can we develop efficient, environmentally sound, and economic alternative energy sources?

Over eons, pressure and temperature transformed ancient plant matter into oil. Current and emerging technologies can quickly convert a wide range of plant matter to transportation biofuels, offering a partial solution.

Solar, wind, hydro, nuclear, and tidal and wave power also will contribute to an increasingly electrified transportation system — so many options with so much promise, but also compromises.

A more diversified energy future has myriad implications for how we live, for infrastructure investments, and our overall ability to address the challenge of a sustainable and secure energy economy.

Where Humans and Robots Connect

Presented October 16, 2008 in Kane Hall 120

Yoky Matsuoka, Associate Professor, Computer Science & Engineering,
Director, University of Washington Neurobotics Lab

As a child, Yoky Matsuoka dreamt of becoming a top-ranked tennis pro. She wasn’t your average jock though; she spent court time pondering how her brain was controlling her hand. More than a decade later she was still pondering that question in graduate school where she built the hands for MIT’s famous humanoid robot COG.

Matsuoka is a trailblazer in the emerging field of neurobotics, transforming our understanding of how the central nervous system coordinates musculoskeletal action and of how robotic technology can enhance the dexterity and mobility of people with disabilities.

Last year she received a MacArthur “Genius” Award and was named one of Popular Science’s “Brilliant 10.” On October 16, this rising star spoke about her quest to build the ultimate prosthetic: a fully functional replica of the human hand, controlled directly by the brain.

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