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'Poet laureate of technology' at UD May 8
5:49 p.m., May 2, 2006--Henry Petroski, Aleksandar S. Vesic Professor of Civil Engineering and Professor of History at Duke University, will give a public lecture at 4 p.m., Monday, May 8, in Mitchell Hall. His talk, “Success Through Failure: The Paradox of Design,” is the first in UD's annual Arnold D. Kerr Lecture Series. Petroski's research focuses on failure analysis and design theory. Ongoing projects include the use of case histories to understand the role of human error and failure in engineering design, as well as the development of models for invention and evolution in the engineering design process. As an author, Petroski has made his mark in not only the technical world but also the popular arena. The author of more than a dozen books intended for professional engineers and laypersons alike, he has been called “America's poet laureate of technology.” His most-recent volumes include Book on the Bookshelf (1999), Paperboy: Confessions of a Future Engineer (2002), Small Things Considered: Why There Is No Perfect Design (2003), Pushing the Limits: More Adventures in Engineering (2004), and Success Through Failure: The Paradox of Design (2006). Most of these titles are available for purchase at the UD Bookstore. Petroski writes regular columns for American Scientist and ASEE Prism. He also lectures widely and is interviewed frequently on radio and television. Petroski is a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Institution of Engineers of Ireland; he is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as well as the National Academy of Engineering. “Engineering is about making and doing things that have not been done before,” Petroski said. “To be successful, it is essential that engineers properly anticipate how things can fail, and design accordingly. Case studies of past failures thus provide invaluable information for the design of future successes. Conversely, designs based on the extrapolation of successful experience alone can eventually lead to failure.” In his lecture, Petroski will explore these issues in the context of the history of the design of suspension bridges, which from the 1850s through the 1930s evolved from John Roebling's enormous successes to bridges that oscillated in the wind, and, in the case of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, twisted apart and collapsed in 1940. “Lessons learned from the case of suspension bridges apply across a broad spectrum of engineering structures and systems,” he said. Petroski received his bachelor's degree from Manhattan College in 1963 and his doctorate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1968. Sponsored by the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, the lecture series was initiated in honor of Kerr, Professor Emeritus of Civil Engineering, upon his retirement in 2004. He is an internationally recognized expert in engineering mechanics, with a particular focus on railway engineering. For more information, contact Diane Kukich at [kukich@udel.edu] or (302) 831-1721). |
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